Best Tuna Trolling Lures

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have been fishing most of my life, until I got this boat, all the other boats that have been in the family have always been fishing boats of different sizes and or types.
In all honesty, there is no one good lure, best thing is to get a bunch of likely lures and drag them behind the boat, you get a strike, maybe today that lure is a good one for today, tomorrow it may not work at all, and often for no discernible reason, nothing works, and then sometimes anything works. I have found bright and dark colors of the same lure to be good. Conventional wisdom is usually that bright colors on a grey overcast day, and dark ones on a bright sunny day.
There are no constants though, it is like asking what a Woman wants, you will be trying to answer that until you die and the answer always changes, same with lures. Its why serious fishermen have such big tackle boxes.
A real good thing to do is find a very good tackle store in your area and ask the locals what they use, what works well in one area for some strange reason may not on the same fish species just a little ways away.
Spoons, cedar plugs work well, and my favorite is rigged Ballyhoo, I seem to have great luck with that, sometimes put a skirt on one, often not.
Rigged Ballyhoo is of course frozen bait, not a lure, but if you can get them over there, give it a try.

Here's what I was thinking for next season, basically trolling with three lines. One on each side of the boat using different lengths and two different color lures. Then using a diving lure on a trolling line located centerline at the stern.

I got the original idea for the blue lure on my original post from a local tackle shop on the island of Ponca, Italy, and the diving lure from a tackle shop in Northern Croatia.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have never trolled behind a sailboat before, but darned if I don't think its better than a Sportfish for that. I assume maybe noise or prop wash?
I can't think of a worse boat for fighting and landing a fish though

We're able to use the gaff from the sugar scoop and bring them aboard up through the gap leading up from the sugar scoop. We were able to use the gaff on our first tuna from up on deck and bring it aboard easily through the rail gap at the sugar scoop.

[Sailormantx]

I tow a squid skirt over a hook like you pictured, it seems to catch fish pretty regularly. For cheaper, and I think more effective lure, when you find a flying fish on deck use it for bait instead of pitching it over the side. Put it on the hook and tie it's wings open with some light monofilament. Note that I only seem to catch mahi mahi with these rigs. Subscribing to this thread to see what I need to do to find a tuna on the hook!

[svfraidknot]

i am in panama the tuna coast as it is called ,, pacific side ,, i have used many types colors etc. a cedar plug still produces more tuna than all other baits combined ,, just plain cedar but do carry blue and white and red and white switch off ,, i also keep a 6 foot rod with spinning reel with a one ounce silver and blue or trout colder rattle trap rigged up ,, fish on we shut down i immediately cast in behind the one hung up ,, more often than not we get a second one on ,, not trolling behind my sail boat never caught a tuna behind my cat but many barracuda and mackerel ,, no rhyme or reason what they hit different every day ,,

[Kenomac]

The diving lure I'm kicking myself for not buying in Croatia looks much like this picture, only larger in size and made with stainless instead of plastic. Has anyone seen something like it and knows of the manufacturer. It was recommended to me by the Croatian tackle shop. I can't find anything as rugged at Dick's, Cabelas or West Marine.

Anyone know of a good commercial tackle store here in Massachusetts on the North Shore? I also need to buy 1000 yards of 80-100 pound mono filament for a Penn 80stw.

[crabcake]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

The diving lure I'm kicking myself for not buying in Croatia looks much like this picture, only larger in size and made with stainless instead of plastic. Has anyone seen something like it and knows of the manufacturer. It was recommended to me by the Croatian tackle shop. I can't find anything as rugged at Dick's, Cabelas or West Marine.

Anyone know of a good commercial tackle store here in Massachusetts on the North Shore? I also need to buy 1000 yards of 80-100 pound mono filament for a Penn 80stw.

3 come to mind

• MIRROLURE BIG GAME

• RAPALA COUNTDOWN MAGNUM
• RAPALA X-RAP MAGNUM

[crabcake]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

The diving lure I'm kicking myself for not buying in Croatia looks much like this picture, only larger in size and made with stainless instead of plastic. Has anyone seen something like it and knows of the manufacturer. It was recommended to me by the Croatian tackle shop. I can't find anything as rugged at Dick's, Cabelas or West Marine.

Anyone know of a good commercial tackle store here in Massachusetts on the North Shore? I also need to buy 1000 yards of 80-100 pound mono filament for a Penn 80stw.

There are a few good stores in Mass, BUT - Hop-Car is a sponsor of C F and supports this forum! I don't believe the Mass stores are.

[puffcard]

Originally Posted by crabcake

3 come to mind

• MIRROLURE BIG GAME

• RAPALA COUNTDOWN MAGNUM
• RAPALA X-RAP MAGNUM

Had good luck with Rapala Magnums dive well and work at different speeds. They ain't cheep and the old ones from Finland seem better. This is my fav.



With all the cheep sailboaters on here, there is the bottle cap lures that you make, cheap and works very well. Here's one way to make them.

Super Secret Incredible Free Fishing Lure – Two At Sea



Also your line needs to match the hook, you can't set a 12/0 hook with 15lb test line, to much stretch hook won't set and will quickly break. You don't use 80lb test to set a smallish hook, no give and hook will pull.

[crabcake]

Originally Posted by puffcard

Had good luck with Rapala Magnums dive well and work at different speeds. They ain't cheep and the old ones from Finland seem better. This is my fav.



With all the cheep sailboaters on here, there is the bottle cap lures that you make, cheap and works very well. Here's one way to make them.

Super Secret Incredible Free Fishing Lure – Two At Sea

Now you went and did it!

You called Ragbaggers Cheap -!

You must say Frugal, not cheap!

Now you must write 1,000,000 times on the blackboard

"Ragbaggers are not cheap - they are frugal"

That's from obviously one stink potter to another

Rapala do make some neat stuff - but good ain't cheap - just look at Black Bart!

[captain58sailin]

One of the critical elements I learned is that you don't want the hooks to hang past the skirt. We use #21 and #22 Mustad barbless dbl hooks, the 22s are smaller of the 2, I am going to try the #23s next season.

[sail2travel]

Cedar plugs worked great for us in the Med for tuna. Caught the biggest one off Sardinia where they run down to Sicily. Friends caught a huge illegal to keep one off Balearics. We caught one near Gibraltar that had parasites. Check the meat before sushi. Cedar plugs. Cheep and they work. We are on a cat so always have a fire drill when "fish on!"

[RedHerring]

Another +1 for Rapala plugs (X-Rap, Magnum). These things have three downsides:
* expensive
* catch salad too often (so, don't run them within a few miles of a kelp bed)
* harder to get out

And one big upside:
* they catch fish.

Simple squid lures are good near shore; they don't catch as much salad. At typical sailboat speed, you have to load them with an egg sinker and adjust the line length such that a squid mostly runs under the water, but pops up every few seconds.

Spoons are only good at really slow speeds, per my understanding. They turn in the water and at anything more than 3 kt twist the main line lke there is no tomorrow.

Anyone has an opinion on tuna birds? One guy I met swore by them. I have not seen one making a drastic difference yet.

Last but not least. There is a lot of fish in the sea, but it's very unevenly distributed. So, anything that looks like dinner will catch fish, but you have to get it somewhere there is a lot of fish. One example is to purposefully troll through groups of seagulls feeding on the surface.

[captain58sailin]

I like the birds, we caught at least half of the fish we produced on them, used a dbl jig rig on them.

[Cadence]

I wonder if the fish really see the nicely done lures with eyes and all? Or is that for the human buyer?

[crabcake]

Originally Posted by Cadence

I wonder if the fish really see the nicely done lures with eyes and all? Or is that for the human buyer?

Depends on what mood they are in and how hungry they are

Being as the eyes are featured on a lot, but not all lures, I doubt the lure makers would go to the trouble of spending so much time and energy on featuring the big eyes as many do, if they didn't get positive feedback.

Haven't seen any with lipstick yet

A 2014 article on all time favorites here.