Tuna 2024
- Thread starter SilverFly
- Start date
More like REJECTION loop.
Challenge accepted. 5 tuna trips this year, and I’m gonna use perfection loops on every rig.
Short strikes can be a problem at times. I can remember this happening on multiple trips going back several years. Hard to envision how they can miss a hook at the speeds they swim at, but I'm convinced it happens. It really got my attention a few years ago when I was trolling muppet-sized squid patterns. Generally the big squids would get slammed on the troll, but I'd get these weird "non-stick" whacks/taps when retrieving on the slide. Down-sizing to smaller (4-6" vs 9-12") solved that, and are now my go-to patterns. So far I haven't had the need to switch from standard on-hook ties to tubes.
I've watched so many videos of albacore eating troll lures from commercial boats and such that I am convinced they are never actually short striking in the sense that they are just pecking at the tail. Obviously the hook doesn't bury every time they eat something, but I very much believe that what seems like a short strike on our end just isn't in the normal sense. Especially with trolled stuff they tend to just swim up and inhale. I've seen this with my own eyes a lot as well. The hook not catching, IMO, is an entirely different problem from a variety of variables.
As much as we troll large swim baits with the hook 6-8" ahead of the tail, I would have to think I'd see many occasions of just the tail getting bit, or even ripped off, and I just never see that.
Not trying to argue with anyone of course, just what I believe.
As much as we troll large swim baits with the hook 6-8" ahead of the tail, I would have to think I'd see many occasions of just the tail getting bit, or even ripped off, and I just never see that.
Not trying to argue with anyone of course, just what I believe.
I have been using flies tied on large waddington shanks with stingers almost exclusively the last couple of years I’ve tuna fished. I don’t feel my flies were sticking or holding more than others on board using standard hooks though. Very small sample obviously. Definitely a confidence thing for me.
I also have been using perfection loops though so what the hell do I know
. I will say, 6 or 7 tuna trips to date and have not yet broken off a tuna using perfections. Now that I wrote that, it will definitely happen this year. So, I guess that means no more perfections for me.
I also have been using perfection loops though so what the hell do I know
. I will say, 6 or 7 tuna trips to date and have not yet broken off a tuna using perfections. Now that I wrote that, it will definitely happen this year. So, I guess that means no more perfections for me.
@jasmillo and I have had good results with spawn heads and stinger hooks the last two seasons. Stinger hook ends at the tail, not necessarily “long”.
5 trips? Respect. But, how big is your freezer?
It was the standard knot for a double line when I was trolling in Hawaii…both feet and both knees. I haven’t tied one in a decade though…I knew some guys that had a jig with nails in it to tie them too…
Ha! Not all trips are built the same or have the same prospect of success. Two out of Westport, one out of Astoria, one out of Garibaldi, and one diy with a friend of a friend.
Three deep freezers and a network of folks happy to barter for tuna and salmon.
although, I only used them for the back loop, not to the fly....but, that's the one that broke on me last year.
That's meeeee!!!!! Fuck those knots!
I got my boat out three times and went with a friend once last year. I'd happily double that number if I can pull it off.
I’ll gladly be your Gilligan.
Here's the Rookie, again - is this fly in your picture tied on a shank? Or?
This one was tied on a cheap sacrificial mustad hook then clipped off. You can use shank too, same thing.
Thanks! I'm still in the planning mode (what the heck am I getting into, here?) for the trip and what flies I might tie (or try to tie). I found a tube fly adapter in my stash of stuff I've forgotten I had but there are no mandrels with it, just four different diameter "rods" - learning curve ahead. ;-)
I have several lifetimes of tubing material if you need some. @Jerry Daschofsky did a batch order many moons ago that I was a part of in the old site. We did the transaction at the Sportsman's Show.
Steve
Happy to help shorten that learning curve sometime. I love tube flies.
Thanks, Steve - I will do some explorin' around here. If my memory serves, the "tube flies" I shared above, were tied on hard plastic tubing (I seem to recall it was hydraulic tubing). AutoZone doesn't carry anything like that so...... a bit more checking.
Very nice offer, Jake! Perhaps if time and circumstances permit.
Those "tube flies" of mine tied before we moved to Ephrata (therefore before March, 1986), most likely 1980/81, were tied on an old Thompson vise. I seem to remember I jerryrigged a clothes hanger with electricians tape to hold the tube from spinning. (The memory could be a fantasy or figment too.)
