Tuna Questions

Matt B said:
Maybe @SilverFly will post up some of his ties. Or you can go and search them out. He has a way of tying the materials super high on the hook so it essentially cannot foul, and you can feel very confident that no materials are getting in the hook gap and interfering with hookups.
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I tried various iterations of short shank and high tie, or antifouling mono loop, for awhile, but still had some that fouled on the cast. Maybe I could have epoxied them, or done some things like that, but I never landed on anything I liked as a fly for movement and profile, and also didn't foul ever. Probably I just cast poorly when I get excited.
The rejections near the boat on a retrieved fly kill me when I pull the fly up and see 3 hairs out of place. Maybe it's not that, but I am going to make sure it's not.
 
What do you all use for stinger material for your tuna flies? And what hooks and how do you attach them? I think when I tied some spawn head stinger flies, I used 30 lb fluoro looped through some kind of larger Gami Octopus style hook because that's what I had on hand with an upturned hook eye and as big a line as I could fit through there doubles, and there were two things, no three things I don't like about how I did it, even though I landed a fair number of fish on the setup without any issues I recall. One, not so sure about 30 lb fluoro even when doubled through the hook eye. Two, definitely not so sure about a Gami Octopus even though it did work, they are very stiff if somewhat brittle. And three, the offset hook point contributes to the fly spinning and I don't like that, especially trolling. I don't want to put a swivel into the mix and I don't want leader twist. But I am used to using an upturned eye hook for stingers to get the correct angle. I know there are other methods so what do you do?
 
I use Berkeley fire line, either white or black, the same 30/40 lb stuff I use for steelhead flies. For tuna, I make a triple loop off the hook, tie them in individually, 2 down, 1 up, on a 2/0 or so Ahrex short shank hook. I double them back when tying in and glue the shit out of everything and mostly let it dry before each step. I don't want any droop at all on a pause or sink, so I try to keep things stiff and aligned with the use of multiple loops. I even tried heat shrink tubing over the braid on a couple, but that was a bit too stiff to move naturally.

Flouro use probably smarter, but it's diameter can reduce your options. I try not to use flouro anyways.

Fast or easy it's not. Strong it is. I can usually use the same flies for multiple trips, it's not common to lose or break one, so I don't mind putting the time into a good fly.

I really want to go tuna fishing. I shouldn't even open these threads.
 
Tallguy said:
I use Berkeley fire line, either white or black, the same 30/40 lb stuff I use for steelhead flies. For tuna, I make a triple loop off the hook, tie them in individually, 2 down, 1 up, on a 2/0 or so Ahrex short shank hook. I double them back when tying in and glue the shit out of everything and mostly let it dry before each step. I don't want any droop at all on a pause or sink, so I try to keep things stiff and aligned with the use of multiple loops. I even tried heat shrink tubing over the braid on a couple, but that was a bit too stiff to move naturally.

Flouro use probably smarter, but it's diameter can reduce your options. I try not to use flouro anyways.

Fast or easy it's not. Strong it is. I can usually use the same flies for multiple trips, it's not common to lose or break one, so I don't mind putting the time into a good fly.

I really want to go tuna fishing. I shouldn't even open these threads.
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I hate to ask, but could you post a pic? Are you saying three hooks on one fly?? I’m having trouble understanding the multiple loops bit.
 
Matt B said:
I hate a spinning or rolling fly on the tuna grounds. If it doesn't swim right to my eye, and I get even one refusal or short strike or something, I am cutting that f*cker off, because I can't stand wondering if that's the reason I'm not hooking up.

Maybe @SilverFly will post up some of his ties. Or you can go and search them out. He has a way of tying the materials super high on the hook so it essentially cannot foul, and you can feel very confident that no materials are getting in the hook gap and interfering with hookups.
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SilverFly

Post in thread 'What's in your vise?'

Mix of tuna stuff. Hoping to see action on Monday.
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Yeah, guess I do tie high on the hook. At least with the baitfish patterns. Might cost me some retrieve refusals but I still catch tuna. Mostly I'm fishing a squid pattern like the one at far right. Hook not quite so exposed on those. No fouling issues of note, I think due to the stiffness of the eye tab material (craft store ribbon with UV resin).
 
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I use 30-40 lb braid and a number of different hooks. Lots of gami’s though.

My spawn head flies in particular spin really bad sometimes but they’ve been very effective. I only have 10-12 trips under my belt but there have been at least a couple trips where my dumb spinning fly out fished others on the boat by a decent margin even when others were fishing similar patterns. I don’t think the spinning was the driver. My guess is it was the color, material used or small differences in profile but who knows. I have also been on trips where I was out fished on the troll by folks using similar patterns too 🤷‍♂️.

Bring a variety of stuff and have fun. More than likely you or someone else on your trip will have an effective pattern you can tie on!
 
jasmillo said:
I use 30-40 lb braid and a number of different hooks. Lots of gami’s though.

My spawn head flies in particular spin really bad sometimes but they’ve been very effective. I only have 10-12 trips under my belt but there have been at least a couple trips where my dumb spinning fly out fished others on the boat by a decent margin even when others were fishing similar patterns. I don’t think the spinning was the driver. My guess is it was the color, material used or small differences in profile but who knows. I have also been on trips where I was out fished on the troll by folks using similar patterns too 🤷‍♂️.

Bring a variety of stuff and have fun. More than likely you or someone else on your trip will have an effective pattern you can tie on!
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Spin or not, those Spawn heads definitely work. I wonder if they just push a lot of water which makes the fibers move more?

Definitely 2nd the rec to bring a variety of stuff.
 
On my stinger steelhead flies I've taken to running my line through junction tubing. Even a relatively short section of it (half the length of the line) has kept my flies from fouling. Might be of use here?
 
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