If you just got a boat or you just got into fishing, your focus is probably on catching something. Most times when you are starting out, you do not want to go out for a whole day and come back with no fish. So this post is about the lures, leader, and habits I tell less experienced fishermen to start with, based on what actually works for us here in Hawaii.
The smaller the lure, the more chances you have of getting a bite. If you look in even a big fish's stomach, like an ahi, a lot of times there is really small bait in it. So a small lure increases the range of fish you can catch. You can catch small aku with it, and you can also potentially catch a large ahi with it. I have a lot of guys who catch big ahi on small lures.
If you are just starting out, run a couple of 5 inch lures and maybe a 7 inch. Chrome heads will do well too. If you are running the ledge, I would run two 5 inch lures and a 7 inch or something like that. The overall thought is to run smaller baits so you get more chances of bites from both small and big fish. A lure like our 5 inch Aku Bone will basically catch you anything that swims, and the 6 inch Poke is in that same small, do everything class.
Here is the mistake I see the most. A lot of guys run light line on a small lure, say 130 pound or lighter. Then a big ahi grabs it, and you almost always lose that fish right at the boat, when you can actually see it. That is when you have the most pressure on the leader, and that is when the leader normally breaks. I cannot tell you how many stories I have heard of guys running their aku lures and losing a big ahi exactly like that.
This is what I run on small lures:
If you hook an ahi on 130 pound fluorocarbon you are going to have a hell of a time landing that fish. The 200 or 220 still gives you a fighting chance if a big one bites. The tradeoff is real though: the bigger leader will get you fewer bites on the aku. And to be honest, I use fluorocarbon when I am chasing aku even though I have not found that it helps you much with ahi. For more on the full leader program, see what I run on every lure.
Everybody's boat is different, so take note of what the white water is doing behind your own boat. Tunas typically do not like a dirty wash. Mahi and fish like that will bite a dirty wash for sure, which is why it is okay to go faster for them, but for whatever reason tunas like a cleaner wash and a slower speed.
For ono, 7 to 9 knots is fine. But when you are quartering up sea your wash gets a little dirty, and when you turn down sea the wash cleans up. Most times that is when you get the tuna bites. I fished with a guy on his 17 foot Boston Whaler who realized he had been going way too fast, 10 or 11 knots, and the one time he got a nice fish was when he slowed down. Take note of your own boat and adjust.
One more thing on small boats: for tuna fishing you do not need very much action out of the lure. If you are marlin fishing and you want the lure skating down the wave, then weight and action matter. Tunas do not really care.
Bullets and inverts will keep you out of trouble, especially if you are starting out, and they will catch you pretty much everything you need. A lot of times I run a bullet on one corner and an invert on the other corner, and the same on the riggers. If the water gets real nice and you want a little more action, then throw a cut face lure or two out there.
The main thing when you are starting out is you do not want to be running a mixed up pattern back there with cut face stuff jumping all over the place, because a lot of us are fishing smaller boats and trying to pull five or six lines. You get a tangle and you might not even know about it. If you want the full rundown on head shapes, I wrote about bullets versus inverts and how I set a trolling spread.
I decide the night before what I am going to run, and I keep those lures out and ready in a tray. Whatever other stuff I am bringing stays in the bag. Most times, once I set my spread I do not change it. The only reason I go into my lure bag is if I need a backup or I want to run more of the same color. That makes your time on the water a lot more efficient.
Run small lures, two 5 inch and a 7 inch, so you get more bites from more kinds of fish. Do not pair them with light leader if there is any chance of ahi around; 200 to 220 pound fluorocarbon still gets bit and gives you a chance to land the big one. Slow down and keep your wash clean for tuna. Stick to bullets and inverts until you have your pattern figured out. And do your homework the night before so your time on the water goes to fishing, not digging through the bag.
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I walk you through how we build every lure at our shop in Hawaii, from the balanced lead insert and the star paper inlay to five passes of paint and the tuning box. It is the same process I showed on camera with the H-1 fish head and the 9 inch Ice Blue Moke Bullet.
The blunt bullet is a shorter, fatter bullet head we designed to skitter along the surface. Here is when I run it, why I put two skirts on it instead of three, and the 7 inch skirt trick that squeezes more action out of it on a small boat.
I get asked all the time whether the trailer hook needs to hide inside the skirt. It does not, and there is a good reason: marlin swat the back of the lure first, and a hanging hook that flops at trolling speed looks like a fish tail. I also cover when to size up from 9/0 to 11/0 and 10/0 hooks based on skirt bulk.
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