Thoughts on downriggers when trolling tuna

[gottaflylee]

Cool Capt. Fred...very, very cool. Looking forward to the new book and hopeing to get a couple of the Spiders in the next week or 2. Thanks for the welcome to your "cave"...

[capnjackv]

We have had good luck albacore fishing with feathers on the old saltys pulled at 6.5 knots. We usually put a green/black or purple/black on and some days this was the only thing that stopped the boat, and stopped it several times.

[Baja Rattler]

Fred,
I have tried to use planers...but they were a bitch to trip...what's the "secret" to getting them to trip easily?

[gottaflylee]

Originally Posted by Baja Rattler

Fred,
I have tried to use planers...but they were a bitch to trip...what's the "secret" to getting them to trip easily?

B.R. We run ours on 80 Shaminos with braid. With all that I say here, do not slow the boat down. With the clicker on, throw it into full free spool for 3 sec. or so and then back into full drag and the planer, if an "Old Salty", it will trip. With the Penn Down riggers, I get a pair of gloves, hold the big spool and loosen the drag, let the spool go and suddenly stop it, it should trip. When running planers on straight line heavy Mono, cleated to the boat, lift the mono over your head and let go, when it slaps the transom it should tip.
Hope what I wrote here makes since to you all...

[iclypso]

Originally Posted by TunaBully

Many of experts I have spoken with on the east coast are opposed to them, as they may prevent a school of tuna from rising to the surface and seeing the full array of spreader bars, jets and ballyhoos running just below the surface; possibly preventing multiple hookups.

I'd rather hook a single tuna once than an entire school zero times.

Taken from the learning section of the semi-defunct SD Fishing buddy board, with all respect:
Albacore are one of the Tunas whose body temperature is warmer by several degree's than the water they swim in. They must always be on the move because they haven't any swim bladder. If they stop moving they'll sink. The way they get a little rest is to swim up sharply from three-hundred feet or deeper to about one-hundred feet. Then they'll take a long downward glide back down to the depth they started from. We suspect this behavior may also have something to do with regulating their body temperature. The same way Yellow-fin
and Big-eye tuna do. They will come to the surface to feed, but not for a long period of time. They have large eye's for feeding
at depths of over a thousand feet. Their eye's don't have eye lids and are very sensitive to light.

So, it seems like fishing at depth isn't a horrible idea, eh?

[Az.monkey]

Thanks for an excellent thread Fred, keep it up.
We often use our down riggers and planners to bring them up

[Fred Archer]

Cappy Lee,

Exactamente! Thanks a lot. Having a lot of pain lately and typing is sheer hell. It is so good to have someone aboard who can provide accurate answers to questions AND I'm really encouraged to see some east and west coast information going back and forth. As long as it doesn't turn into a pissing contest about who's best and all of that crap - and me and my new Sargeant at Arms, Mean Mikey Likes It, will make sure it doesn't, this is going to wind up a neat place for guys to pick up tricks from either side of the Mississippi.

For openers, the east coast guys call dorado, tuna, etc. "meat fish".

Lee, you been lookin' at that video of the SuperBars and Spiders and Ruckus Raisers rockin' to AC/DC? You Carolina boys need to break down and try them puppies....you will never quit using them once you start - never!

[gottaflylee]

Capt Fred, I will have then in a couple of weeks. I think what I want is the Spider bars...those things make a ruckus...

On the Predator boat, meat fishing, we do things a little different than most boats, but it works for us. We fish 2 different spreads at the same time. From the pit, we run 5 to 7 lines, tight to the boat with the planer rod as one of them. Then on the right days I run a bridge spread way back of 3 to 4 and sometimes 5 rods, sometimes it makes for one heck of a fire drill when the shorts all get hit but I still have to much of wanting to be in the pit in me to have it any other way... Anyway, I want to try a couple of new things this year and making a ruckus is one of them on the long spread...
I guess its that "if you always do what you always done...you always get what you always got"...

[crazy hawaiian]

Originally Posted by MikeyLikesIt

I read some time ago over at fullspeedfishing.com that they pull what they call "meatlines" which were really short parachute cord lines with a weight and a jig. They also talk about pulling short lengths of chain, to imitate the sound of bait schools in the water.

Don't forget a surgical tube shock absorber.


Fred: What is a Toad?

I'm turning 70 in a few months, but that does not prevent me from learning. After almost 60 years of fishing I'm still surprised at all the things that are out there that I've never heard, old and new. Fishing and learning to fish is a continual process, a fun process. I cannot believe the times that fishermen have said to me that the way they fish is all they want to know.

Thanks for providing information that will make me a better fisherman.

[Fred Archer]

Eddie,

Another old fart with an open mind, no less! Yay!

Here's a shot of a Toad Teaser. You can look back in the archives for more details on them, or order one of my books that has complete rigging and running details in it. Email fredarcher@cox.net You will get the genuine old fart's discount.

"I cannot believe the number of times that fishermen have said to me that the way they fish is all they want to know." Me too, brother, but ignorance s bliss, you know. (The good thing about ignorance is that it can be cured by opening up one's mind and gaining knowledge. Stupidity, on the other had, is incurable and can only be ended with death. So sad, but it does help clean up the gene pool!)

[Triggerfish]

Now all you need to do is to add a release clip to the back of the toad, clip in your favorite cedar plug or feather, and hold on! Good info here, as usual.

[chuck merkel]

I have had good luck trolling live opelu (mackeral scad) and akule (google eyes) on a down rigger a long the ledge (30 - 50 fathoms) near shore and near the FAD buoys here in Hawaii. Not too many others use them out here - you can't really cover a lot of ground at 2 -3 knots, but troll lures until you find activity or get near the buoys. The downrigger really works great when there are a lot of boats around the buoy.