tuna poppers ???

[biglou]

hello , i am going on a 6day trip on the excel has anyone used these lures ?? also what is a good color and size for the lure and how do you fish with them ?? thanks for the help

[chuam]

I haven't fished for the big Yellow Fin Tuna with the poppers yet bit I have fished for albies, smaller grade Yellow Fin Tuna, Yellowtail and dorado with the poppers.

For dorado, smaller Yellow Fin Tuna and Yellowtail I recommend the Yozuri hydrotiger poppers. I use the sardine, blue mackerel and green mackerel. You can fish this on the same rod you throw surface iron with. For these smaller fish I use a spinning reel as it is easier. I use a Fin nor 7' 20lb spinning rod mated to a Shimano Twinpower 8000 series spinning reel (this is the Japanese version of the Sustain only better). I usually fish these on 20-30lb string.



If you want to go after the bigger Yellow Fin Tuna with Poppers there are two lures that I would recommend:

Yozuri surface cruiser



and the Yozuri Surface Bull GT popper:



I am planning on using these a lot on my 10 day later this year. I'm using a Ulua 93H matched up with an Accurate 665HXM narrow with 50lb test on them.

There are a couple of ways to fish poppers:

You can either "walk the dog" with them which is a slower steady retrieve which gives the lure a gurgling type action.

You can pop them. In this case you reel the slack up and give the rod a big sweeping motion to get the lure to impart a big "pop" on the water. Reel in the slack and repeat. Try this at a slow speed and then try doing it at a really fast speed to see which the fish want.

The third technique I use is to use the popper like you are skip jigging the iron. I cast it out and let it hit the water. As soon as it hits I start cranking like a madman. The lure will skip and skitter across the surface. This has been more suceesful for me. You will get more boils on the lure this way but less hookups as the fish have more trouble actually catching the lure. IMHO it is worth getting less hookups and seeing tuna come flying out of the water after your lure.

The guys in the Gulf of Mexico do a lot of popper fishing for Yellow Fin Tuna and you should be able to get more info from them.

Hope this helps.

[fishordie]

Hey Lou,

Poppers are starting to get the attention they deserve on the longer range trips. The Excel got a nice fish, On a Braid Products Popper, as well as other trips are showing fish being caught on these things. I have been throwing them for a while and love the results. Now we are trying to catch the biggers, as in Cows on these things. I have already received my shipment from Braid on their Super Poppers, though they have other sizes. I had mine rigged with Forged hooks instead of the trebles as I am looking for 200 pound plus fish. You can also try rerigging them with Owner Stinger trebles for more reasonable sized fish.

Techniques vary and are affected by everything from tip heigth, as the popper will be affected as you raise or lower the tip, you can plow them, fast or slow and allow them to float back into the zone if the current is moving, you can try almost anything you want, as the other poster noted, as the key is making noise and splash so the fish will pay attention. If you look up popper fishing on the net you will find all sorts of information and find terms such as blooping, plowing etc. There are even popper and jigging web sites.

I am still not convinced that color is as important as it might be on other jigs as this has little to do with stealth and is more action oriented. I still tend to use colors that are close to the food source that is in the water however I will be trying all sorts of new and crazy colors and patterns.

The best part of popper fishing is it breaks up the day and more importantly seeing a fish attack it on the surface, miss it a few times, and come back even angrier than when he first hit it is something you have to see to believe.

Try some different sizes and different shapes but for sure give this popper fishing a try. You wont regret it.

Jamie

[Saluki]

Originally Posted by chuam

The third technique I use is to use the popper like you are skip jigging the iron. I cast it out and let it hit the water. As soon as it hits I start cranking like a madman. The lure will skip and skitter across the surface. This has been more suceesful for me. You will get more boils on the lure this way but less hookups as the fish have more trouble actually catching the lure. IMHO it is worth getting less hookups and seeing tuna come flying out of the water after your lure.

Hope this helps.

Dude, I saw Kevan from Noah's do that a couple of time and he had the Yellow Fin Tuna's fighting over the popper and knocking it 3-4 ft in the air with they would miss. It was freaking hilarious to watch!!!!
I swore I was gonna try it the next time the oportunity presented it's self.

[tunalvr]

Looks like another item to add to my buy list for Lupe'. Would you recemmend single hooks for 50-100lbers?

[Baja Dreamer]

POPPERS?

Did someone say POPPERS?!


FISH HARD!

Chris

[Baja Dreamer]

Originally Posted by tunalvr

Looks like another item to add to my buy list for Lupe'. Would you recemmend single hooks for 50-100lbers?

Not necessarily. The pictures that have shown the popers used on tuna at the 'lupe appear to be the stock trebles.

Although I fully intend to re-rig mine!


FISH HARD!

Chris

[fishordie]

50 - 100 pounders are no problem for trebles but most companies hooks do fail after a bit. If you refit with the Stingers you might have a longer hook life as the tines tend to bend or get crushed or even bend when the crew removes the attached hook with dykes or pliers. Your hook up rate will also be better with trebles. I would not go to single hooks until you get into a little bigger model of tuna.
Of bigger concern would be to assure the eyelets are connected by a wire harness inside the lure. At Icast I saw a whole lot of poppers where the eyes were screwed into, injected molded around or ??? but did not have wire connecting all the connections which I feel is a must for bigger Yellow Fin Tuna. Best of luck and I look forward to all the reports that have yet to be created while using these things.

Jamie

[StillinScrubs]

I may have missed this, but what rod, reel, and line weight would one be using to entice the 200lb cows to hit a popper? What kind of casting distance would you need?

I was throwing the 90J, newell last year to a big cow using a jig with no looks from the cow. God forbid I would have hooked that fish on the 90J.

[Baja Dreamer]

Originally Posted by StillinScrubs

I may have missed this, but what rod, reel, and line weight would one be using to entice the 200lb cows to hit a popper? What kind of casting distance would you need?

I was throwing the 90J, newell last year to a big cow using a jig with no looks from the cow. God forbid I would have hooked that fish on the 90J.

The answer to your question depends entirely on how big and bad an ass whoopin' ya' want!


FISH HARD!

Chris

[chriscoobs]

Isnt a single hook (of high quality) always going to give you a more solid hookset in a bigger (50+) Yellow Fin Tuna, rather than a treble (of which i have seen few of "high quality"). If a 30# Yellowtail can bend one of the trebles im sure a tuna at guadelupe are going to have no problem.
CHRIS.

[biglou]

THANKS FOR ADVICE I AM PICKING A FEW UP TODAY !!!