If you only had $300.

[d-a]

If you only had $300 dollars to buy lures(jigs, poppers, and swimbaits) for the Big E July trip. What would you buy and colors. Basically a minimum requirement to be productive.

Thanks

d-a

[SkeeterRonnie]

call OTI! dark poppers (black/blues), about 6 of those, and the rest on knife jigs.

[thenewkid]

Hey SR, just curious but why not recommend some swimbaits, I thought you were made into a firm believer a while back. Do they not work as well during this time or something.

[Bret]

Swimbaits do get bit.. but if a larger model takes it , its a 50/50 chance of the hook straightening out.. If someone would make some swimbaits with some xxx strong hooks.... tuna beware..

[d-a]

Originally Posted by SkeeterRonnie

call OTI! dark poppers (black/blues), about 6 of those, and the rest on knife jigs.

Any specific knife jigs? Does the shorter ones work better than the long ones?

Thanks

d-a

[d-a]

Originally Posted by Bret

Swimbaits do get bit.. but if a larger model takes it , its a 50/50 chance of the hook straightening out.. If someone would make some swimbaits with some xxx strong hooks.... tuna beware..

Can the trebles be replaced with stronger ones? I noticed some dont come with hooks, that would allow you to put the ones you want.

d-a

[LEXPRO]

Call TJ at OTI and tell him to make you a $300 package specifically for a 76hr... I called him once and told him i was going to venice and then a 52hr and to send me some jigs and he set it up... The swimbaits use single hooks...

[Bellyups]

d-a, I have never gone through more than about 2-3 poppers a night. Sometimes I don't lose any, so you do not have to break the bank. I would bring about 4 big dumbell poppers such as OTI Komodo popper 360Tackle :: Lures , 2-4smaller subsurface lures such as the frenzy angry popper Frenzy Big Tackle Angry Popper , and a couple medium sized topwaters such as the smaller tuna hunter. You may want some surface or subsurface stickbaits as well. IME, when the YFT are craching the surface in a feeding frenzy, any popper will work. However, when they are more finicky, "match the hatch" as the size of the flying fish in the area really varies form one trip to another.

I will let others answer about jigs for YFT. Personally, any fast moving jig will work good for blackfin tuna. Usually long and narrow jigs such as diamond jigs and knife jigs.

Contact TJ/Minnow on this board, he will gladly help you out. He owns part of OTI.

[Snagged]

Add a couple of the small Tuna Hunter poppers also.

[Sea Crappie]

If I had only $300 to spend on lures, I'd skip the chugging style poppers like the Komodo. OTI's Goanna cruiser and the Yozuri Surface cruiser would be my go-to topwater baits. For smaller match-the-hatch baits, use the frenzy popper, and get at least 4 of those cause they break real easy. Another good smaller popper is the Yozuri hydrotiger, but it is also easily broken, and will need new hooks before the first cast.

Subsurface stickbaits are great, but even the cheapest ones are over $25 each. One other subsurface option that is reasonably priced (and rarely used in the GOM) is casting iron to the fish. Sumo or Salas type jigs work for our tuna just fine and are not only indestructible, but cheap too! They also have many weight options, from just below the surface, to vertical jigging.

For jigs, it depends on what you want to do. If you only want to jig for tuna, you don't need that many, but if you want to jig for AJ's, grouper and snapper during the day, you'll need many more (razor gang). OTI jigs and hammered diamond jigs (google 'em) will definitely catch all of the above, and save you some money too. Williamson makes a long jig that's decent for jacks.

Whatever you do, make sure you have quality hooks and rings on your jigs and poppers (not an issue on OTI poppers). It's an added expense, but in the end, it's cheap insurance when a 100lb+ YFT is on the other end of the line. There are plenty of inexpensive lures out there that'll catch fish (the hammered diamond jig comes to mind), but there's just no such thing as dependable "cheap" terminal tackle.