jigging depth

[etan]

On another board Ksong says he concentrates his jigging for yellowfin between 50 and 150 ft deep. I was wondering everyones opinion on depth range here on the gulf coast. On my last trip I caught a nice yellowfin with 400 ft of line out in a moderate drift. This is deeper than I've jigged before. What does everyone think?

[ksong]

Originally Posted by etan

On another board Ksong says he concentrates his jigging for yellowfin between 50 and 150 ft deep. I was wondering everyones opinion on depth range here on the gulf coast. On my last trip I caught a nice yellowfin with 400 ft of line out in a moderate drift. This is deeper than I've jigged before. What does everyone think?

etan, I saw the post. I was surprised that you catch yellowfin so deep though I caught a yellowfin in 500 ft near the bottom.
I am curious whether they catch yellowfin deep regularly in Gulf of Mexico.
When I fished canyon yesterday, most marks were in 100-250 ft.

[Bret]

we were out at the floaters about a month ago. We caught a couple of yft on the jig. most were below the bft around 300 ft. (100 meters on my kaikon) I am not so sure that they catch them regularly, but they do get caught on the jig.. You have to let the bft hit it and let it keep dropping to get to the yft.. at least thats my exp..

[etan]

Thanks for the response Ksong, I have read all the posts on the jigging and popping board. On the Allcoast board you said to bleed tuna on the left side under the pectoral fin, why the left side?

[gman]

In Venice I saw them marking yellowfin deep on the Spanish Fly show, like 300ft deep and he dropped to them witha butterfly jig and nailed them althouh the sharks and cuda got it before it made it to the surface as a head

[Snagged]

Nate,
For the YF bite I've found that I need to get passed the blackfin when jigging.

[Ragman]

I was on the same trip with Etan and for most of the trip, the Capt marked YFT's hanging out between 250' and 280'. That is where the jig YFT's were caught for the most part.

On that trip the chunk bite accounted for the other half of the YFT's (with the exception of about 3 or 4 topwater fish).

28 YFT's were caught on the trip.

Kil - I think if more people concentrated on YFT jigging, even during the day where fish are confirmed, the G.O.M. would be a consistent producer of jigged YFT's.

Did you see the Nyati report of the daytime topwater bite? They caught two YFT's (~60# & 90#) about 20 minutes apart before they continued marlin fishing!

[ksong]

Originally Posted by etan

Thanks for the response Ksong, I have read all the posts on the jigging and popping board. On the Allcoast board you said to bleed tuna on the left side under the pectoral fin, why the left side?

I think that is where the major artery is.
Here is a slide show how to handle tuna to preserve tuna in prime condition.

http://www.ncseagrant.org/files/bluefin_slideshow.swf

[ksong]

Originally Posted by Ragman

Kil - I think if more people concentrated on YFT jigging, even during the day where fish are confirmed, the G.O.M. would be a consistent producer of jigged YFT's.

Did you see the Nyati report of the daytime topwater bite? They caught two YFT's (~60# & 90#) about 20 minutes apart before they continued marlin fishing!

Most bluefin are caught on jigs daytime.
We catch yellowfin tuna and longfin tuna on jigs at night when water temp is high and we start to catch them on jigs when water temp drops under 65 degree at canyon. But we found tuna sometimes eager to hit on jigs daytime even water temp is high when we tried jigging after we got tuna on troll as long range boats out of San Diego boats do. You never know until you try.

[ahistick]

Originally Posted by ksong

I think that is where the major artery is.
Here is a slide show how to handle tuna to preserve tuna in prime condition.

http://www.ncseagrant.org/files/bluefin_slideshow.swf

Nice link/tutorial on handling bluefin. I would not have thought of 'reviving' tuna to reduce the lactic acid build-up THEN killing it.

Thanks!