[GARRIGA]

I doubt one can blow up their Stella. Lol

I often try to find an excuse to use a spinner just so I can justify buying one. That 30k looks like it would put a hurt on those yellowfin and fast enough to get them past the Makos.

 

[lite-liner]

That's how I was taught and have caught fish doing it. Much easier accomplished with braid than thicker mono.

not saying you were taught incorrectly, BUT,

the idea in chunking is to have the bait falling/drifting on it's own weight, & looking like all the other chunks.
not "dragging" line off a spool. in fact, w/ conventional, it is pulled-fed by hand to KEEP slack in the line. If you flyfish, think of nymphing. you don't want the water-resistance of the line itself to in any way affect the presentation of the lure, AKA as "swinging" or "dragging" it.
That said, I would think it would be handled the same upon hookup, taking the rod out of the holder, closing the bail
automatically & coming tight.

my favorite 2 chunk hooks are Mustad Demon circle in 6/0, & Owner ringed super mutu in 5 or 6/0, black finish

 

[HungryJack]

That's how I was taught and have caught fish doing it. Much easier accomplished with braid than thicker mono.

Above poster won't say it,
but I will.
YOU WERE TAUGHT WRONG, PERIOD.

Realize/recognize this fact,
correct your technique,
and guess what,
you will catch lots more fish than you did before.

Or,
know better,
ignore Chunking class 101,
and explain how using the same technique but with braid is somehow better :wacko:

 

[avidfishermen]

Jack , this is confusing . Which one is the right techinique to chunk , regardless of reels ?

Thanks

 

[GARRIGA]

I guess I imagined all those fish I caught and I will continue to imagine all those fish I'm going to catch.

Has anyone who's questioning my technique actually done it? I've done the pulling line out of a spinner and conventional so I've actually experienced what that is and have also imagined catching fish doing that. But I've imagined catching more fish by letting the current take the chunk out once enough line was out to see that this is better. At least with the fish I've imagined catching.

As for spinner or conventional pulling line out by hand, much easier and safer on a conventional where line is stripped straight off the reel versus coming off in loops with a spinner. Which do you imagine is more likely to grab a finger as its being tethered out?

Oh, BTW, I once imagined actually getting snagged for a split second as a 30# plus King smoked my line and almost my left index finger as well. Then again what do I know. I've obviously not caught enough imaginary fish and had I been taught better than I would have caught so many more imaginary fish. Now imagine how depressed I must be.

 

[avidfishermen]

If you imagine your fish you can visualize your catch , that's what a very expert member here said once .

Seeing is believing right ? Now imagine all the fish you can catch . Darn Garriga you must be doing something good Lol

 

[lite-liner]

I guess I imagined all those fish I caught and I will continue to imagine all those fish I'm going to catch.

Has anyone who's questioning my technique actually done it? I've done the pulling line out of a spinner and conventional so I've actually experienced what that is and have also imagined catching fish doing that. But I've imagined catching more fish by letting the current take the chunk out once enough line was out to see that this is better. At least with the fish I've imagined catching.

As for spinner or conventional pulling line out by hand, much easier and safer on a conventional where line is stripped straight off the reel versus coming off in loops with a spinner. Which do you imagine is more likely to grab a finger as its being tethered out?

Oh, BTW, I once imagined actually getting snagged for a split second as a 30# plus King smoked my line and almost my left index finger as well. Then again what do I know. I've obviously not caught enough imaginary fish and had I been taught better than I would have caught so many more imaginary fish. Now imagine how depressed I must be.

I was afraid of this.
Garriga, please don't take offense, it was not MY intention to tell you you're doing it wrong.
Quite honestly, the technique you have explained catches plenty of tuna (big ones, too), but it is not chunking.
the technique you explained is a simple live bait/slider drift rig & is very effective, as shown by our last TFF tuna trip, when damn-near all the YFT's boated on that trip were with this technique.
Agin, not to offend, but it is not chunking. I apologize for any breakdown in terminology

 

[Jungle_Jim]

This thread is turning into a poop thread. Thanks for the hook advice. I just ordered some Owners.

Jim

 

[lite-liner]

another point- YOU came here & asked for advice regarding a certain scenario,
just because you don't like the answers does not mean you need to go all smart-ass.
be prepared to handle those answers or don't ask the question

 

[Fountain38lx]

Has anyone chunked for YFT's off the Carolina's. The guys down there seem pretty averse to that technique. Pretty stuck on pulling sea witches all day. Maybe I haven't found the right captain yet.

 

[moranmd]

I have 5 trips on the Big E in the last year and a dozen private trips out of Venice in years past and would say it is doable and sometimes preferable to be able to cast out away from the boat. Anchored on the Midnight Lump on smaller boats we typically would use 50 wide gear to pay out the hooked chunks in the chum line. Best when there are 100# fish around and you want to maximize your catch.
On the Big E many would pay out 50-80# class mono but I think it was more effective to be able to cast out with spinners into the strike zone with live or dead baits, especially at night. Your 10000 SW would catch the plentiful black fins with ease and would be sporty on most of the YF's.

Has the Big E been out five times in the last year? Has it been out at all since last fall?

 

[Jungle_Jim]

Well, i tried this technique on my fall Venice trip. I pitched the chunks out and left the bail open. When they were running with it i closed the bail. no problems at all. No big fish either so take from it what you will.
I used a Penn TRQS9 with 80lb.

 

[killula]

I did it as well with a Cabo ptsd80 and I kept hooking 20lb yellow fins while everyone else was hooking big boys. I didn't get it, like 4 fish in a row. All of them released. I felt like I was wasting the live baits.

 

[creece777]

When fishing for large tarpon with live bait and circle hooks I have my drag backed right off so that I can freely feed line for the bait to swim ,then when a fish takes it I make a certain number of half turns on the drag to reach the fighting drag I want. Seems to work every time for me. You could maybe try this technique when chunking for tuna, might work just as well.

 

[Loosescrews]

When fishing cabo we used the same technique as above on the yellowfin there.

 

[johndtuttle]

I did it as well with a Cabo ptsd80 and I kept hooking 20lb yellow fins while everyone else was hooking big boys. I didn't get it, like 4 fish in a row. All of them released. I felt like I was wasting the live baits.

The trick is figuring out what the big fish are on versus the little guys. Typically the small fish are zipping around competing with each other for food and a fresh active bait really turns them on.

The big guys in a mixed school are not willing to compete with them.

Then you need to mix it up and this is when chunking can be really effective as the bigger fish just lazily scoop up the drifting pieces and waste less energy that way = the key to a big fish's survival. The only time they are competitive is for large baits and they are in a school of like size fish and they are all on the same thing. Seen cows busting on 10lb skipjack plenty of times. But they won't waste energy competing with the little guys (but just might pick one off if they are big enough and the schoolies are really small).

I cannot emphasize enough the key to not just getting bit but to get bit by the larger models is to get something in the water that is larger or slower or faster or just plain different than what the schoolies are frantically chasing. You still might get bit by the small ones, but you increase your chance of getting bit heavy by making the meal easy for a big fat (but suspicious) pig to eat. A chunk with a hook drifting just like the other chunks can be the ticket. Sometimes it can be a whole dead mack in with the chunks.

When it comes to getting the bail closed safely I give a good sweep with the rod to create slack once picked up then close the bail.

 

[killula]

John, you helped tremendously. Does it also help to locate a school rather then just follow around a big name captain that's hooked up. I'm thinking you need to locate the school because the captain who is hooked up may have drifted away from the rest of the tunas. We weren't getting into the main body of tunas and mostly bonitos kingfish and sharks were in our chum slick. A couple yellows made a showing but they were only like one every couple of hours, like 2% of the population in our slick. I'm thinking it would pay off to locate them on the sounder and try to jig or chunk them without using the chum and attracting the sharks.

 

[johndtuttle]

If sharks are around then the chunk slick is gonna attract them. It basically brings in whatever is around.

When someone is hooked up often the school is still around confused and looking for what must be around to eat. Starting a chunk or chum or live chum line can bring them to you. In the SoCal fishery schools are often "handed off" this way once one boat has it's limits and the bite just keeps going for the next boat.

Hard to say for sure what to do in a given situation. The cpt of your boat may have seen tuna on the sounder but they were just too wary with the sharks around etc or they had lock jaw even thought they were attracted to the boat etc. and you guys just couldn't get hooked up regularly even though they were there.

There's a fine line between sticking with one thing long enough to get bit and knowing when to mix it up too that no one has all the answers for.


best

 

[killula]

Sharks were terrible, worst I've seen yet. I think chumming with lives after locating a school under the boat is the ticket.

 

[noskunk]

Not a yft but a nice wahoo caught chunking with a Stella and jigging rod. Circle hook and fluorocarbon did the trick. Better to be lucky than good.