# Petronius 7/20



## MacWilliams

Left out of Pensacola Pass friday evening. Arrived after dark to Petronius. Not much happening at night other than a ton of sharks and Almaco Jack. Once the sun came up the tuna / mahi were everywhere. There were weed patches everywhere! We got a few BFT and hooked into 5 big big tuna but couldnt get them in the boat.. 

Overall a very nice first rig trip and we learned a lot. 

My question is what size hooks / leader do you use? We tried everything we had and the big tuna cut the line multiple times. We were trolling at the top and saw the tuna hit so it wasnt sharks. 

We had a big yellow fin hit a top water lure while throwing at BFT with a 6000 size reel... 2 hour fight and got it to the boat. Went to gaff it and the YFT went ballistic spun around and threw the gaff, ran straight down and line cut. Heart breaking. Need some advice for our next trip. Thank you guys!


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## Davidcobia07

Your not gonna catch 100+ lb YF on a 6000. Wasting your time out there. You can use spinning tackle up to about 80lb YF. If they are bigger than that, even with Stella loaded with braid and a harness with the perfect angler, in this heat, your 50/50 on a 100+ YF. You generally have about an hour with a 100lb mono leader to land the fish consistently. You need appropriate tackle to achieve those k perimeters.


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## JoeyWelch

Like said above, need to upsize a little. 

I broke one off Friday night at Horn Mountain after about 45 minutes on 30lb gear. Put another in the boat at 68lbs and he took close to 30 minutes. 

I’m not a pro but I’d stay with 50lb gear.


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## hjorgan

Never fails. The biggest tuna will hit the lightest rig you are throwing. I usually hook them up on a jigging stick when trying to catch blackfin for chunking. Win a few, lose a bunch.


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## Realtor

friggin awesome!!


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## MacWilliams

Davidcobia07 said:


> Your not gonna catch 100+ lb YF on a 6000. Wasting your time out there. You can use spinning tackle up to about 80lb YF. If they are bigger than that, even with Stella loaded with braid and a harness with the perfect angler, in this heat, your 50/50 on a 100+ YF. You generally have about an hour with a 100lb mono leader to land the fish consistently. You need appropriate tackle to achieve those k perimeters.


The 6000 was not our only reel. It was being used to catch bait and black fin. Happened to get picked up by a yellow fin and a 2 hour fight ensued.


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## Geno

Patience. Properly set drag.

60-80lb floro leader. 30-60 main. 6/0 owner mutu circle hook.


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## MacWilliams

Geno said:


> Patience. Properly set drag.
> 
> 60-80lb floro leader. 30-60 main. 6/0 owner mutu circle hook.


Yea, we were using 100# flouro leader with 80 as our main lines for the internationals. They were still getting through the line. I guess we put too much pressure? They were 100% tuna. We were dragging on top water.


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## swhiting

Great info on this forum!


I've heard people miss fish, get broke off, and hook undersized fish, but have never experienced it myself.


It helps to get that perspective.


(I have asked for a friend and seen it on another boat though..... you people need to work on your fishing stories  )






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## Play'N Hooky Too

You might want to consider getting a harpoon for use on the big ones instead of the gaff. Nothing sucks worse than loosing them right at the boat.


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## rustybucket

Are you sure the tuna were getting through the line and you weren't getting sharked? That long of a fight calls the sharks/cudas in like puppy dogs.


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## JD7.62

50-80lb is more than enough to land just about any yellowfin in the gulf assuming you didnt hook him right behind a shrimp boat. Check your drags and also like previously mentioned, you very well could have gotten sharked.

60lb fluro and 5/0 mustad demon.


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## MacWilliams

Play'N Hooky Too said:


> You might want to consider getting a harpoon for use on the big ones instead of the gaff. Nothing sucks worse than loosing them right at the boat.



Yea it really did suck and we now have one of those. Much easier than trying to gaff such a strong fish even when you think it's done it's insanely powerful. Saw another boat out there that lost their gaff to a tuna and we went over and handed them ours to land it. Beautiful fish and I was slightly jealous we couldn't land one.


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## MacWilliams

rustybucket said:


> Are you sure the tuna were getting through the line and you weren't getting sharked? That long of a fight calls the sharks/cudas in like puppy dogs.



So, we were trolling top water and we were both watching the baits as they got smashed. Pretty damn sure it was tuna hitting our baits. What happened after that could have been a shark getting to them but the only sharks we saw / caught were maybe 4 feet. 


The 2 hour fight was on our smallest rod and that's why it lasted so long. Trolling we were using Internationals and the 4 connections we had only lasted about 30-60 seconds before they were gone.


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## MacWilliams

JD7.62 said:


> 50-80lb is more than enough to land just about any yellowfin in the gulf assuming you didnt hook him right behind a shrimp boat. Check your drags and also like previously mentioned, you very well could have gotten sharked.
> 
> 60lb fluro and 5/0 mustad demon.



Really..... I had 100lb flouro and was having issues. As I said before we could see the baits getting smashed. Where was your hook on the tuna? I'm assuming we were trolling too slow and they just swallowed it. Not sure.


I thought I knew fishing till I went out there and was stumped on what to do to make one stick on our trolls..


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## rustybucket

What were your drags set at? Have you tested the 100lb fluoro? We use 60-80 all the time and no problem on 100lb + fish.


If you were getting cut that quickly I'd vote for barracuda. How far away from the rig were you? Those jokers come at a hooked fish like a rocket around the rigs. Few weeks ago we had a blackfin hit by a cuda right at the boat. Just as the cuda hit it I gaffed the blackfin. Both fish came out of the water and I had to hold the blackfin over the water and shake the 40lb cuda off of him, had I swung him into the boat the cuda would have came too and we would have had a full throttle chainsaw loose in the bottom of the boat!


Have you checked/tested the 100lb fluoro since the trip? I'd do a couple of tests til complete failure to see what it's really breaking at.


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## Geno

Yep on the pressure. Patience is the key. Takes an hour to land a big one (with a few exceptions of course).

A harpoon might be a good idea if you regularly run into them. I've never used one. Just a couple of gaffs and wait until they are done.

They always wake up when they're right by the boat. I loosen the drag up as they get close - at that point they're too tired to run off a ton of line again but 20 yards is not uncommon.

The main exception to the above is a big one with a long jig stuck in it's mouth so it's forced wide open - they'll come right to you. Then you have a green one in the boat. It could get real interesting real quick.

30-60 seconds sounds like something's wrong. Either the line is breaking too easily or the drag is too tight. That is, assuming it's tuna. Sounds more like something with teeth if not...


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## JoeyWelch

Mmm,.. got me wanting to go back just reading this.


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## MacWilliams

It very well could have been a cuda or a shark. But we were watching the lines as we trolled around and it looked a heck of a lot like a tuna rolling on it. Drag was probably too tight, are you supposed to keep it loose like when trolling for Kings and just let them do their first big run? 


I'll give the line a check and make sure it's not weaker than it's supposed to be. I'm learning so much just from you guys responses and the single trip I've done out there. I can not wait to get back out there and try again. Hopefully reporting back with a success story next time.


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## MacWilliams

rustybucket said:


> What were your drags set at? Have you tested the 100lb fluoro? We use 60-80 all the time and no problem on 100lb + fish.
> 
> 
> If you were getting cut that quickly I'd vote for barracuda. How far away from the rig were you? Those jokers come at a hooked fish like a rocket around the rigs. Few weeks ago we had a blackfin hit by a cuda right at the boat. Just as the cuda hit it I gaffed the blackfin. Both fish came out of the water and I had to hold the blackfin over the water and shake the 40lb cuda off of him, had I swung him into the boat the cuda would have came too and we would have had a full throttle chainsaw loose in the bottom of the boat!
> 
> 
> Have you checked/tested the 100lb fluoro since the trip? I'd do a couple of tests til complete failure to see what it's really breaking at.



A couple of the times we were maybe 200-300 yards away from the rigs. The other 3 times we were quite a bit farther away. We tried trolling around the rigs to begin and just kept catching ~4 foot sharks before we could even get the baits set. 


We did have some success around the weed patches though hooking and landing a nice size Mahi.


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## Play'N Hooky Too

MacWilliams said:


> It very well could have been a cuda or a shark. But we were watching the lines as we trolled around and it looked a heck of a lot like a tuna rolling on it. *Drag was probably too tight, are you supposed to keep it loose like when trolling for Kings and just let them do their first big run?*


Most definitely! If you had much drag set at all you really didn't stand a chance. 

As a general rule if you are catching sharks, you are too close to the rig.:yes:


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## MacWilliams

Play'N Hooky Too said:


> Most definitely! If you had much drag set at all you really didn't stand a chance.
> 
> As a general rule if you are catching sharks, you are too close to the rig.:yes:


Well, that was the issue then.. 

Yea it didnt take us long to figure out how far away from the rigs to troll because the sharks were just terrible. 

From now on I'll always be trolling with just enough drag to keep the line from being pulled off by the baits.


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## JD7.62

Buy you a spring scale. run all line and connections THROUGH the rod and test your drag. Your drag at strike should be about 25% of your weakest lines breaking strength. Say your main line is 80lb mono, your drag should be at about 20lbs. Believe it or not that is more drag than you think but it it will not break the line before slipping assuming your reels are in decent shape. 

Im legit curious how you busted off so many so fast and didnt back off the drag. You said you were using 80lb main line and 100lb fluro leader. Where were you breaking and what kind of connections were you using? If your drag was too tight Id assume you broke off your main line or at your connection every time and not at the hook right?


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## MacWilliams

JD7.62 said:


> Buy you a spring scale. run all line and connections THROUGH the rod and test your drag. Your drag at strike should be about 25% of your weakest lines breaking strength. Say your main line is 80lb mono, your drag should be at about 20lbs. Believe it or not that is more drag than you think but it it will not break the line before slipping assuming your reels are in decent shape.
> 
> Im legit curious how you busted off so many so fast and didnt back off the drag. You said you were using 80lb main line and 100lb fluro leader. Where were you breaking and what kind of connections were you using? If your drag was too tight Id assume you broke off your main line or at your connection every time and not at the hook right?


The breaks were right around the hook so that’s why I was assuming it was a combination of the crimps and the drag being set too high for the hits. I have learned not to crimp 100# flouro and to tie it. I also had no idea you were suppose to use aluminum crimps for mono/flouro. So that probably added to the issue. 

Initially I thought the line wasn’t thick enough for the tuna’s teeth. But seeing as how y’all are catching them on much lighter line that’s pretty much been shot down. 

I definitely don’t claim to know much about what I’m doing but I’m learning.


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## JD7.62

MacWilliams said:


> The breaks were right around the hook so that’s why I was assuming it was a combination of the crimps and the drag being set too high for the hits. I have learned not to crimp 100# flouro and to tie it. I also had no idea you were suppose to use aluminum crimps for mono/flouro. So that probably added to the issue.
> 
> Initially I thought the line wasn’t thick enough for the tuna’s teeth. But seeing as how y’all are catching them on much lighter line that’s pretty much been shot down.
> 
> I definitely don’t claim to know much about what I’m doing but I’m learning.


I will bet it was a crimp issue. Tuna teeth are pointy but not sharp on the edges so they dont really clip you off. Uni those knots and let her rip! 

Some days fish wont touch 100 or 80lb fluro and Ive had to go down to 50lb before. Its amazing to send two identical baits out but one on 50lb and one on 80lb and watch the 50lb get ate over and over but the 80lb not touched. Then some days they will eat anything! Youve learned a lot and I bet your next trip will be killer!


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## MacWilliams

JD7.62 said:


> I will bet it was a crimp issue. Tuna teeth are pointy but not sharp on the edges so they dont really clip you off. Uni those knots and let her rip!
> 
> Some days fish wont touch 100 or 80lb fluro and Ive had to go down to 50lb before. Its amazing to send two identical baits out but one on 50lb and one on 80lb and watch the 50lb get ate over and over but the 80lb not touched. Then some days they will eat anything! Youve learned a lot and I bet your next trip will be killer!



Yea, I hope the next trip produces more tuna. We accomplished what we set out to do though so that's a plus. I'm more confident in going out there. I'll be putting all these tips / tricks into practice next time and will let you guys know what we get.


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## duckhunter10

what were you trolling with?


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## FishFighter92

When you set your drags, make it so that you can do one loop around your hand and pull line off with some pressure. You don't need to leave it as loose as you do when king fishing, but 13# of drag is all you need when a fish hits. You can generally pull this off with your hand, but it's still going to be tight. Sounds like you guys had an excellent trip! 

Another tip is always aim for the eye when gaffing big tuna, that way you can control them better. If you gaff them in the back, you're for sure liable to lose the gaff, the fish, or both at the same time.


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