# Why tuna don't take jigs ?



## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

The question might be strange because I caught over 1,000 tuna on jigs. 
However, there were so many occasions that tuna just ignored jigs though they took baits regularly. 
When certain conditions are met, they are crazy to hit jigs. 
When I fished giant in P.E.I. At least 100 giant were under the boat and Whenever we threw bait, a giant took it in a few seconds. 
However, when I lowered jigs, they just ignored thought they hit surface lures on every cast. 

When I fished on 16 days trip recently, yft tuna hit jigs only at dawn or dusk. 
It is very frustrating, but where is no way to figure out their behavior.


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## Swells (Nov 27, 2007)

Kil you're the expert, but when them tuna are stacked up like cordwood under the keel and moving slow, they want meat. If the tuna are moving good and working a bait ball, and they are capable of bursts of speed over 30 MPH, they'll hit anything indiscriminately, including your unnatural-looking artificial popper or jig. The latter is a feeding frenzy activity not unlike sharks. In fact, some tuna get so into the frenzy that they collide with each other, sometimes leaving large purple bruises in their meat.

Then you have diurnal eating patterns that I don't really understand, although I try to explain it that fish, just like us, want some breakfast, lunch, dinner, and often a midnight snack just like we do, sometimes earlier or later. They're simply not hungry at other times. I've experimented with fishing in gin-clear water and you could drop an artificial lure right on its nose and I swear, that fish would shake its head "No way." Them fish are smarter than you think!


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

Yft in Gulf of Mexico respond petty good on jigs at night.
I never felt they shy away from jigs. 
However, I could get a bite on jigs on Midnight Lumps off Venice, LA daytime though I tried several times.


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## Boboe (Feb 11, 2009)

Yellowfin and blackfin in the Gulf are definitely more active in the night. They are less spooky at night, and will come closer to the boat. They will hit jigs about 10x more readily at night than in day.


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## luna sea II (Jul 11, 2009)

while I've never fished at night for GOM tuna I've caught several hundred during the day on chunks, poppers, jigs, live baits, and trolling natural baits and plugs. I enjoy catching them with all methods and try to be flexible and let the fish tell me what they want to bite on any given day. 90% of the time that's live bait or chunks. 

most of the yft I've caught on jigs have been on the west coast style iron man #3. yellows like lots of action which most japanese jigs don't have. the problem with west coast jigs is they don't sink well especially in strong current.


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