# Tuna JIGG'N out of Freeport



## hog (May 17, 2006)

OK Kil,

Its teaching time----

You've come down our way more than once and gone tuna fishing I think on the Big E.

In regards to jigging and trying to *JIG* up a Yellow fin. How would you do it?

What 3 jigs and their color/weights would you try, how many seconds would you drop down and how would you work the jig?

i got lots of questions to ask, I just want to learn more one step at time 

Hog


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## BretABaker (Dec 31, 2008)

Kil will certainly answer and im no expert.........but in the trips ive done, you'll find:

- avoiding blackfin can be tough, no matter what you do. but there are ways to increase chances for yellowfin. IMO shorter, fatter jigs are better for yellowfin. blackfin will hit anything. hammered diamond jigs, sevenseas hooker, oti jager, metallic sardines and similarly shaped jigs all work for yellowfin. i'm sure im missing some out, thats not meant to be all-encompassing.

- regarding color....im not a fan of glow jigs for yellowfin. blackfin seem to love glow jigs so using them tends to yield all blackfin.

- some say to jig the top 150' of the water column. that depends. if you're marking big fish in that region, sure, jig there. BUT....sometimes yellowfin are deeper. much deeper. i'd keep jigging all of the water column if you cannot find the fish. ive gone down to around 650-700 feet. on the big e last month, i had a huge fish hit at 650'. now, i think it was a sword based on how it fought and the fact the hook ripped out of its mouth, but who knows. there were fish down there 

- i prefer slow jigging for tuna most of the time. simple up/down style. but, lots of times ive gotten hit on the drop so be ready.

biggest thing with jigging is to put your time in. you may not get hit in the first hour...2 hours, 5 hours, etc. but your time can come if you are patient. sometimes the jig bite just isnt on though. i jigged for about 20hours on the big e last month, only had a couple yellowfin to show for it. many times, the topwater yellowfin bite will exceed the yellowfin jig bite, so if there is room and you're able to cast, that may be the most productive.


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## txcards (Nov 4, 2008)

I'm no expert but have caught about 4-5 yellowfin jigging at boomvang/Nancen/Hoover Diana. Get below the blackfin is the biggest problem. I hooked about an 80 lb bigeye in about 600 feet of water slow jigging. Most of the yellowfin I have caught have been in the 300-500 foot depth, with the blackfin coming from 150 feet and up.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

It is tough to catch yft, not because of lack of yft, but because of abundance of blackfin.  Bret gave right advice to slow down your jigging motion not to attract blackfin which love hitting anything moving fast. 
However, it doesn't matter when blackfin are thick. I put my rod in the rod holder and black kept hitting my jigs. 

txcards said he had yft in deeper water, but normally I rarely fish deeper than 250 ft for yft and mostly fish from top to 150 ft. I get down my jig deeper in 200 - 300 ft when targeting bigeye. 
When you fish rigs, you see yft are on top chasing flying fish. I had some success by casting jigs far like popping lures and work jigs as soon as it hit water.


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