We made it out Tuesday to the Cigar in 4-6' seas. The boys got their first tuna! We caught two, had 5 hits! Believe it or not, 3 hits were on a fake ballyhoo! With lures, if the tuna misses the bait, is there any advantage to doing a drop back to try to get them to go at it again or does this only work with meat? Cedar plug and squid chain had no interest. I fished them in the second wake which isn't very far back from my transom. Would they do better on the third wake? We only got to fish for 2 hours as my alternator quit charging on me halfway out and our battery voltage was dropping.
I will attempt to post a picture. Thank you one and all for your help. My boys will never forget this trip!
First Tuna

Great job Capt !!! Way to go!! Having a Green Machine, cedar plug or other lure does allow the fish to come back and hit it a second time or have another fish hit it. We had that happen last week on Billable Ours from the shotgun...tuna hit the greenmachine and then came back and got it again.

As for cedar plug, I like the closer the better...they swim better tighter to the boat.

Cograts again and now you're hooked!!!

--Don

Great Job! It gets into your system doesn't it. We have been tracking the plastic Hoo and ran them for awhile a trip or two back trying to get some data. At least we know they will catch fish now. Seemed like a good fallback if you have bad bait and they keep washing out on you, you have something in the tackle locker to throw on when they have been hitting the Hoo. Thanks for the report!
Tight lines.
Dave

Its that time of year to always have something to drop back rigged on the boat. Otherwise, YES to dropping back the missed bait. Better than just staring at it and hoping to hook up...

What do you keep ready to drop back? Rigged ballyhoo? or another lure?

Congrats! Go do it again!!

Rigged ballyhoo, or other dead bait.

Plugs and Squid chain might have been drawing the tuna to the boat, and they just hit the other bait.

I had the same problem with battery charging a month ago. I was only reading 12V at cruise. I thought for sure my newly rebuilt Alt was junk. I found the wire on the back of the Alt loose and tightened it up and wham, good to go.

That is what I get for having someone else work on my boat.

Eric

If the fish hits a lure and misses, drop it back and then let it be and see if he comes back. If he hits a dead bait, drop it back a bit, or bring in or drop back another bait that is close to it in the spread. Most tuna won't hang around for you to send back a pitch bait from the pit...thats more for dolphin or billfish, but they will hit a missed bait a second time. Did have one tuna that I was able to pitch a bait to that was on our squid teaser dangling from the rigger while we were nearly sitting still.

--Don

Good Advice. On the Alternator issue, mine is in need of a stator. I learned that you should always keep boat batteries on battery tenders between uses as the alternators are not really designed to be battery chargers, only to replace used current.It creates an overload situation with two drained batteries.