Q: Recently we enjoyed our usual run of small blackfin tuna, and the wahoo fishing heats up once the tunas show up. We have been experimenting with using these little 2-pound tunas as live baits for the wahoo with amazing, if not frustrating, results. We catch the little blackfin on small squid lures rigged in a daisy chain, but it's hard to get the baits back to the boat when the wahoo are around! Even on days when trolling ballyhoo combos doesn't get a bite, a live tuna doesn-t last five minutes in the water.

Well, by now you're probably wondering what we need you for, right? Our problem is that the wahoo constantly cut off the small tunas right behind the gills, giving us a horrible hookup percentage. If we get the hooks in one fish out of five strikes, we consider it a good day.

We currently rig our tunas with two small 4/0 hooks ? one through the upper lip and the other on a short piece of wire pinned just behind the dorsal fin. Since this represents a new technique for us, we hoped that you would have some experience with a similar situation and be able to make a few suggestions. We've tried almost everything without success. Incidentally, we tried other live offerings such as pilchards and mullet, and the wahoo just didn-t seem interested.

We still catch our fair share by trolling, but it's amazing fun to catch them on 20- or 30-pound test and watch them eat just a few feet from the boat.

-James Pierce

 
A: I do have a couple of ideas based on some old charter-boat experience as a kid catching big king mackerel and barracudas that we also put to good use down in Cairns when marlin fishing. If a big 'cuda gnawed off a bonito's tail as we were reeling it in, I was taught to immediately get it in the boat, cut off a big chunk of meat and throw it back out with a 7/0 hook on a wire leader. As soon as he ate it, I would give him a long free-spool on the drop. We rarely missed one and got the biggest -cuda in the summer tournament several times.

In Cairns, we always drop back immediately whenever a wahoo slashes a bait.

We even knock the bait out of the outrigger clip if the cutoff doesn-t pull it out on its own. We give it a three or four count, lock up and wind tight.

If you don-t hook the fish, drop back again. We repeat this at least three or four times and almost always get two or three shots at him. With 11/0 or 12/0 J hooks, we caught a lot of wahoo or at least stung him enough to keep him off the rest of our baits.

My guess is that 4/0 hooks are too small, or you would be hooking up better.

Try a couple of short-shank 7/0 hooks, one in the lips and one well back in the tuna-s back.

One last idea comes from the kingfish circuit: Try two or three (or more on a big 6- or 8-pound tuna) treble hooks all strung together. The kingfish boys don-t drop back ? they use a light drag when using this technique with big mackerel or ribbonfish baits.

I prefer fewer hooks, two singles, and the drop-back technique. Who knows - it might score you a record on light line if you use a legal two-hook rig.

Some of the junior records could be taken fairly easily.