Tuna handline

[Charter Tofino]

A friend is sailing to Hawaii solo in a few weeks. He asked me to rig him some rods but I told him it would likely be much easier to run a few handlines to save space ect. The problem is I have no clue how to rig one or where to go. Any help?

 

[Dogbreath]

Buy some 150 or 200# Triple fish @ Nikka or Trotac-it's cheap/plenty strong enough.

Then buy a few brightly coloured Tuna clones or the like (Zucchini/Blue~Pink/White/whatever) and some 8/0 or 9/0 Siwash 95170 hooks sharpen them good those double Tuna hooks are fine but more expensive.

Cut off 100' of line and tie it to one of those strong black bungee cords- on the business end just thread the clone onto the line and tie on a hook now you're good to go no need to monkey around with leaders-wrap the bungee around a stanchion the fish hooks himself and the elastic action means the hook shouldn't pull out before you have time to haul the thing in wrap the whole rig around a board or store it in a bucket and you've got a Mexican fishing rod.

I gotta go to to work if this isn't too clear post back.

 

[Charter Tofino]

Cheers DB thanks for the help. That makes sense and this page helped a bit aswell. http://www.ifish.net/Pilar/Tuna Gearandhandlines.html

 

[Highliner]

Wow, sailing to Hawaii solo, pulling tuna in by hand. Some guys must be way tougher than me!

 

[Rockfish]

It should be interesting if he ends up with a big sailfish on a handline. The "Old Man and the Sea" comes to mind.

 

[Charter Tofino]

Wow, sailing to Hawaii solo, pulling tuna in by hand. Some guys must be way tougher than me!

Haha no kidding he is a badass 60 year old! All this in a 28ft 30 year old sailboat. I couldnt help but laugh when he told me the SOS button on his epirb should stand for SOL if hes that far offshore.

 

[Lipripper]

Wow, sailing to Hawaii solo, pulling tuna in by hand. Some guys must be way tougher than me!

Some people are just

Sorry Kelly

That is pretty badass though

 

[Charter Tofino]

Some people are just

Sorry Kelly

That is pretty badass though

Yes indeed that would meet the definition. Hell im givin him a shirt for his journey now!

 

[Dogbreath]

If catches anything it'll be small Bonito maybe a Dorado/Mahi Mahi or two with the outside chance of a small Yellowfin Tuna aka Ahi.

As to lures they can be something as easy as a hootchie (or two) slipped over a egg sinker (or three) and any non treble hook-trebles are a PITA with that kind of setup.

He'll have to experiment with how far back he wants to run it since he'll have little wake-a wake can attract fish but maybe the big slow bulk of a sailboat will too.

 

[Charter Tofino]

Came up with this. Two 100 ft handlines with knots tied every 12 inches for traction. The bungee cords are tied uptop and I rigged the whole thing on this board to move around. For terminal I put a clone on one side with a few ounces of weight inside and figured a plug would likely work so threw on an older 6 inch. Maybe not the ideal setup but looks ok.

 

[Dogbreath]

You need weight inside the hootchies otherwise they'll just blow across the tops of the waves in a wind.

Take a 2oz or 4oz mooching weight crimp a 8/0 single Mustad Siwash on one end and stuff it inside the hootchies-those colours are fine esp. the blue/white.

The trebles can be dangerous if he catches a Mahi Mahi they don't like dying so need a lot of killing and like to flop around-throwing a wet towel is one way to calm them down but how many people have a wet towel to hand when sailing?

The Tomics will work of you go slow enough and it's calm enough if not they'll just blow out of the water.