Favourite Yellowfin lure

[Andrew Poulos]

Hi all,

Whats your favourite yellowfin lure for casting ? I have some Runbohs, and Tacklehouse K Ten or something minnows, and some of the usual poppers/stickbaits to try out this year, also the FCL TCP that I have. But what else have you all used with success....I keep reading about the minnows called Shibuki and Soul Braebaus - has anyone used these ?

cheers
andrew

[Jon Li]

In my areas of YFT fishing , they prefer small lures and at time one must downsize " to match the hatch " , meaning closely resemble the size of the baits the YFTs are feeding at that particular time .

When YFTs are on the surface , any surface lures work and my favourite would be the pencil poppers but if they are just under the surface , sinking stickbait or minnow will be the first to draw strike .

The key to successfull YFT fishing is CASTING DISTANCE and one must use the right tackles to reach the school lest they become spooked and go under and then surfacing somewhere else . Streamlined lures work better than chugger in such case .

Jon .

[Andrew Poulos]

The rod/reel combo will be sorted very shortly  , but wondering what other lures. I think the ideal weight will be around the 80g mark, though the rod states it can do 140g. That weight range will give me plenty of casting distance. Probably will be cheating abit as well as we will be cubing as well which will bring them in closer.

[Jon Li]

My favourite rods for YFTs are HL TN87 for lures 50~60 gr. and LR86 for lures 80~100 gr. , reels are Stella 8000HG filled with PE5 line and Stella 10000 filled with PE6 line , 100 ~ 120 lbs. mono leader with short ( 250mm ) 250 lbs. bite leader ( usually fluorocarbon ) to prevent chaffing by the fine tooth of YFT .

My Lar - PNG based friend is known to " steal " other boats' hardship by just hanging around nearby and when the YFTs start to take the cubes , he will cast in the vicinity of the just under the water YFTs and usually get strike before the other guys drifted bait .

Jon .

[Mark Stotesbury]

Nylon Aubrey D. plugs you got them dont waste your money .let it sink deep and crank fast amazing action on top and underneath the water.     

[Andrew Poulos]

Mark, yep still have some of those left and they are in the tackle box when I head out for sure. So far been working those on the surface , but offshore will try letting them sink as well.

I will be using a 80TN and OMA92(hopefully soon) so that should give a good spread of casting weights. Need a sapre spool for the DF so I can run 50lb instead of 80lb and have more capacity.

[Jon Li]

Up till now I still am yet to brag about OMA92 , mine is one of the 28 pcs. factory custom built by Carpenter and OMA92 was still dubbed as Ocean Revolution rod which signify the enthusiast rod not yet available as production model .

If I use OMA92 , I better be fishing alone or my other friends onboard will put me on the dinghy and let me fight the stubborn fish while they chase the YFT schools and cast onto them .

Jon .

[Andrew Poulos]

Jon,

Do you mean that the rod doesnt perform well, or that your friends will be jealous....?

[Jon Li]

OMA92 lacks lifting power to force the YFT to the surface unlike HL TN87 or LR86 , with big YFT doing circle right underneath the boat , it will take a long time to bring the fish up while other friends are all rearing to have a go at them YFTs breaking surface at the distance , they have done so to another friend who could not bring the fish up quickly enough and that particular friend was placed on the RIB and let to fight the fish with a crew accompanying him while the big boat chase the YFT schools . Once the fight is done , the crew on the RIB will radio the boat to pick them up but until then the big boat will keep on chasing the YFT schools to let everybody onboard have a go with the YFTs . No jealousy , just being considered to those participating onboard in the quest of boating YFTs .

Jon .

[Andrew Poulos]

Thanks Jon for the feedback. Good to get that feedback. Our fin average 30kg most times. Some larger, but I think thats about our school size, and a lot smaller. Hopefully at that size the rod will deliver without taking too long during the fight.

[Mark Stotesbury]

did the same with a big yellowfin at Bassas da india .but had 40 sharks trying to eat the fish , rib , and outbaord. best experiance ever .