New here and a couple of questions for the experts.

[Louis Rajnys]

1.  I am very interested in rigging my poppers with assist hooks at the front of the lures as I have seen for the first time here, it seems to me as if the hook might get fouled on the leader when casting or working the lure. Is this an issue and if so how do you all prevent that from occurring?

2.  Leader construction for popping. I was going to use a sebile knot to a length of mono to provide some shock adsorption. What length is common in this application. Primarily we would be throwing our lures at 20 to 60 pound class Tunas and AJs. I am spooled up 80 pound braid and would connect it to either 60 pound mono (for AJs) and Fluoro for Tunas.   

I know I am not into the GT thing only because of location but I find your methods interesting and could certainly benefit us mid atlantic anglers.

thanks Lou

[Brandon Khoo]

Louis - one surefire way of not getting much of a response here is to ask for "experts" as hardly anyone is going to want to respond on that basis. I will, however,respond to your question on the basis that it is no expert's opinion. 

Re your first question on rigging with an assist hook. All I can say say is we have found the incidences of the hook getting fouled very low indeed.

On the second question, I think you may find that for casting purposes, the FG, midknot and PR knot are a fair bit finer and would make superior casting knots to the sebile knot. if you want to use fluorocarbon, then you may find that the friction knots are less likely to bite into the fluorocarbon. I would probably only go with a PR knot on fluorocarbon and i would use a reasonably long knot of at least three inches in length. On leader length, perhaps one of the guys with some experience in tuna popping can express an opinion.

[Jon Li]

In the case of using " assist " hook at the eyelet of the lure , I use rubber band secured to the head of the lure to prevent the flailing cord with hook to foul the leader , not sure if this matters but certainly give me a peace of mind .

On leader for tuna and in my case YFT in Indian Ocean , when the schools contain 100 lbs. tuna I use minimum 100 lbs. mono leader but there are occasions the tuna bit this thin leader so if they are not shy and will take bigger lures , will include a short 200 lbs. fluorocarbon bite leader some 8" long to prevent a bite thru . Not sure about BFT but YFTs have small teeths that can cut thru small leader in no time .

The length of the mono leader I use is the same as when fishing for GT , approx. twice the distance from the reel to the rod tip . This helps the " wireman " to take the leader upon landing the fish and in many cases during tuna fishing , due to the way tuna fights the leader may be wrapped around the tail and braid may be frayed by the tail if the leader isn't long enough .

Jon .