Apr. '00

For the last month I have been getting ready for my first trip to the Revilla Gigeddos Island in several years.  Many things have changed since the last time I fished these island.  So it has been more time consuming than I had planned.   It looks like I am just about ready.  All of my rods and reels are ready as are my wahoo lures.  I am just putting the final touches on my tuna hooks.  So in a couple of days I will be all set.  And just in the nick of time, as I will be going on “Tour” April 26th.

So you are wondering what a tackle storeowner brings on one of these trips.  Well if you check my long range recommendations you will see exactly what I use.   I just bring what I will need and nothing more. 

Here is a quick list:

Heavy gear - 100 lb. – 655TSSL/50SW
                                       80 lb. – Boomer Jr./50S
                                       80 lb. – 755H/Triton 50W 2-speeded by Cal Sheets 
                                       80 lb. – 6455XH/Triton 50 2 speeded by Cal.

Medium gear – 60 lb. - 760M/TLD 50 II
                                         50 lb. - 760L/TLD 30 II

Light gear – 40 lb. - 760L/Accurated 4/0 YTS
                                    40 lb. - 765L/Boss 665H
                                    40 lb. - 670/Accurated 4/0 Mag.(Catching Bait)
                                    30 lb. – 765XL/Boss 870, 
                                    25 lb. – 700ML/Boss 270.

  As for wahoo lures I bring the usual, Yo-Zuri Bonitas, Home made Jet heads and a few large tuna feathers. For casting lures you will home made wahoo bombs, Hopkins, Salas and Tady lures in my tackle box.  There are also many wired live bait leaders, some single strand and some multi strand.  The wahoo portion of my tackle was the easiest to organize because what works on the fall ten-day trips will also work on the winter 16-day trips.

  The difficult thing was deciding what hooks and how many to bring for tuna fishing.  First off I will say that tuna fishing on any trip is not a high priority on a trip I fish.  They don’t call me “Mr. Ono” for my tuna catching.  It is not that I cannot hook and land them I just prefer to catch wahoo.  I am sure that some of the regulars that have fished with me say my name as Mr. Oh NO!!!!  That really hold true when I start hooking and handing off tuna.  Usually the tuna are hooked on the lighter gear that I should not really be using for tuna.

  Well I decided to go with lots of regular tuna hooks and light on the circle hooks.  Lots of Mustad “Skippy hooks”, some Sea Demons and a few Mustad circles will be my headliners.  I also shoved a few Super Mutus in as well for back-up.  Those of you who have read my tips know that I am not a fan of circle hooks and after reading a few updates from the Polaris Supreme my mind was made up to stick with my regular hooks.   I would rather that the line break than the hook pull out.  If the line gets chaffed and breaks, well I will have to live with it.

  One of the things about taking this year’s trip is the opportunity to Skiff fish for wahoo.  That is what I really want to do the most.  You can see that I brought along two “extra light” combos just for the skiff.  Hooking and landing wahoo on 25 and 30 pound line will be fun, just hope that Mr. Tuna doesn’t come by and bite on the extra light gear.

The other thing that I am looking forward to is fishing with Tommy Rothery.  Everyone that I talk to raves about fishing on the Polaris Supreme.  I have fished on the Polaris Supreme before but both times Tommy had the trip off.  So it will be Tommy showing me how things are run on his vessel and I showing Tommy how I can run his web site from the boat.  If everything works out there will be live updates to:  polarissupreme.com.  So stop by and check out the reports and photos from the trip.

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