Some of the most productive tuna lures are:

In a nutshell, trolling is a fishing technique that employs dragging a hooked lure or bait through the water from a moving boat. You can have any number of lines in the water, but the principle is the same – you’re supposed to trick the fish to think that your bait is moving prey.

Although there is no one universal trolling speed, most boats will typically troll natural baits like rigged ballyhoo, mullet, and mackerel, at speeds of 4-7 knots depending on sea conditions. Artificial trolling lures and plugs can be trolled at faster speeds of around 7-9 knots.

• Squid Rigs. You can run these as singles, but many like to rig these in a chain of 4-6 squid.
• Cedar Plugs. These tried & true timeless lures produce over, and over, and over.
• Soft Plastics.
• Ronz Lures.
• Hogy Epoxy Jigs.
• Spreader Bars.
• Mann Stretch 30.
• Mirrolure in Pink.

Yes, trolling offshore for species like tuna and mahi can be done with a spinning reel—if you know a few basic facts. Naturally, when offshore trolling you wouldn’t want to use a reel, even a high-quality reel, that’s sized for stripers—like a Shimano Stradic C3000.

Now, taking a look at the northeast—in the Atlantic off New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey—they catch more tuna than most places in the world. Their top must-use colors are solid green, green/yellow and black/purple. In Florida, the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands, the No. 1 color is light blue.

Five Artificials to Catch Yellowfin and Bluefin Tuna

• Yo-Zuri Bull Popper. Lots of noise and splash to bring up tunaCourtesy.
• Joe Shute Trolling Skirt. Favored by pros for their tuna spreads.
• Williamson Popper Pro. An ideal choice for surface-feeding fish.
• Cedar Plug.
• Shimano Butterfly Jig.

Fresh bait is where it’s at when it comes to bluefin fishing! Fresh bait will give you a definite advantage over artificial lures, but tuna more often than not prefer the real stuff. We recommend: squid, mackerel, herring, or skipjack.

Toro, the Kobe beef of fish, is the extremely pricey, highly coveted, fattiest part of a bluefin tuna. The species is so prized for its lush belly meat that in the past century, it has been severely overfished. Of equal concern, it also contains among the highest mercury levels of any seafood.

It contains high levels of mercury Bluefin tuna was not always the luxury fish it is today. Additionally, bluefin tuna contains high levels of mercury, a toxic metal that can cause some serious kidney and nervous system problems for pregnant women and children in particular.