I made my yearly trip to Central America the last week of February. Completely missed out on tuna. Had a bunch hooked and lost them all. Tarpon fishing never happened as conditions were just not right on the east coast. We had three days of inshore fishing using large poppers and some live bait. The guys missed all 14 bites on the bigger baits. We would catch tuna up to 5 or 6 pounds and use them as bait. Lots of broken lines trying to get the cubera out of the rocks. We ended up catching all the fish on poppers. Best bait was a halco 195 haymaker which is a 4+ ounce popper.

Sure looks like a lot of fun!

Did you catch the cubera on a popper? What kind of tuna are there? Is that one of those Panga boats?

Those roosters look like they can really pull. Are they a type of Jack? Did you eat any? Geez, I ask a lot of questions.

I wonder what was going on with the bites with the bigger baits. Wish I were there, big baits are my wheel house. Did you bridle them them through the eyes? 10/0 Mutu circle hooks usually get hooked up.

No trip for me this year.......I have the new car blues and a daughter in Grad school.

All fish caught on poppers. Yellowfin and bigeye tuna are there. All of the fish pictured were released. We ate wahoo and other smaller snappers. Roosters pull really hard for a long time. They will dump 150 yards with 15 pounds of drag no problem. I nearly lock up the drag for cuberas. If a cubera eats I also grab the spool to keep it out of the rocks. Long casts and big splashes are important when using poppers. Most fish are coming up 50 to 100 feet to hit the popper. Like muskies more fish follow than bite. Other fish caught on poppers are bigeye trevally, needlefish, bluefin trevally, jack crevalle, tuna, and mackerel.

The problem with big baits is the cuberas are closer to the rocks when Hooked. Full drag and grabbing the spool and they still go straight to the rocks. You end up with a broken line from rubbing on the rocks. Baits were bridled with a large circle hook. Hooking the fish wasn’t the problem slowing them down was.

Roosters and cuberas can grow to over a hundred pounds.

Wow! sounds so cool! Gives new meaning to the phrase "stop 'em or pop 'em".

I know your pain. We once anchored up on a ledge where every fish we hooked would swim back towards the boat with unrelenting power and get underneath the ledge. Plus we were using conventional tackle with very heavy line and we still couldn't put the brakes on them. Finally, after the 6 of us had lost every fish we had hooked I looked at Yuri (best Captain in the keys) and said "we are not men enough for these fish, do you have something in a smaller size"? He smiled and pulled anchor.

Your poppers........the trebles are replaced with "J" style hooks?

The Yellowfins have always intrigued me. I catch plenty of blackfin up to 30lbs and they can kick your butt. I can't imagine tunas 100, 200lbs and up. Crazy town. I would like to catch one some day.

Will they take you out at night? Can you bring any filets home? The Cubera on the reef at night with big live baits would be the ticket with 80lb class tackle.

I have never done any casting for fish like you are catching. Looks like a hoot. Is the strike like a bathtub fell into the water? LOL.