Thread: Tuna tubes yes or no?

Ok, the boat is heading to a boat builder in August for some alterations. Alloy Taga top, anchor well alterations to fit a drum winch, live bait tank in transom and a few other minor things.

90% of my game fishing is or will be off the Auckland west coast. Mainly Stripey's and tuna. Later in the season the marlin can get very lure shy and live baits come into their own. Was thinking 1 or two 150mm tubes built in for smaller Skippy's or horse KY.

For those with tubes do you actually use them much or as I have heard, they mainly get used as rubbish drums.

Absolutely if you plan to livebait skippies. kahawai will survive in a bait tank well enough. If you dont have them you have to fish every skippy you get then and there, or they are bait

What pump size? was looking at one 1100 gph rule pump per tube, was not going for big 8-inch tubes so hoping to not need a 17a rule.

I'm not much of a game fisherman, but skippies last about 30 seconds in a livebait tank.

Yeah, I know, even bigger KY don't do too well unless it's a very big tank. Which out west are often all you can find. Just concerned that the idea of them is better than the reality.
Just want to know if the people who have them and do a bit of game fishing actually get some value out of them.

We use them, some late model boats have them made into the gunnels which is a great idea

Originally Posted by matto1234

We use them, some late model boats have them made into the gunnels which is a great idea

Which is what I'm thinking of doing when it visit's the boat builder. One or two tubes in the gunnels with overflow through the live bait tank. Thinking just one tube, which means I can get away with a single 1100 gph pump rather than two.

Do you fish out of Raglan much? Do you use them for Skippy's or KY? I mainly go out though Port Waikato so not far away.

Raglan mostly. Decent sized kahawai will live in one all day, often get a couple in a single tube. Skippys can be a bit temperamental but i think thats more to how they are hooked and handled. Will sometimes even stick trevally in them and they will still be kicking away back in the harbour that afternoon.

Will see what the boat builder thinks. Great thing about aluminum is that alterations are pretty straight forward with the right gear. Tend to be looking around the boat thinking well while it's there........

Hardest thing I’ve found is that it’s actually hard to stop trolling in a fishy area and deploy a bait …. and wait. My crew got very impatient very quickly. Livebaits are very effective but all I got at Raglan was makos using them. IMO well worth having though but you do need to put the effort in and wait!! I ran an 1100 rule on mine and it kept most carefully handled skippys alive for a few hours. Kawhai are more bullet proof. We always ran a bungy cord for skippies and wrapped in a wet towel when unhooking

Thats a really good point about the crew getting impatient. The thinking was mainly about coming across a bait ball and having something to chuck at it. Hoping that having a slightly smaller 6-inch tube vs an 8-inch one will allow the 1100 rule to work OK. If I got 2 hrs out of a skippy in it, I could live with that. Most of the time will be KY I think.

Most days plenty of Kahawai not far out side the bar (to the south) at Raglan. The other thing that used to amuse me was how Makos would jut leave you a head of a skippy attached to the hook and we didn’t even know it had been eaten. I guess they hit the skippy at speed - so they dont even have time to get agitated!

Very similar at the Port or Manukau bars. Normally plenty of KY but they can get to a decent size. Don't actually see me using tubes for Skippy's that much, more for bigger KY. I've had Makos on a few times when out bottom fishing over the summer and chuck out a live bait for marlin or anything else that swims past.

Its normally a short but spectacular fight.

Why dont you boogy some up and have them as detachable, if you like/use them make them permanent. You are the only one that can answer the question if you need them or not. Also the thing with pumps is if you under flow them they are useless

Good point, I may have to find some bigger PVC pipe. I do like the idea of them being built in. Just one less thing to catch the line on, fall over, get in the way when boating a fish.