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Due to their speed, strength, and sharp instincts, yellowfin tuna is one of the most difficult species of tuna to catch. However, with the best lure for yellowfin tuna, you can make a great and productive sport out of your yellowfin tuna fishing experience.
Contents
- My Top Yellowfin Tuna Lures Recommendations
- Best Yellowfin Tuna Lure for Speed: Billy MTSM-17 Rig Ready Lure
- Best Colorful Lure for Yellowfin Tuna: Boone Turbo Hammer Lure
- Best Yellowfin Tuna Lure for Deep Diving: Nomad Design DTX Minnow Tuna Lure
- Best Designed Lure for Yellowfin Tuna: Boone Gatlin-Jet Tuna Lure
- Best Surface Lure for Yellowfin Tuna: Yo-Zuri Bull Pop Floating Lure
- Best Yellowfin Tuna Lure for Variety: Shimano Butterfly Flat-Fall Jigs
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
My Top Yellowfin Tuna Lures Recommendations
Tuna fishing lures generally come in different shapes, types, and sizes and with different features, thus making the purchase of the best one a confusing and strenuous process. To make the selection process easier and more precise, I present my top choices of the best lures for yellowfin tuna.
Best Yellowfin Tuna Lure for Speed: Billy MTSM-17 Rig Ready Lure
With its nickel-plated bullet head and red and black mylar which seem to be irresistible to yellowfin tuna, the Billy MTSM-17 Rig Ready Lure is a must-have for anyone who is looking to bring home this fish.
The Billy MTSM-17 is 5 ½ inches long and weighs 0.07 pounds. It also comes with a 7/0 Mustad hook for reeling, which is stronger than the 6/0 Mustad hook of the Boon Turbo Hammer. These features help attract tuna by creating turbulence in the water and noticeable trails. This lure can be trolled with or without live bait. The strength of the lure is necessary to ensure a strong fish like tuna doesn’t break free.
Like the Boone Turbo, this lure also has attached to it a rubber protector for your fishing line, providing extra durability, especially when dealing with heavy fish.
With an impressive trolling speed of two to 20 knots, it works great for yellowfin tuna, which are very fast swimmers. As a downside, this hook tends to straighten out when used for large yellowfin tuna, which implies that the fish could eventually slip off the hook. For the larger fish, you can use pacific mackerel.
Pros
- Brass bullet heads are nickel-plated to enhance aesthetics and prevent rusting
- Fast trolling speed of up to 20 knots, which is great for yellowfin tuna because the lure’s speed attracts this specie
Cons
- Hook occasionally straightens out while catching large fish, leading to fish loss
- Hook could get rusty after contact with water, which reduces its durability
- Package length: 16.256 cm
- Package width: 7.111 cm
- Package height: 0.762 cm
Best Colorful Lure for Yellowfin Tuna: Boone Turbo Hammer Lure
The Boone Turbo Hammer Lure by Boone Bait works great for striking and attracting yellowfin tuna by producing a visible smoke trail inside water. This tuna lure can be either trolled by itself, or it could be trolled with live bait, squid lures, small pelagic crabs, cigar minnows, strip bait, or ballyhoo.
For best results, while trolling, the Boone Turbo hammer lure should be trolled at a speed between two to 10 knots, which is quite low, when compared to the 20 knots maximum limit of the Billy MTSM-17. This ensures that fast fish like tuna can catch up to your lure.
The size of this lure is similar to that of the Billy MTSM-17; 5 ½ inches long and 0.07 pounds heavy. This length and weight are great because it enables the lure to troll deep and handle heavy species like yellowfin tuna excellently. It consists of a bullet-shaped head and a fuchsia-colored mylar that works great to catch the eye of yellowfin tuna.
Also, it comes with a rubber sleeve that runs straight over the hook and acts as a protector to keep your line safe from the teeth of the yellowfin tuna, plus a 6/0 Mustad hook for reeling in the tuna fish. One downside of this lure is that the hooks could straighten while reeling in a large catch leading to the hook slipping out.
Pros
- Comes with a rubber protector that keeps your line safe from the teeth of the tuna while it attacks the lure
- Fuchsia colors are great for attracting yellowfin tuna
Cons
- Slow trolling speed of two to 10 knots, which is quite slow for yellowfin tuna
- Weak hooks could lead to fish loss
- Boone Turbo Hammer
- PINK/FUCHSIA
- Turbo Hammer produces a fish attracting visible smoke trail that causes striking fish to nail the...
Best Yellowfin Tuna Lure for Deep Diving: Nomad Design DTX Minnow Tuna Lure
The Nomad Design DTX Minnow tuna lure is specially designed with an autotune system and hydrospeed belly outlet to enable you to achieve maximum depth and balance.
This lure comes in different sizes. The smallest is 4.7 inches long with a diving depth of 28 feet. The largest size is nine inches long and has a diving depth of 50 feet. These attributes bring it close to the Shimano Butterfly Flat-Fall Jigs in regards to depth. These practical features are great for catching yellowfin tuna because they dive deep.
This lure can be trailed at an impressive speed of up to 14 knots, which is necessary for dealing with fast swimming yellowfin tuna. It is constructed from Diamond Armor, has a Gorilla wire-through system and BKK inline hooks, providing it with the needed durability for catching heavy fish, like the yellowfin tuna. On the downside, unlike other options on my list, the inline hooks on the Nomad DTX Minnow are barbless, meaning that anglers might experience some difficulty in bringing the fish in after getting it hooked.
Pros
- Autotune design that enables the lure to achieve maximum depth
- Hydrospeed belly outlet for increased balance, ensuring that that lure swims straight, even at great depths
Cons
- Protective rubber is short, leaving most parts of the fishing line exposed to the fish’s teeth
- Barbless hooks that are not effective enough to successfully land hooked fishes
- Fitted with super strong split rings and BKK inline single or treble hooks, DTX Minnow is ready for...
- Hydrospeed belly eyelet for perfect balance and faster trolling speeds.
- Patent-pending Autotune design for maximum depth and the ability to ensure the lure always swims...
Best Designed Lure for Yellowfin Tuna: Boone Gatlin-Jet Tuna Lure
The Boone Gatlin-Jet Lure comes in a beautiful and attractive purple and black color that makes it great for use with or without baits. It has a metal head that comprises 17 holes which produces smoke trails underneath the water, therefore attracting yellowfin tuna.
This lure can be trolled at a speed of four to 12 knots, and also has the ability to run deep inside the water, although not as deep as the Nomad Design DTX Minnow. Because this lure is capable of going deep, it is best to troll it with bait with a scent that can help the lure get bites.
The Boone Gaitlin-Jet lure is seven inches long. Depth and bite assurance are important for deep and fast-swimming yellowfin tuna. It also weighs approximately 0.2 pounds, which is lower than that of the Boone Turb Hammer and Billy MTSM-17 tuna lures. On the downside, this lure does not come rigged. This means that to hook your yellowfin tuna to the lure, you would have to make use of external rigging.
Pros
- Lure can be trolled with or without bait, allowing for diversity during use
- Rubber protector for your fishing line
Cons
- Twelve knots trolling speed limit might be slow for very large yellowfin tuna
- Lure does not come rigged, meaning an external rigging has to be purchased
- Boone Gatlin-Jet
- PURPLE/BLACK
- Troll the Gatlin-Jet at speeds from 4 knots to 12 knots
Best Surface Lure for Yellowfin Tuna: Yo-Zuri Bull Pop Floating Lure
The Yo-Zuri Bull Pop floating lure, as the name implies, is a floating lure, which means it is designed to simply float beneath the surface rather than go deep into the water.
Like the Nomad Design DTX Minnow, it is made with a through-wire construction and is equipped with three treble hooks that give it the needed strength to bag big yellowfin tuna. It has a large and cupped mouth that creates bubbles that serve as commotion on the water’s surface.
This lure comes in different sizes, ranging from a length of six inches and a weight of 0.15 pounds to a length of eight inches and a weight of 0.3 pounds. It also comes in different colors, including Chrome Sardine, Dorado, and Mackerel, all with their distinct shades aimed at attracting yellowfin tuna.
A disadvantage of this lure is that capturing yellowfin tuna might not be as frequent as it would be with a lure capable of depths like the Nomad Design DTX Minnow.
Pros
- Variety of colors and sizes can be used variously, depending on the yellowfin tuna fishing location -inshore or offshore fishing
- Three treble hooks that make it easier to catch yellowfin tuna and successfully reel in fish
Cons
- Surface floater, meaning big yellowfin tuna can only be caught if they come to the surface
- Hooks could straighten due to excessive use, leading to fish loss or quick replacement
- Through wire construction
- Features Yo-Zuri's new "Powerbody" material
- 3X strength treble hooks
Best Yellowfin Tuna Lure for Variety: Shimano Butterfly Flat-Fall Jigs
The Shimano Butterfly Flat-Fall Jigs are great for yellowfin tuna fishing in deep places such as humps or canyons. With this lure, there are two techniques for yellowfin tuna fishing, and unlike all other options on my list, neither involves trolling.
You could either drop the jig down to the bottom of the water and then elevate it to a depth of 30 feet before free spooling or simply cast lures and let it fall while you free the spool. This jig is center-balanced which allows it to fall to the bottom quickly and to make wobbling horizontal movements that leave it in the strike zone longer than other butterfly jigs to catch tuna.
This lure comes in eight sizes, but only the largest, -5 ⅜ inches/0.6 pounds- is suitable for bluefin tuna and yellowfin tuna fishing. It also comes in different colors, including Blue Sardine, Green/Silver, and Super Glow, making the Shimano Butterfly Flat-Fall the lure with the highest level of variety on my list. This yellowfin tuna fishing lure comes with two hydrodynamic dancing stinger hooks. One downside, however, is that its hooks could be too small for yellowfin tuna fishing.
Pros
- Can be used for yellowfin tuna fishing with two different techniques, allowing for versatility
- Jig’s ability to free fall reduces the stress of having to raise and reel constantly
Cons
- Hooks are too small, making it easy to lose already-hooked fish
- Hooks could straighten due to excessive fish weight, thereby requiring quick replacement
Frequently Asked Questions
What Fish Is the Yellowfin Tuna?
The yellowfin tuna, also known as Ahi, is a tuna that can be found in tropical and subtropical oceans across the world. You can always count on big Yellowfin Tuna on the eastern Pacific Coast of Mexico. It is so named because of the yellow coloration of its second dorsal and anal fins and is one of the most commonly caught tuna. This fish can travel at a speed of 50 miles per hour, can live for up to seven or nine years, and can grow to a length of six feet.
How Do I Know What Size of Tuna Fishing Lure to Use?
You should choose a lure size that fits the light tackle you are using, but most importantly, one that fits the species of fish that you are looking for. Smaller trolling lures are great for smaller fish/species, while bigger trolling lures are better for bigger fish mostly because of the strength of the hooks they come with.
For example, while fishing for a yellowfin tuna, you should purchase a lure that measures at least five inches in length and has strong hooks that can bear heavy weights.
Conclusion
In this article, we have reviewed the best lures for yellowfin tuna fishing, as well as features to consider when searching for these tuna fishing lures. Remember that making use of the right tuna fishing lures can help you have a more productive and optimized fishing experience, while the wrong tuna fishing lures would only serve as a discouraging factor for you while fishing.