Sight Casting for Cruising Tuna
The Hogy Pro Tail Paddle Tail is the perfect half beak imitator, which is exactly what these breaking and milling Bluefin tuna were keyed in on. The Pro Tail Paddle Tail mimics the profile of a half beak, making it an impossible lure to miss when Bluefin are hyper-focused on this specific baitfish.
Sight casting to Bluefin tuna is a fun, and super active, style of tuna fishing. Casting just ahead of the school will lead the school towards your lure, and if you’re lucky, like Willy Goldsmith and Capt. Mike Hogan, one lone tuna may venture from the school and grab at your bait.
“To fish these paddles for topwater Bluefin tuna, it’s really pretty simple,” Capt. Mike Hogan said. “That paddle tail is going to do most of the work for you with a steady, slow-moving retrieve.”
For the lighter gear, you might want to choose between 2 and 3oz paddle tails but for the heavier gear, like the Terez, you should stay in the 4 to 6oz range. And because there is already 4oz. of lead within the head of these paddle tails, you have the casting distance needed to sneak up on these schools of fish.
A slow, steady retrieve with a subsurface lure like the paddle tail is perfect but if you get a tuna vectoring away from the school, a medium-fast retrieve with implemented pauses are recommended to trick these fish into striking!
