I would love to go. Need to run it by the wife. It will be my first time if she lets me. Fingers Crossed

What party boat you plan to go on?

When where and how much?

Galveston Party Boats. Boat is the New Buccanneer.

36 hours May 25 7am to May 26 7pm (Thu-Fri)

$550 per person

Limited load of 30 passengers.

ok I'm going to call tomorrow and reserve a spot. Now its time to look for some tuna gear. First time going, any recommendations on rods and what else to get?

For your first trip I would look into borrowing equipment.Or if the boat has equipment you can use or rent that too would be an option.

If none of the above works for you then I'd do some searches over on 360tuna.com . There is a thread over there about this trip under "Charter Boats ...."

The Buccaneer has been catching a lot of tuna on topwaters and other lures so the options for tackle there are numerous.

But what I am getting at is see how much you like doing this before you drop a big wad of mooooola.

Good luck .... it's a lot of fun.

You need at least two rods. One for casting and one for vertical fishing. Three would be better since they are possibly deep dropping. You can get a larger reel to do jigging, chunking and deep drop but the heavier rig wears you out quicker. It gets to be a pain reeling up hundreds of feet at a time and a two speed reel helps there. If you have a fish on its got better leverage in low gear.

A popping rod from 7'6" to 8' is the norm. Spinning reels from just over 100 dollars to over a thousand. I'll say a Fin-Nor Lethal 100 is the best low cost reel at just over 100 dollars. A Shimano Spheros (20k size) is a good reel too at twice that price. Watch what you buy because many large reels will be toast after fighting a few tuna.

I have to go to work now but there hopefully the tuna heads will be around to counsel you. Good luck, I wish I could go.

Thanks for the advice. i'm not to worried about the reels because i already have two Stella SW that i use to use for striper fishing in NJ. I was worried about the rods to use for YFT.

I like the OTI rod I have.

OTI tuna popping rods

stingray outfitters in florida makes a decent spinning rod that will handle tuna. had the heavy and medium heavy on the last trip i went on. great rods for $120

Thanks everyone for the great options. I'm buying my line and leader tomorrow. Do i need anything else. I'm ordering some Holco poppers size 7.75 and some diamond jigs. Do i need anything else?

I'll have several knife jigs from 8 to 14 oz. You're welcome to use them, as long as you're ok with reimbursing me for any you lose.

Sampo ball bearing swivels are a must in my tackle box. Tuna have a way of twisting line...

Halco poppers are decent but most folks have better luck with the Halco Max 130s.
You might want to change out those split rings and hooks. I use St66 4X 2/0 and the Owner #8 split rings (120#). Be advised that the ring on the Halco Max 130 is limiting so anything larger than the number 8 will not free up.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/11158045/Re:_Halco_130_swim_bait

Capt Matt just came in and said they canceled tomorrow's 36 hour and there should be enough transfers to make the 25 trip a sure thing.