Needless to say, bluefin tuna fishing is an extraordinary sport, where everything is overkill: rods, reels, lines and, of course, lure hooks. The hooks must be extremely sharp but also strong enough not to open during the fight.
3 main types of hook
To equip your hard lures you can choose between the traditional treble hooks the simple or the assists hooks (simple hooks, connected to the broken ring of your lure by a welded ring, itself connected to the hook by an extremely strong cord) We'll see later the major interest of this type of hook.
For most types of fishing, the original tackle is suited to the fish you're after, but when fishing for bluefin tuna, you need to use broken rings and reinforced hooks suited to this fish. Otherwise, this overpowering predator won't take long to show you the limits of your tackle.
1) Triple hooks
These are the lures which, in the majority of cases, are originally used on hard lures, whatever the target species. Their main advantage is to ensure the catch, but unfortunately this is at the expense of the injuries they cause to the fish, making no-kill more complicated under the right conditions. What's more, a treble hook is much harder to unhook than a single hook. These hooks are often heavy and can be detrimental to your lure's swimming ability.
2) Single hooks
Their main advantage is that they are lighter, more discreet and, of course, greatly reduce the risk of injury to the fish. Some anglers, however, see a higher risk of stalling, which I have also noticed.
3) The assist hook
This hook is very similar to the single hook. It retains all the advantages of the latter, but the major difference lies in the small piece of cord. This prevents the fish from leaning on the lure during the fight and unhooking. I've clearly noticed a marked reduction in the number of unhookings since I've been using assists hooks to rig my tuna lures.
How I arm my lures
More than 90% of the time I use 2 assist hooks to cock my lures. This configuration suits me perfectly and I haven't noticed any more stalls than that. What's more, this "light" set-up doesn't alter the lure's swimming action, especially on 150 or 135 mm models which are more sensitive to hook weight.
However, I still keep some lures rigged in a mixed fashion, i.e. with a treble hook ventrally and a single assist hook caudally. This allows me, on days when the fish are difficult and don't attack outright, to increase the chances of hooking them.
Of course, a rig with 2 treble hooks is to be avoided as the risk of injuring the fish is high. In my opinion, this applies regardless of the fish targeted.
Hook models used
I chose Shout assists hooks in size 4/0 for 150 mm lures and in size 5/0 for larger lures.
As far as treble hooks are concerned, I've opted for BKK Raptor Z in sizes 5/0 and 4/0, but that's a personal choice!
