Actually, yah, they pull pretty hard.
They're kind of unusual around here. We had an infestation two years ago but they only stayed for a month or so, in late winter. Late February and into early March.
This year they've been here a lot longer. They arrived again late February, but they're still here, been biting on and off pretty good since. They'll show for a few weeks, disappear for a few, and come back.
The run of them we've had off Newport now the last few weeks has been amazing. Boats are bringing in 1000's of them (all together) every night.
I kept some scrappy pieces to use for catfish bait, but I imagine the tuna would go for big strips of them as well.
We jigged for squid on a 13-day trip I was on... we only got about 8 pieces, but they were about a foot long. We floated those out as kite bait and they got bit pretty good. But the fish had no trouble eating the sardines and macks we had, either...!
__________________
}<((((((O)><(O)))))>{
|