Photo courtesy MIKE WEBB Parafoil 5 kites, available at most kite shops, work well with Mike Webb’s yellowfin technique.

If the sight of a yellowfin tuna jumping into the air in hot pursuit of a fleeing flying fish doesn’t get a person’s adrenaline pumping, a complete physical exam is a good idea.

However, the awesome sight of a tuna leaping after a bait is something many anglers never get to see. Even better is the sound of a big offshore reel screaming as a yellowfin strips line from it after splashing back into the ocean with the bait in its mouth.

Capt. Mike Webb of Pelagic Sportfishing in Atlantic Beach supplies this sight regularly.

Last year while offshore of Atlantic Beach between the 90 Foot Drop and the Big Rock, his crew had been catching dolphins and wahoos for a couple of hours when he said: “Do you want to see something really special?”

Even though the fishing trip that was only a few hours old and had started well, his question seemed a little odd — but it grabbed everyone’s attention.

“What do you have in mind?” I asked.

I thought I knew what he was about to suggest and, having heard good comments regarding his success, I was curious to see for myself.

“I’ve been experimenting with trolling lures under a kite and sometimes it really gets the tuna excited,” Webb said. “I’ve been hoping we’d get enough wind to try it, and it’s just getting there.

“If we can find tuna, it’s really something to see and sometimes they’re right here where we’ve been catching dolphin, but just aren’t interested in these baits.

“Occasionally they go absolutely nuts and even jump all the way out of the water chasing the baits.”

Webb brought out a short rod with an older Penn 6/0 reel filled with 80-pound-test Power Pro small-diameter superbraid line and rigged it with several smaller swivels. Outrigger clips already were on the line. Then he brought out a kite unlike any fishing kite I’d seen.

Webb said the kite was a Parafoil 5 that wasn’t designed as a fishing kite but did the job well. He said he thought the kite was available at most kite shops (he purchased the kite at Kitty Hawk Kites at Nags Head).

Webb said the Parafoil 5 came in two configurations: one with a longer single tail and the other with multiple shorter tails. He prefers the multiple-tail version as it’s more stable in the air.

Webb unfolded the kite and attached its bridle to a small snap swivel at the end of the line on the short rod. He moved to the stern of the boat, held the kite up to catch the breeze and began feeding out line to let the kite fly.

Three release clips were sliding down the line and, as the kite reached about 75 feet from the stern, a small swivel came through the rod’s tip.Two of the release clips slid across and below this swivel, while the other rested on its upper eye.

At this point, Webb reached back for a stand-up outfit and attached an unusual-looking homemade flying-fish lure.He dropped the lure back behind the boat and attached the line to the upper release clip.

Now he began letting more line out on the kite rod and the clip went upwards and out, taking the lure with it.After about 50 feet of line, a second, slightly larger swivel came through the rod tip and the second release clip rested on its upper eye, while the third again slid across it.

To this, Webb added another of the homemade lures on a second stand-up outfit and began letting out more line on the kite rod.At about another 50 feet of line a third swivel, slightly larger than the second, came through the rod tip and the final release clip rested on its upper eye.

“If the wind were blowing just a little stiffer, I would put out three lines under the kite, but I don’t think it will fly right holding three today, so I’m only going to use two,” Webb said.

He turned the boat to work down the weed line, and we were quartering into the wind. Noting the direction of the kite off the boat, he let out a little more line, then locked the drag on the Penn 6/0, placing it and the short rod in a rod holder on the back of the leaning post.Now he was satisfied with the location of the kite and quickly adjusted the lures so they were skipping across the water.

With a broad smile and a wink, Webb suggested we pay attention to the lures if we wanted to catch the show.

The kite was off the port with lures dangling below, but Webb’s boat also trolled four conventional lines near a small weed line.

As a small dolphin crashed one of the conventional baits, pandemonium began.

“Hey, look over here and get ready,” Webb said, pointing toward the lures dangling under the kite. “One just lunged for it and missed. He should be back pretty quick.”

About then a 40-pound class yellowfin tuna launched itself after one of the kite lures that had just brushed the water and bounced skyward. This time the tuna’s aim was better and the kite dipped sharply before the release snapped open under the pressure of the yellowfin’s strike.

Line melted off the reel like ice on summer pavement as the tuna felt the sting of the hook and tried to put some distance between itself and the source of its discomfort. But after 15 minutes of arduous lifting and cranking by one of the crew, the tired tuna finally began to materialize behind and below the boat. A few last cranks and it was close enough for Webb to gaff and heave into the fish box.

While the captain and crew laughed about the tuna’s lunge for the bait, Webb cranked the kite in a little, snapped the leader for the lure that had just caught the tuna in the release he hadn’t used initially and reset the kite and lures.

As he was trying to explain the lures needed to spend about two-thirds of the time just above the water and the rest of the time slapping it, another yellowfin leaped after the outside kite bait.

This fish cleared the surface at least several times its body length, grabbed the lure and landed with a huge splash. Again, 65-pound-test Power Pro line poured off the reel as the tuna frantically headed offshore.

With echoes of “wows” and “damns” still in the air, another tuna launched itself at the remaining flying-fish lure under the kite. This lure really was dangling; when the first lure had released, the kite had moved up without the extra weight of the second line and lure and this lure had drug across the water and then bounded several feet into the air.

The crew’s second set of expletives was even stronger as the hook bit the tuna’s jaw, and it headed seaward, setting another reel wailing that favorite chorus of the “Got ’Em On” song.

That was our only double hookup, but similar scenarios repeated several times that day. Dolphin and a solitary wahoo came to the conventional lines, but the kites generated each tuna attack.

Webb’s homemade flying fish lure is fairly ingenious — a couple of pieces of 1-inch clear tubing, some egg sinkers, a small skirt and a hook. The lure doesn’t resemble a flying fish that much, but tuna obviously see it in a different light and, even better, seem powerless to resist it.

As action slowed during the middle of the day, Webb finally had a little time to answer questions.

“There were people doing this before me, but I tweaked most of it just a little, to make it suit what I wanted just a little better,” he said. “This setup is probably best for using on an open boat, like my center console.

“To benefit most from this setup, you need to be able to troll it right along a weed line, rip, temperature break or whatever it is in the water you think will be holding fish. That means you’ll be turning to follow it and may have the kite and lures off one side for a few minutes, then off the other side or even out the back or front.

“The standard piece for attaching the lines to the clips is a small plastic rig, but I found the lines sometimes tangled on it as the kite swung back and forth during turns.

“After some experimentation, I settled on using small snap swivels, with the line through the snap and the far eye of the swivel over the pin in the release clip. With the swivels, the line would stay free, not tangle and still be easy to adjust to different attitudes of the kite. The snap made it easy to attach the line.”

Webb said the best lure presentations came with a steady wind of about 12 to 13 knots. Such wind speed holds the kite steady so continuous steering adjustments aren’t needed.

“You want the lure to touch, splash and skip across the water but not dive into it,” Webb said. “If the lure is tuned just right, it’ll fill the tube up with water when it splashes down, then trail a drizzle of water as it flies just above it. I think the water trailing out of the lure also helps excite the tuna.”

Other details help insure a better landings-to-strikes ratio using Webb’s technique.First,hooks must be razor sharp and ready to grab. Second, Webb uses Power Pro line, which doesn’t stretch. Third, he said the release clips must be set pretty firm to help drive even the sharpest hooks home.

Webb admitted he was a little concerned when he first tried kites to entice tuna strikes. He even was worried a tuna might pull the kite into the water, but experience showed that didn’t happen. Moreover, the number of hooked and landed fish increased.

Needless to say, this lure presentation by a kite drives tuna wild. During this trip, Webb and crew caught tunas at the same places that previously hadn’t produced tuna strikes by using conventional lures. But minutes after the switch to kites pulling Webb’s pseudo flying-fish lures, the yellowfins whacked them like hostile Indians picking off wagon-train stragglers.

Webb never claimed his lures and kites will catch tuna where there aren’t any, but his technique appears almost that good.

Any angler who fishes with him shouldn’t hesitate if Webb wants to try kites and flying- fish lures for tuna. Certainly the results will hook more than just extra yellowfins, but anglers as well.