Soon after the first albacore were caught (on American Angler 239 miles south) at the end of May, I stopped by Zucker's in Oceanside to visit with Bill Miyagawa. We were talking about trolling jigs for tuna, and Bill pointed out the difference between two very similar color patterns favored by albacore trollers.

"This one is a Mexican Flag," he said. "It's red, green and white, like the flag. This other one is one we call a rainbow. It's got yellow in it as well as the other three colors. The flag jig is from our ZG or Grass series."

"We always used to call those broomtails," I remembered.

"The Rainbow jig is a feather jig," said Bill. The company calls that series ZF. ZV stands for the Zucker's Vinyl series. There are 18 different patterns in the ZG and ZF series, and four more product lines in the company brochure: the Tuna/Wahoo series, Zippers, Marlin Lures and one the brochure calls Trolling Lures For Blue Water Gamefish. That's a heck of a lot of lures and color combos, with the lures running from six to 14 inches. Zucker's has been around for decades, and has a record for consistent production. If you're going to troll for albacore, tuna or marlin, you'll probably be packing some Zucker's jigs in your tackle bag.