queensland Finally A Better Moreton Bay Outing

[RUSSIAN]

Hi all,

After reading numerous reports of tuna in the bay, I decided to drag Dad out and see if we could tangle with our firsts. Up at 3 and ended up crossing the bay in the dark. The weather was just too good, all we needed were some fish. We started hitting the beacons one after another. Throwing plastics and stickbaits yet nothing seemed to be around. The herring were everywhere we just couldn’t convert. Kept an eye out all morning yet couldn’t spot any tuna. Kept casting and driving around but we couldn’t seem to convert.

Finally I decided to put down the lures and send down some herring. Wasn’t long until I managed 5 solid moses but I let them all go. The resident dolphin came to play and that was about it. I did catch one small schoolie on a herring and at one point saw a dozen or so come to the herring schools, they just weren’t interested in the metal.

It was hot and dad wanted to start heading back as we couldn’t be too late. I was driving and on the way home saw 2 little tuna jump just once maybe 500 metres away. I immediately turned and made a beeline as fast as anything to try get a closer look. Stopped and put down the electric and just waited. I checked the sounder and the water was 28 degrees. Then came across stacks of bait and some solid bait balls fairly deep down. After rigging the rods some tuna came up and I got a cast in. Right at the boat I watched a solid mack tuna swallow my plastic and take off. Unfortunately, he wore through my leader after I wasn’t bothered re-tying it from the beacon bashing. My first ever tuna was gone. The hook up and initial run was crazy, I was so pumped to try again.

The tuna went down and after some more driving the water was 28.5 degrees! We sticked around and surely enough the fish came up again and this time in huge numbers! It was like a frenzy! Sharks, mack tuna, long tails, Spanish macks were everywhere. I got a cast in and didn’t even flick the bail arm over and I was on. Dad got one in too and he was on as well! Long story short, mine spat the hook after a while, another suspected mack tuna. Dad’s held onm and he was having the fight of his life. After around 10 minutes, the tuna began to give in. While fighting the fish, it was scary seeing big bull sharks swim under out boat, not knowing if we were going to get our fish or not. Luckily enough, we held on and Dad boated his first ever long tail! She went about 112cm! He was stoked and so was I. The frenzy died down and we called it a day. Felt much better going home after that encounter. Just wanted to thank @samsteele for giving me a few pointers a couple of days before. Much appreciated mate and we wouldn’t have caught the fish otherwise.

Anyways, good to see a fair few guys getting into them at the moment.

Thanks for reading

Anthony

Little schoolie

He was pretty sore after the fight!

[kmcrosby78]

Good report and congrats to your Dad on his first longie. Shame a few of the others didn't stick however on the plus side the taxman didn't steal the longie.  Hoping to get out a couple of times before school starts again so hopefully will come across them.

[RUSSIAN]

1 minute ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Good report and congrats to your Dad on his first longie. Shame a few of the others didn't stick however on the plus side the taxman didn't steal the longie.  Hoping to get out a couple of times before school starts again so hopefully will come across them.

Thanks Kelvin, I hope they play the game for you! The weather forecast seems to be nice towards the end of the week and weekend, lets hope it stays that way!

[Luvit]

Well done to you both.

Could feel the excitement via the report. A day can turn from ordinary to fantastic in a flick of the switch. Never giving up and searching till you find them. 

The first of many tuna to come.

[samsteele115]

Well done! That a very successful first tuna session and a great first for your dad. 

No problem, I bet you learnt lots more just by being out there. Was the water temperature about 28 degrees across most of the bay? Were you northern bay? I forgot to check temp for my tuna diary 

[The Mad Hughesy]

good read, thanks for posting. I love how fishing can go from slow to GO in an instant like this.

 

do the higher water temps cause the tuna to feed more?

[RUSSIAN]

4 hours ago, samsteele115 said:

Well done! That a very successful first tuna session and a great first for your dad. 

No problem, I bet you learnt lots more just by being out there. Was the water temperature about 28 degrees across most of the bay? Were you northern bay? I forgot to check temp for my tuna diary 

Yeah this was northern bay. No the water was around the 27 mark I found. I need to make a fishing diary! What sort of criteria should be noted? I was thinking:

Tide, moon phase, wind (strength and direction), water temp, type of day, time of captures,, method of capture, other notes of interest... 

[RUSSIAN]

47 minutes ago, christophagus said:

good read, thanks for posting. I love how fishing can go from slow to GO in an instant like this.

 

do the higher water temps cause the tuna to feed more?

Well learning from trolling offshore, I've found the fish prefer the warmer water. Hence the pros subscribe to detailed sea surface temperature graphs and base their travels on this. But that's what I've found.

Cheers

[kmcrosby78]

8 hours ago, RUSSIAN said:

Yeah this was northern bay. No the water was around the 27 mark I found. I need to make a fishing diary! What sort of criteria should be noted? I was thinking:

Tide, moon phase, wind (strength and direction), water temp, type of day, time of captures,, method of capture, other notes of interest... 

I'd suggest adding the barometer reading AND whether it is increasing or decreasing from what I've read over the years. I haven't started a proper diary yet as I don't fish often enough (yet!!) but when I do (once my boys are old enough) I'll be keeping one and trying to crack as many codes as I can. Pretty sure quite a few reef species plus jacks bite well on a rising barometer (over a certain reading).  Hope it helps.

[tugger]

Barometer is at 1020 fish aplenty

[RUSSIAN]

That's a really good point guys! Thanks for the info. I'll probably end up making a template and printing off sheets as i need them. I'll attach it on here too when i eventually do it. 

[samsteele115]

Longtail are a bit weird with water temperature. They seem to be in our bay in force more on a calendar year basis so I guess that would be directly related to water temp that brings them down the coast and into our bay. I think them being here at certain parts of the year is just part of their big journey which stretches right up into Asian waters where they get raped from uncontrolled commercial fisheries before turning around and coming back down here (and WA) to our nice 'longtail as a rec species only' waters. It seems not all of them make long journeys though because there are definitely resident fish all up and down our coast (usually the very big fish). I have seen longtail in the bay every month of the year now and as great as tuna season is here pre and post season seems to be when the bigger fish are caught before the masses of school sized fish arrive. 

That's a great point about barometric pressure. Another point to add to the diary. I have never thought to check it for saltwater fishing. Always learning.