queensland Moreton BayTuna

[Brian D]

OK give ot up guys.

Who has the secret to catching the Tuna in Mortnon Bay?

Karma to the best suggestion.

[Terry H]

The Best Suggestion involves a kayak.

Sadly, that's the only part I know

[Feral]

Hand grenades or gill nets. Might have to get out of town fast though!

[MichaelJ]

you could cut the motors a bit before u get to the school a fair bit from em and hope your boat goes over em right i was in a boat and they cut motors early when i was standing in boat i was 2m from the longtails but we didnt hook any:(

[chubbstar]

:laugh: I'll let you know tomorrow;)

I'll be heading out to Wello Point around 9am (after I've been to Tackle World).

:woohoo: Gunna get me some tuna;)

What do I do with them after catching?

Do I bleed it, if yes how and do I stick it in an ice slurry?

Guys I've only dreamt of catching a Tuna Please help!:kiss: :kiss:

[Dan23]

We used to just troll around birds. Look for birds and troll near them and you'll get tuna. Hopefully. trying to chase them is really hard. much easier to troll around where they are likely to be and hope for the best.

[MichaelJ]

yeh cut there throat straight away after catching my biggest mulled for 10min on 50lb braid they fight really really hard hope ya get one tomorow and i dont have a clue about ice slurry?

[Dan23]

chubbstar wrote:

Do I bleed it,

Whatever you do try to avoid gaffing one. My dad caught a big one once and I gaffed it. Blood EVERYWHERE!! took ages to clean it all up. But I'd say you would want to bleed them just in an esky or maybe over the edge or something.

[Terry H]

whatnow:

I was creeping up on a few bust ups in my yak once, and then some guy in a boat came screaming up even closer with his motor howling..

Great work mr boatie...

[jeff f]

up in hervey bay we allways ran a couple of highly polished gold spinners through the school if they wouldn't touch anything else

[Dazzamcgee]

I've never caught one yet but I've been doing my homework for when the day comes...

Find the birds working the bait schools and tuna won't be to far behind. When the tuna school break the surface in a feeding frenzy sit off for abit and watch for awhile taking notice in the direction the tuna are moving. Tuna like to feed into the wind making it harder for the bait school to avoid capture. Once direction is noted motor well ahead of the school and cut the engine and start casting with slugs approximately the same size as the bait they are chasing. If the tuna are playing hard to get sometimes a lure that is bigger/brighter or with a different swimming action will do the trick.

As the school moves towards the boat this at times will make the bait fish school up under the boat, just what ya want Tuna at ya feet nice...

Keep casting until ya hook one or the school moves on.

If ya hook a small one well done the fight should be pretty straight forward and if ya hook a biggun well that could be another story as at times they will roll on there side and start the tuna circling motion that they are renown for. The way to break a biggun out of this habit is to motor forward about 50 yards or so and start the fight again and so on until the fish gives up the ghost or the nowa's move in for a free feed.

Also have at least 300 yards of line on the spool as Tuna can do blistering runs and the last thing ya want is to get smoked....

Well this is what I intend on doing once I work out where the Tuna are... :evil:

[jeff f]

Dan23 wrote:

chubbstar wrote:

Do I bleed it,

Whatever you do try to avoid gaffing one. My dad caught a big one once and I gaffed it. Blood EVERYWHERE!! took ages to clean it all up. But I'd say you would want to bleed them just in an esky or maybe over the edge or something.

[img size=150]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee220/jeff-f5003/mactuna.jpg

[img size=150]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee220/jeff-f5003/17kgblue.jpg

[img size=150]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee220/jeff-f5003/whatblood.jpg

yeah they tend to bleed a little:P

[chubbstar]

Thanks Dazza heaps of info, BUT...

What lure's would you recommend?

I'm using a 10-15kg rod, okuma Force FES580 6.3x1 loaded with 30lb braid and 30lb fluro leader, do you think that 30lb will be enough? Also whats a good trebble to use? I need to replace some on old lures.

Jayson;)

[jeff f]

30 is heaps jayson i've allways used 6 or 10kg monno with a 12 or 20 kg mono trace,

any metal slice or slug especialy gold

halco twisties

metal headed maribou jigs and feather jigs

poppers

white painted barrel sinkers of a size to match what they are feeding on sitting on top of a hook will sometimes work when they get singleminded about what they are feeding on

then sometimes an unweighted pilchard is the only answer

but weighted saltwater flys on light spin gear is the ultimate fun

[Dazzamcgee]

Chubbstar ya outfit sounds sweet for the job!!

As for lures most metals from 25g to 60g will do the job, try some with different coloured flash I.E green, blue, silver and purple.

Lure that are of a pilchard imitation work well also..

Try poppers/lures with the red head white body style(can't think of the name).

If all else fails a big fat gold bomber ripped right down the middle of the school will definitely get alook in!!

Also retrieve as fast as ya can don't for a minute think that u are retrieving to fast, flatout works best but on sum days a slow moving object will work just aswell!!

[jeff f]

thats for sure daz if you haven't got blisters from the reel handle after a dozen casts you aren't trying hard enough

[mackmauler]

longtails are a funny fish, a range of methods work at times and not at others.

my best day off bribie in 1 arvo myself and 2 mates boated 14 of them over 10kg casting my slugs, ive had similar fishing in hervey bay giving up due to sore arms. ive also endured days of not getting a single fish or a follow with them crashing the bait hard it leaves you scratching your head.

for those who may or may not know i made the mackmauler slugs use to flog them through ozfish, they have caught hundreds of longtails the best being a 23kg fish, bigger have been lost. (i dont make them anymore its not an add)they only came in one colour white with silver top or gold. overall gold was probably the best, sizes were 20-40 grams hooks vmc size 1 or 2.

if i had to catch a longtail tomorrow taking into account a few things to cut the long story short id get some livies over near the 4 beacons anchor up, send a couple out and cube pillies say a couple of blocks worth over a 2 hr session fishing the afternoon tide change.

[Cowfish13]

I've heard that if you have a 4-stroke engine, it is better to just put the engine into neutral rather than cut it out. People say that the sudden change in noise spooks the fish.

[roobs]

i caught a couple of mackeral tuna in bali trolling- there was no surface action- we just trolled around for a few hours and they jumped onto feathered jigs.

[MichaelJ]

terry thats happend to me to we just found nice school just got into good casting range then this guy comes throuhg full bull and spooks em didnt see em again that day

[buzzid]

hey guys,

all my luck has come from throwing chrome slugs at them and retrieving like crazy on a hi-speeder. we just slowly motor toward them to within casting range. you normally only get a few casts before they pop up way out of range. some say they feed downwind or upwind and should be approached from some other wind, i don't really know the science behind it but have fired a lot of chrome at these blokes for many catches so if you do the same i'm sure you will get hold of a few.

jamie [img size=500]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/mack_tuna_AFO.jpg

[Bill74]

one other way to jag a longtail or 2 is to simply throw a live bait into a feeding school. generally the buggers are feeding on baitfish that are smaller than any slug you've got in your tacklebox; consequently they can't resist the temptation of a big juicy yakka or slimey right in front of their nose.

[Dazzamcgee]

Sweet mate well done!!!

I need a day of work....

[Brian D]

mackmauler wrote:

longtails are a funny fish, a range of methods work at times and not at others.

my best day off bribie in 1 arvo myself and 2 mates boated 14 of them over 10kg casting my slugs, ive had similar fishing in hervey bay giving up due to sore arms. ive also endured days of not getting a single fish or a follow with them crashing the bait hard it leaves you scratching your head.

for those who may or may not know i made the mackmauler slugs use to flog them through ozfish, they have caught hundreds of longtails the best being a 23kg fish, bigger have been lost. (i dont make them anymore its not an add)they only came in one colour white with silver top or gold. overall gold was probably the best, sizes were 20-40 grams hooks vmc size 1 or 2.

if i had to catch a longtail tomorrow taking into account a few things to cut the long story short id get some livies over near the 4 beacons anchor up, send a couple out and cube pillies say a couple of blocks worth over a 2 hr session fishing the afternoon tide change.

Mack Cheers mate - karma to you, thats the best help, so cool, thanks.

Are you going into production again for thr AFO shop? I'll take ten straight up.

Thanks to you too buzzid but I can't Karma you cause I only get one every no and again and I gave it to mack. But very interesting abou the 3rd direction approach.

[MichaelJ]

hope u get some next time then brian

[Brian D]

Mate I got some last year outside the bar but I spent 2 days chasing the buggers inside the bay and got nothing. I'll frigging get my spear gun out this year to get a tuna inside the bay.

Yeah thanks Tim - I should get one:S

[faulked]

try the smallest slugs you can cast ive had what little luck ive had on the small ones

[buzzid]

brian i use the the 40gram halco twisters, i think thats what they're called anyway. i usually always tie on a chrome one but i do have the 24crt gold plated ones. personally i don't really think they give a crap when they're in a feed up so long as whatever you choose to throw at them is leaving the area at a fair clip. one day a mate and i got on to a few long tails, we got 4 of them and they got a dozen or so chromies and goldies till we were all out, so i tied on this rusty little (about an inch long & 5mm wide) red and black metal lure i found in a tree somewhere. sure enough it was gobbled up by the biggest of the day. i think the key to casting at a boil up is a hi-speed retrieve greater than 6:1

jamie

[chubbstar]

I caught mosts of my tuna tuesday away from the boil.

I lost most from inside the boil, I think this is because the were just hitting anything that moved so no good hook ups. Where as away from the boil they were following the lure and had more time to hit it good;)

As with the \"If you dont get blisters, you're not winding fast enough\" I got the blisters:dry: Hard but rewarding work...

Jays

[buzzid]

oh yeah its hard yakka all right. i got a 6.3:1 ratio and wind like buggery. can be a little dangerous if you don't slow up as it nears the boat, have ducked under many a 40grm piece of metal hehehe.

jamie

[chubbstar]

Yeah I've got the same ratio reel. I was slowing down the retrieve some times because the lure was skipping across the top of the water. I found they hit it more when it was just under the surface.

I also started to let it sink a little before retrieving, so I could wind like hell :evil: all the way back to the boat. Next time I'm going to have a go a trawling around the boil, See how that works.:woohoo: