queensland Longtail 15/03

[sehrguht]

Took a mate out early this morning with a plan of finding some longtail and getting him onto his first, went to a spot in the bay and found a few kingfish first, nothing huge mostly rat amberjack and a couple 65cm size kingfish. After that action died off we had a bit of a drive around and found a few longies coming up very briefly.

A little bit longer and they were holding up just long enough to get to them and punch a cast out. With one or two other boats chasing them there was little competition and we found that trying to stay close at low RPM then flogging it when they busted up to get within casting distance rewarded us.

After a couple of schools went by without hookups we went and hit a pylon for mackeral when a longie free jumped next to the boat my mate was very quick to cast on it and got a solid screaming hookup. What played out next was hilarious for me with his arms copping a decent workout. after around 15-20mins a nice longtail pops up and lands nicely in the net.

Next up we worked hard to get close to some schools and eventually my mate hooked up again, another gruelling fight and 10mins in the leader wears through, a bit strange considering it was 40lb but at least he got the first one in.

The schools started thickening up and we could get multiple casts in on some now, driving hard towards a big school i drop the throttle and launch a cast nice and long into the mix. A nice hit subsurface with a sloosh of white water and its on. With 35lb main i tried to make the fight as short as possible to release the fish in good condition and try and keep me from fatigue.

around 10mins later a nice longtail around 10-12kg hits the net.

Good day on the water but after this they just wouldnt hit a lure so we called it quits so we could have an arvo nap before the evening.

[tunafreak]

Nice work sehrguht, it is actually quite common to pop 40 lb leader on Lt's, we even pop 60 lb on occasion....

It was pretty insane out there today, we had spotties, Lt's and sharks smashing anything we threw at them all day, we even had a few spaniards bite us off and saw some big GT's......crazy stuff...

[RUSSIAN]

Man that's awesome guys! Good stuff.

I should have got out today... stupid school work!!

Any ideas on how long the pelagics are likely to hang around in the bay? I got exam block coming up in 2 weeks and got the last friday (28/3) completely free! Maybe it might be worth one last shot for some longies, spotties and schoolies?

I am dead keen

Anthony

[Terry H]

Nice work! Beautiful looking fish

It's not quite 40 or 60lbs, but I've worn through 30lbs on a mac tuna that was pushing a metre - it was a beast with considerably less colour/patterns on its back and had engulfed the slug. I had fought it for half an hour (20lbs main) and had it excruciatingly close to the boat a number of times. Nothing worse than seeing it sit up on the surface, exhausted ready to be scooped into the net - a foot outside of net range and then push back down as it gets that fraction closer. That is the only one that has ever worn through for me, and pretty much all other tuna have never even touched the leader. Considering the speed, power and weight they have quite a nasty mouth for leaders. The lucky point is that the majority of hook ups occur reasonably cleanly, with the slug, jighead or lure shielding your line from their mouth. My point being it's not as common (for leaders to wear through) but it's the occasional deep hook ups that will spell trouble.

More likely an issue if hooking into BIG tuna with little lures.

Anthony, they can be there one day, gone the next...

[BlueBoy]

Cracking fish guys. Seems like you're consistently into 'em.

[goulza]

Some nice longies mate,

I was out there myself and seen a few aerial tuna on the way back from Tangalooma but I didnt have a setup to get onto them.

I managed to see 2 sharks out in the bay yesterday and after fishing out in the bay for 1 year now and not having seen one before I was very suprised.

The first was a very large shark (longer than my 3 metre jetski) on the shallow sand flats about 3km south off Tangalooma, and the second shark was on the surface on the eastern side of Mud Island but was smaller at around 2 metres.

I am assuming the bigger shark would have been a tiger and the smaller one may have been a bronze whaler as it looked to have a longer nose than a bull shark.

Do any of you guys see sharks in the bay often?...It was my first trip over to Moreton so I just assume they are very commonly sighted over there but the size of that beast had me hesitant to jump in the water at the wrecks

[grantbudd74]

Never had a leader wear through (bitten off) but after a 2 hour battle on a 3-5kg rod and 15lb braid and a 2ft length of 30lb leader I got the Tuna of all time along side the boat and it was over a meter long and as thick as your waist! With no net or gaff. My mate tried to tail grab it and it took off! On hour 2 the hook broke! Gutted....:-)

[Luvit]

The conditions look fantastic and so do the fish.

That first photo of the LT with the sparkle from the sun on its head looks awesome.