PB Longtail

[Miller 197]

Longtail tuna is one of those species that sits very high on my bucket list of fish to catch, and Saturday I ticked longies off the list.

After reading almost all of the tuna related posts on here I have set out a few times in hope to catch one, but I only ever seem to find mac tuna schools

Saturday my dad, brother and I left the ramp and headed to Moreton to find some mackerel, we spent about an hour at one beacon getting some livebait and throwing some lures, resulting in a couple decent schoolies, We then went to this other beacon that we haven't fished before and there must have been about 15 boats around it! We anchored on the outer edge of the mass of boats and I floated a livie out the back. It wouldn't have been about any more then 5 minutes and the baitrunner started singing.

I clicked the baitrunner into gear and set the hooks and wow... This thing went so fast and hard straight out the back taking about 200 yards on its first run. The fight was on a 8000 baitrunner with 30lb braid 30lb leader. Our initial call was for a shark because it was sitting right up in the water column and we could see it splashing around right ontop which didn't really seem tuna-ish. After this first run we pulled the pick and got some line back. The fight probably lasted 40 minutes with the tuna calling terms the whole time. By the time it got to the boat the fish was absolutely buggered and had both hooks pretty deep down so we decided to bring it in and keep it for a feed.

Highfives around as soon as it hit the deck. We measured it and it went 124 cm. I would have loved to know the weight but we don't own a set of scales.

Im already planning out next trip after getting the boat back from trymax. Hoping to get one on a lure

After this we went to tangalooma for a swim and then went back to the same beacon and had some fun with a large school of leaping bonito which were fun to catch on the light stuff.

Afterwards we headed back to manly with the bay practically glassed out

[samsteele115]

Mate that's awesome. It is hard to understand their power until you've hooked one hey. Good fun. They taste good too!

And thats a bloody big fish for your first! 17-20kg would be my guess.

See you out on the water

[tunafreak]

Nice Longie mate......they usually weigh around 16-17 kg at that length so Sam wasn't to far off with his estimate.

[Miller 197]

They have so much power and don't give up! I felt out gunned with 30lb gear, don't know how people catch them on 20 and 15lb gear!

[samsteele115]

Nice Longie mate......they usually weigh around 16-17 kg at that length so Sam wasn't to far off with his estimate.

I over estimated like usual. Im just a typical fisherman :whistle:

[bersim]

Awesome size for your first tuna!!! Once you get one on a lure you'll never want to go back to bait again!

James

[Luvit]

Congratulations great fish, it is so good they can be caught all different ways. They all fight hard.

[kmcrosby78]

Cracker longie for your first mate, congrats. Bet you're glad it didn't head for all the other boats!! You'll get plenty of feeds off that - try some grilled on the barbie with olive oil, salt & pepper and some thyme. Yum!!

[Miller 197]

Yeah it was lucky it headed out to open water. That sounds pretty yum, we will have to give it a crack next batch

[Miller 197]

Is it unusual for a longie to fight on the surface?

[tunafreak]

No not unusual, some fight up top others go deep and most commonly they'll do a bit of both......

[Angus]

That is an awesome effort mate well done!

Angus