First Crack At Mb Longtails

[timtam_]

G'day everyone,

Before you read this, keep in mind that a Tuna is the pinnacle of angling perfection for Tika. 

Thursday morning the decision was made to go to Moreton, but with reports of whiting few and far between, we were unsure where to target. 

Enter @Luvit. After a quick phone call and some coordination, we followed Wayne (and @Luke Landrunner) at 5am from the Spinnaker Sound Marine around the Southern Corner of Bribie. Really was a beautiful morning and it only got better as the day went on. We stopped at the Beacon just north of the designated swimming area and were presented with huge amounts of bait on the sounder, and some good fishing showing above and below them. A quick drop of the live bait jigs resulted in numerous good size herring, one of which was quickly sent out the back and left in the rod holder. All three of us persisted with slugs and Mick was rewarded with one just legal Mackeral and one just under. 5 minutes later, old mate herring started going nuts on the hook and it wasn't long before i was ripping the rod out of its' holder to set the hook on a very, very, tasty 66cm schoolie. In hindsight, we definitely could have capitalised on the present mackeral by floating some pillies out on gangs, but it didn't cross my mind at the time which I kicked myself for later. Probably around 7am we left the beacon in search of more lure-willing fish. We stopped on a reef in the shipping channel for no interest on our way to the 12m reefs off the North-west corner of Moreton (can anyone help me with the name?). We completed 4 or 5 drifts of a hundred meters of so - only rewarded with a goatfish and two small grassies. From this point we motored to some structureless bottom with 20 other boats, and found this absolute horse! Also got ridiculously closes to a mother whale and her calf - of their own accord. We lost concentration as Wayne and Luke headed around the rocks we were left to fend for ourselves in the big blue. 

In a moment of good fortune, we came across birds as we were heading north east towards the rocks. The tuna (we assumed) were flighty and hard to pinpoint their location. After 10 minutes going around in circles, we got close enough to get a cast in and would you believe it, my 4" Pink Zman was followed all the way to the boat by a longtail which  saw clear as day and estimated to be around 90cm. Another 10 minutes of nail-biting, exhilarating, high-adrenaline casting passed and then Mick saw a big bust up maybe 80m away with at least 30 birds all hitting the water. We got there literally seconds after the action died and in frustration, Mick and I chose not to cast. Well, Tika had since grabbed the plastic rod (which I add is a 2-4kg, with my 2500 Sienna, 15lb braid and 40lb Black magic FC leader). She cast not 15m from the boat and before the bail arm was flipped over, line was rocketing off the spool. The next 30 minutes was mayhem and the GPS showed us going in a 4km circle to chase this fish. We saw it twice, and Mick and I both called longtail around the meter mark. Back and forth, some nervous moments definitely went by. Honestly I knew it was highly unlikely that we would be able to land the fish, and eventually the 40lb leader was cut clean, we don't really now how. we had 80cm of leader and it was cut halfway along. That marked the end of our fish catching as we tried a few more spots with no success. 
 

All in all we had a great day, with many ups and down, but learning nonetheless. My next plan is to take , my 3.8 around the front of Bribie and chase schools of Tuna along the beach... if anyone has any pointers I will be all ears!! 

Cheers & enjoy the snaps. 

86 cm of grinner!

SUPPORTIVE BOYFRIEND.

 

And a sneaky pic of the vessel that will become the tuna hunter. 

 

 

[ellicat]

Good read.

That grinner is enormous, the biggest I've ever seen.

66 is a nice sized schoolie too.

[kmcrosby78]

Ditto what @ellicat said. MASSIVE grinner - can only imagine how big and ugly it was in real life. Makes me wonder how big they get? I'm assuming you have slightly heavier gear options for chasing tuna? Oh and I'm not sure what the minimum size is for goatfish but if you take fish home for a feed it would be worth finding out as I'm pretty sure somewhere along the lines I have heard that they taste great. Good luck on your next tuna quest.

[Old Scaley]

Nice report. Thanks. Those Moreton Bay long tails are incredibly elusive. It might be just me, but I have caught plenty of LTs up north and in Hervey Bay, but have never even hooked one in Moreton Bay despite many hours of chasing skittish schools all over the place. Maybe this year will be the year. 

Huge grinner, too. That is a lot of teeth!

[Angus]

Bummer Tika!!!! 

That will fuel the addiction though!

Angus

[Cody]

Id absolutely love a day out tuna chasing with you!! 

[samsteele115]

Great report mate and not a bad days fishing too! Shame about losing the tuna but I hope you boys learnt a lesson out of that; always have a lure in the water when they stop busting up. Quite often they are still near the surface or in the area and I would say more than half mine or my deckies tuna hookups have been from when the fish go down just like in Tika’s instance. Mac tuna and mackerel especially will cruise around on the surface after a feeding frenzy but longtail tend to go down deeper more often than not,either way get a lure in there.

Old scaley is right. Moreton Bay longtail are a different fish. I'd honestly say catching 1 Moreton Bay longy is equivalent to 5 Hervey Bay ones cos the challenge is next level; bigger smarter flightier fish in smaller pods. Especially this time of year which is off-season for them in the bay but they are here all year round. Larger numbers tend to come in from January to April. A lot of hard work goes into a MB longy so well done on hooking one first go.

Strange you got some of your leader back. Usually I would say your leader was too short and the tail cut the braid but who knows. Sometimes they can just wear through leader but hasn't happened to me on 40lb yet.

Obviously an upgrade in gear is in order if you start targeting themcos tuna on 15lb gear is pretty hard work but having 40lb leader gave you a really good chance so strange it wore through. Anyway I just love these fish as you can tell and look forward to hearing about your next trip

Saw some on the flats yesterday but couldn't find them again after that. Only 1 boated mac tuna in 160km so was a tough day but that's tuna fishing

[Luvit]

It was good effort getting a tuna hooked up on Saturday. I'm not sure on what contributed to a very slow day but even reading fishing professionals reports they also found it tough. After losing her first LT Tika will be all the more over the moon when she lands here very first.

There must have been a few mackerel about that first marker. Luke & I were bitten of 3 times before we headed off to try our luck on the reefies. It was fun day out with great conditions and it was nice to meet the 3 of you. It is a real benefit if we can have a few boats talking to each other on the water, reporting what they are finding. When we were at the cape and got your call we couldn't help but be excited and headed back quickly and didn't really give it a chance. I see a boat got a couple of kingfish there on Saturday.

Our day although very enjoyable was not that productive with  40cm flathead saving the doughnut. Goat fish are a quite a nice tasting fish with a quite a soft flesh.

Well done on your first trip.

[Luke Landrunner]

Great report and as Wayne said it was an enjoyable day. 

Being my first time in that area I learnt heaps. 

Lucky for that flatty.......

[The Mad Hughesy]

argh that report was hard to read...loosing a long tail must suck! next time!

i was out in a hire boat out the front of woorim beach on sunday and didn't see any bust ups around the place. all we managed were a few small winter whiting and a bar tail flatty. If your ever in need of a decky mate late me know. i do miss being out on the water

[Doyley]

What a great report.    Im sure you will turn that tinny into a Tuna Magnet!!

[PA Pete]

Another great report Tim.  Awesome pic's, you're a lucky bloke to have a girlfriend that likes to fish she's a keeper don't throw her back mate!! 

[EZY]

That's a cracker grinner,  havn't seen one that big. nice mackies though, good work. EZY

[timtam_]

Thanks everyone for the replies!! 
 @kmcrosby78, as usual, the big fish decides to hit the only below-capable rod we had on the boat 

@samsteele115 My thoughts exactly on the leader front... I reckon it might've even been sharked. It definitely wasn't worn through, the cut was clean. If the fish was swimming away from the boat, a sharp set of teeth targeting the back end of the fish could've been the problem. @christophagus mate, I'll hit you up when I'm taking her out. 

@Luvit, @samsteele115,  I'll be back out on Sunday, launching at 5 from Spinnaker Sound. Swing me a text on 0467549593 if you two or anybody on here will be around!

 

Tim

[samsteele115]

Yeah shark would definitely make sense 

[Luvit]

Maybe out Sunday, I'll wait to see what the weather is doing. Let you know.

[demarc]

46 minutes ago, Luvit said:

Maybe out Sunday, I'll wait to see what the weather is doing. Let you know.

I'm thinking of heading offshore Wayne. Would be keen to do a cape tag-team trip with you. I fish south down here too often and need to learn northern grounds more. 

[Luvit]

Hi Julian,

i have just sent you a text. I'm no certainty to be fishing this weekend because the wife is away.