Mono (uno) spanglie and acres of tuna

[kmcrosby78]

Headed offshore at first light on Sat morning with my dad, two of my brothers and one nephew. Crossed the flat South Passage Bar about 5:30am and headed straight to a ledge my brother found last year that has produced pearlies and snapper. On the way I saw a couple of tuna breach just outside the bar, plenty of birds flying around and my brother driving the boat thinks he saw a marlin. Interesting .
 

Opted against potentially wasting time gathering livies to optimise the early bite - sadly this plan failed as the current was very strong (even with a sea anchor out) and we drew a blank. 

The wind was stronger than forecast (constant 15knots from the south east) so instead of going to the Cathedrals area next (were also worried about the current) we opted to check out the Sevens Reef (pretty sure we haven’t fished it before). 
 

Quite a few other boats had the same idea so we did some short drifts and were impressed by the amount of structure- definitely worth some more exploration. I changed from my 50lb braid floatlining rig to a @tugger special 25lb mono floatlining rig with a strip of mullet and two hooks. Got busy/distracted (eating from memory) and all of a sudden my reel is screaming. The fish did two screaming runs before I got to it and I was concerned the 25lb line wouldn’t be up to the task. Luckily it was and soon enough up popped a large fish that at first I thought was a snapper before we realised it was a 71cm spangled emperor (pretty sure it’s a first for me).

We didmy get any more runs so decided to head back inside the bay to try for some mackerel but on the way to the bar we found some tuna so had fun with them for an hour or so with huge schools popping up everywhere and nowhere near as flighty as they are inside the bay. We caught about ten tuna, with at a guess 6 skipjacks and 4 Mack tuna (my vagueness is due to rushing home to get ready for the Broncos game - @ellicat, great game …. ). Saw a few large splashes that indicated some larger predators were in the area (no surprise there) and I also caught a large long tom that engulfed my metal slug as soon as it landed - angry little bugger ….  We put my nephew into quite a few and he fought them well mostly and also got lucky with two being tail-wrapped which made for an easy fight. 
 

Good day on the water (and start to school holidays for me and the kids ) and plenty of fillets. We had some of the skipjacks as sashimi which was ok - we didn’t have wasabi which would be a nice addition. Had the spanglie just fried in a pan and taste was nice. Quite a meaty fish (tougher texture probably partly due to size) but I certainly wouldn’t throw them back. Dad is going to smoke the back tunas and I will do some of the skipjacks in or with a stir fry.  
 

Almost forgot to add that the bar was as flat as on the way back in so we circled around the Rufus King wreck to check it out. Also came across two tuna schools in the Rous Channel but couldn’t tempt them.

Thanks for reading .

[kmcrosby78]

[ellicat]

Good to see you getting out on the water and coming home with a feed. I would have stayed longer, knowing it would be/was the worst game of the round.

 

 

 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Great work @kmcrosby78, that’s a big Spangly. Those tuna would’ve been lots of fun too.

Hamish

[Angry51]

Good effort Kel.

Looks a bit choppy out there.

Some good chewing in that lot.

[Old Scaley]

Looks like a top day out Kelvin. You had better do something special for your boys to make up for them not getting out with you. Hope you, and all the others who depend on school holidays to get out for a fish, have some good weather and great fishing over the break. Catch up soon, mate!

[GregOug]

Nice Spangled KB.

[kmcrosby78]

5 hours ago, ellicat said:

Good to see you getting out on the water and coming home with a feed. I would have stayed longer, knowing it would be/was the worst game of the round.

 

 

 

Don't be too disheartened Brian, your mob have potential to become a quite good touch team ............ .

[kmcrosby78]

4 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Looks like a top day out Kelvin. You had better do something special for your boys to make up for them not getting out with you. Hope you, and all the others who depend on school holidays to get out for a fish, have some good weather and great fishing over the break. Catch up soon, mate!

Cheers Steve. Liam had the option to come but is a bit gun shy after a couple of lumpy trips where he got seasick. George is keen but with 5 already in the boat and a Broncos game that night I opted to keep his powder dry ......  Hopefully get out a couple of times next week and chase some mackerel in the bay - sounds like the spotties are currently on the surface. 

[ellicat]

20 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

have potential to become a quite good touch team

Not even....

...but look out for the Tigers in the NRLW.

[kmcrosby78]

2 hours ago, ellicat said:

Not even....

...but look out for the Tigers in the NRLW.

Is that where they’re moving them to …… if so then yes, I reckon they’ll be quite competitive ….

[Bob9863]

Looked like a great day out on the water.

[Junky]

Nice spangled.

I used to throw them back years ago. Got told they weren't the best on the fork. 

Well that's total nonsense. 

 

They do have smelly guts so maybe that's what started that wives tail, but that firmer flesh (smaller models are the same) makes the best fish to use in curries etc, and filleting keeps the gut smells away. 

 

You should have been pegging plastics around Rufus. I pulled a big snap off it last time I was out there with weather like that. 

[Rebel]

Top report.

Super photos.

[benno573]

missed this one - looks like a top day out mate.  have pulled quite a few good fish off the sevens reef when i fished out there, definitely worth another look and a good sound around.  like all spots, boat traffic can kill it.

the striped tuna are great pan fried to about medium with a bit of sesame oil drizzled on just before serving.