queensland Bribie Island (Offshore) 6/05

[Terry H]

The mission: The capture and release of a long-tail tuna from a kayak.

The date: 6/05/2008

The location: Off Bribie Island

Arrived at bribie a bit after sunrise, and was greeted by a nice flat bay. Launching was easy, except in my typical style I picked the middle of the set to launch and ended up sitting in a puddle of water until I took some drain plugs out.

Headed up past the beacon and continued for several kilometres in search of some surface bust ups. I had a diving lure on my 8lbs and slug equiped on a suitable 20lbs flick stick. As is the case with bribie, there was a raging current flowing southwards, so the trek up north was a bit slow, Well, slow compared to land, everything in the water flew past:ohmy:

I kept my eyes peeled on any bird activity, carefully watching what just about every bird I could see was doing. A couple of km up the beach (as I was getting close to this spot) I noticed one bird was circling one area, then another came, and left, then 3 would come.. Must be a lot of bait around here I think to myself. Something must be about to happen I think, hoping for a huge bust up of longtails

As I approached I saw bait scatter everywhere with some predators hot on their heels. Awesome, some surface action! I was a little disappointed though, I knew it wasn't my target species, the LT Tuna, but action is action. What exactly it was at this stage I wasn't sure, I was hoping it would be a small school of mac tuna. I fired out my slug and began cranking it back as fast as I could.

Bam!

:woohoo:

hmm, am I on? I keep cranking it in.. definitely heavier than just the slug, but its no fight on 20lbs!

A pure skull drag and this boy came to the yak:

oh well, at least it's some action, the tuna will come eventually. By this stage I decide I'll try a larger buzz bait in this action, see if that works at all, flick that out on my 8lbs and begin cranking that up... but no action with that

By this stage I didn't realise I'd drifted a good 100m down the beach, and the tailor are now back up the beach ;(

Oh well, I decided to skip past them and go looking for those sneaky Tuna.

After a while I got bored so decided to check out a spot on the beach. Naturally, i picked the largest section to land - couldn't be bothered dragging my yak 50m along the beach, so landed on this section. This 100m of beach was the only section with 2ft dumpers, everywhere else was flat... Although, I was lazy and just used the peddles, and peddled in just on the top/back of a wave. Cool that was easy, loving the speed:)

Anyway it doesn't take long and what do you know? there's a smash up occuring about 100m out. Definitely mac tuna this time... So I quickly drag the yak to the water, and of course - wanted to try and wait for the right moment so I didn't get too wet. I noted these guys are slowly heading north, sweet I think! Jumped in, and typical of me just cuaght the set and filled the seat area up with water again Oh well, Crap.. those macs are going out to sea now, and at a decent rate I started to peddle over as fast I could but they stopped busting up whatever it was on the surface..

Damn, missed 'em. I hung around for a while to see if they would surface again but it wasn't to be.

So now the long 5kmish paddle back to the launch site, and of course, the current has changed and now that current is roaring northwards. Geez, why can't it ever go the way I want to go? So instead of flying back to the launch area it was a slower peddle back.

Still, not a single bird visibly working the surface, I passed quite a few sitting in the water or on the beacon. Clearly not a day for Longtails

Reentry was easy again, just gunned it in on the back of a wave. easy as. although at the launch site itw as prett flat so you'd have trouble rolling it

I'll be back - Hopefully when some LTs are around.. unless someone knows where in the bay they are?

[Stinger]

Sounds like it was a good day for a bit of exercise.

Still beats being at work.

[kriso]

bad luck mate you get one soon!

[benno573]

mate i went out to moreton and back yesterday and did not see a single tuna bust up. i saw one bust up which turned a very similar result to yours (mine was bigger though ) but other than that absolutely nothing. we usually see a few schools around the shipping channels, nothing. so it's not just you mate.

however, i was up the sunny coast with the mrs on saturday and saw heaps of bust ups off caloundra head out near bray rock and fairway buoy, definately longtails (they were coming out of the water). maybe the bait has moved north a bit?

[Terry H]

Yeah, I can't help them not being around. All I can do is keep hitting the bay when possible. Sooner or later I'm going to get in amongst a school and then I'll be able to bag myself one

Btw, I thought being in the middle of a school of tailor busting up bait fish was pretty sweet. I've been in the middle of a small school of LTs busting up (last year) before and that was cool. Not as epic as some of Lee's stories (which involved much larger and densely packed schools)..

This time I'm prepared (not trying to throw slugs with 2000 sized reels lol) with adequate gear for slug slinging.

PS: Lol @ my report...

i'd hate to see what I write when I actually bag a good tuna... I think it'll be a small novel.

[Terry H]

I dunno Benno, I think someone said they saw LTs out the mouth of brissy river, might have been cowfish that said this?

[Jordan]

haha unlucky mate, ive been looking foward to this report all day, its only a matter of time before you get one!

[Terry H]

I might head out saturday, not sure yet.

[benno573]

weather won't be quite as good next weekend unfortunately...:dry: however, the tides will be smaller!!! :laugh:

it could just be because of the amount of boat traffic as well - could have spooked them all out wide. tangalooma yesterday was insane. one good thing was there was some white pointers about...

[Rocket75]

Don't worry about the length of the report, depsite the lack of target species it was a good read.

If nothing else you got some good clean exercise and enjoyed yourself.

Better luck will be yours next time (perpetual fisherman's mantra)

Rocket

[mangler]

Pity about no tuna, still the report was a good read mate. Better luck next time.

Just remember a bad days fishing beats a good days work anyday.

Cheers,

Matt

[pcsolutionman]

its ok mate u want someone there to take a good pic anyhow :)

Lee

[Terry H]

I think next time I'll head a couple of km offshore, I probably stuck to within 1km of the beach today, but didn't see any action on the horizon - which would be about 3km away.

Oh, I almost hooked up to one of those BIG black and grey birds. - not the ones with the white heads, the bigger ones

Was ripping my slug through the water when it bomb dived for it, picked it up , I felt the weight of the bird , after a tug or two it dropped it and buggered off lol

[werewolf]

lol at the bird story

keep at it Terry, the sushifest awaitsB)

[ellicat]

Are you sure the tailor weren't the bait fish ?:ohmy: :laugh:

[batman]

Terry - PM me next time you want to chase some serious fish! I am always up for Tuna!