Runty66

Product: Ecogear ZX40
Type: Vibe
preferred colour: #419
Price: $18-$20
Quality:Great!
Action: Vibe with a great action on the drop
Experience: Been using these vibes for a fair while now and I am slowly gathering a good range of species together! The best part of this blade is the way it falls on the drop: Instead of plummeting to the bottom, it falls at a nice rate that hangs in the fishes face for just that second longer than a normal blade does! The best tip I can think of for using this blade, is always watch your line as the blade is sinking. The slightest "twitch" should be met with a firm strike as those little hooks need to be in nice and deep for a good hook hold!

Product: TT HeadLock Jighead
Type: Jighead
Colour: Black Chrome finish
Price:$7.50
Quality: unreal!
Experience: Awesome! While i was up in Hervey Bay I was using them a lot on tuna and other sorts of fish, the amount of fish you can catch on the one plastic without it falling off in insane! you can pretty much use the same plastic all day without issues.
Pictures:
[attachment=62985]Hookupshot.JPG[/attachment]

Ill get some pictures up tonight of the Nordic family and their kids all called Stella

My babies!!!

what about an axe to the back of the head through the backbone?

My preference is the exact opposite with the jig heads lol - but we all have our own favourites

These are my go to Tuna plastics, all listed are 4" except the bottom one which is 5" for reference point on size.

P.S I'm not affiliated with the brand anymore so it's not a shameless plug, but they are dynamite on Tuna

what an awesome post :cheer: just thought I would add my 2 cents. I agree that the best place to find longies and the like is where there is somewhere for them to round up bait against, e.g reef edges, cliff faces, drop offs, man-made structure etc. Unlike some of the others, I use slugs alot of the time mainly because of the fact that they cast a mile so you don't have to get as close to the school. This means the tuna are less likely to spook and will stay up for longer giving you a chance to get more casts in the vicinity of the school. The best 'all rounder' size for me is around the 14g mark. As Terry said gillies baitfish and R2S sea rocks are the top brands but the trebles do need changing for any decent sized fish. In saying that, plastics are a lot more fun and are also really effective. Anything transparent is definitely the go to 'match the hatch', but when all else fails, it’s sometimes a good idea to chuck out something a bit different and this can entice a reaction bite. Something like a 5-7 inch plastic in a wicked colour such as bright orange or green has worked for me. Really keen to get into the longies on the plastics more often and get my first one in the bay!! :side:

Lures:
I have switched to plastics of late - 5" plastics work a treat spun along the surface. Not too fast, not too slow, just the speed to keep them on the surface (or just under) with the tails doing a seductive wiggle.

Slugs, I only use Gillies Pillies (25g) or Sea Rock 25gs - they're almost identical slugs. Not the long thin gillies. Why do I use these? I do most of my fishing at Caloundra and these two slugs match the hatch. They're not close, they're identical. The only thing with these slugs are they can't be cranked in at high speed as they'll do nothing but a helicopter - and helicopters dont catch fish. You also need to upgrade the trebles, as the stock ones are very thin wire and will bend easily.


As others have mentioned, don't drive into a school. You can do that on a kayak, but not in a boat. We never turn the motor off, we always leave it idling. As others have suggested, the biggest thing for Tuna I have found is a change in noise. Run a long side the tuna, if they're a little flighty try keeping them near your max casting range.

Most of the longtails I've caught are not in big schools. Sure, you get schools of them occasionally, in which case I've found they're usually the ones that don't stay up on the surface for long, so you really need to pay attention to moving with the school and preempting where they will appear. Others have nailed it on the head regarding predicting which way the tuna will move.

As for the schools, most schools you will see are Mac Tuna, however dont let this put you off. Casing to the edges is the key around these, as I have found most schools of mac tuna, particularly the bigger schools will have longtails around the fringes. Cast ahead of the school or around the sides. Casting into the middle can be a great way to get something on the scoreboard, but it will probably be a Mac Tuna. I'm not going to write off big mac tuna though - I almost landed one mac tuna that would have been just over a metre (definitely over 90), and I must say - For their size, Mac tuna are much stronger and harder fighters. Why did I not land this one? Most Longtails I land on 20lbs are 15-25 minutes. This thing fought me for over 30-35 minutes. Unfortunatelly the slug was hooked a little deeper than normal, and instead of the metal slug rubbing on the tuna teeth my leader was... I eventually just got worn through

Most longtails I have caught have not been in the schools, but have been more isolated fish. You will find schools spread out over vast distances, with a few tuna poping up all over the place. Apparently they do this at Bribie a fair bit as well, and the tuna are more pushing the bait up against the island and then charging up and down picking off any stray fish. Brays Rock is another location you will see this. Trolling is one easy way to pick them up here, but

As Tugger pointed out, there are no secret spots really. Tuna will almost always hold in the same areas though - I assume its to do with bait.

Just inside Rooney Point in Hervey bay, The bay around Mooloolaba, Just south of point cartwright, around Brays rock at Caloundra and just off Bribie are a few common spots.

As for casting - another thing I have noted on the plastics (more so than slugs) is even after a school stops, or you think a school has passed, or as Tugger said - just before the school pops up, you are still in with a good chance on the plastics. Nothing better than casting out, watch the school drop, thinking you've missed them and having the rod damn near ripped out of your hand while getting blasted on the surface.

I have found plastics provide a lot more entertainment than the slugs - slugs never seem to get much of a surface strike, maybe a bit of a swoosh, but nothing compared to watching three longtails hack and slash their way through the water before erupting once hooked.

I don't think its often they come that far in mate, I think it was more to do with the water at the time - from memory it was when we were well and truly in a dry spell.

It was the normal bust ups and birds working...

Except bust ups right up against boats with tugs working etc.

Just proves (to me) that NOISE isn't the thing that puts Tuna off on the water... Something shuts them down, and is related to noise...but not necessarily noise in general.

Runty: I just made an edit to my original post re distances.

I have seen them in the Brisbane River, and did catch 3 70-80cm mac tuna in the river one year. Jeff F's avatar/display pic is of a 70-75cm mac tuna caught around the same time I got 3 in the river.

Most of my fishing though is out of Caloundra.

hahahahah!!

Fine use 40lb Fluro so when u hook up your in with a chance or if you ask for advice and are given advice take it in cos they actually catch fish

Maybe you should take up pottery instead, fishing doesn't seem to be your thing. Then again maybe pottery isn't either as you need patience for both.

mate I know of a few fish caught around there on the weekend, maybe its just what you're doing. what are you using?

Geez Kev that dog got hit hard with the ugly stick.