The Mighty Yellowfin Tuna:
At last something to write about…
For weeks I have been hearing about the Yellowfin Tuna off Port Stephens and the Bluefin Tuna well out of reach down South not getting any closer than Kiama. The action well out reach of most Sydney based boats especially since the weather has been less than favourable.
Finally the mighty Yellowfin Tuna at least are getting closer.
I went out on Saturday a little more optimistic than usual because I’d noticed a couple of long liners working wide and North of Broken Bay. Also a warm current pushing down with the break almost within my reach. However I was a little apprehensive also since the weather report was a little bit iffy. We were going anyway, worst case scenario we’d be coming home with the weather best case the bureau was wrong.
We started trolling in 300 fathoms after passing through some very
green water of 18.5 degrees which was a lot better than the 17 at the shelf. There was still very little life , other than Whales and the occasional Albatross in the area. But with still 14 miles to the break. I noticed a blip on the radar, too small for a tanker and too large and far away for a Game boat, possibly a Long Liner. As we got closer to it , about 5 miles away, the water colour changed and warmed then out of the blue a double strike. After a relatively short fight we landed two Yellowfin 25 to 30 kilo’s.
A little hope…
Consequently I worked the area but there was no sign of life, still neither
birds nor bait so I moved on, out towards the Long Liner. After another hour of searching I decided to head back to where we caught the fish. You wouldn’t believe it, we were within a couple of hundred metres off the spot when we had another strike, this one a much bigger fish. After a solid fight that only a Yellowfin Tuna can put up we landed a 50 kilo fish much to the excitement of the crew , as you can hear in the video, who had never caught a Gamefish before.
And so we headed for home, thirty five miles away.
With some luck the current will move in closer and bring with it the Tuna and bait and hopefully some Marlin will follow.
Tight lines,
Ivan
LINKS…
Weather and Sea State :
Buoyweather
Bureau of Meteorology
Radar
Seabreeze
Weatherzone
Weathercams
Ripcharts
C.S.I.R.O.
N.S.W Bluelink
Fishing Tackle :
Pakula Tackle
Global Tackle
Otto’s Tackle
Melton Tackle
Aftco
Campbell’s Pro Tackle
Electronics :
Furuno
Keogh’s Marine Electronics
Olectric Systems
Home…