15th Jun 2009
bluefin comming and fin here
Exciting times
Well what a wild season. Last year I was catching heaps of tuna at this time, yet this year it is all kings. I have been focusing on the inshore reefs off Sydney and have been nailing some great fish up to around 10kilos. Jigging has been producing a majority of the fish, but the livies have been getting the biggest fish. I hooked a real monster on a reef pinnacle in 25 metres that smashed me. Fishing a Saltiga loaded with 100pound braid I hooked up on a yakka and applying huge pressure I managed to get him out of the reef and for a moment I even thought I might land it. But all hopes of success vanished as it dragged me unceremoniously back to the reef, the pressure was so great the fish actually dragged the 2 ton Strikezone around as it went – now that is a big king!
There have also been a few fish on the wider reefs for the jigging brigade. Scotty Thorrington (www.kingfishjigging.com) has been scoring consistently on the jigs along the hundred metre line. He is certainly finding a lot of school sized fish around 4kg but is still managing a metre long fish on most trips. Down south Montague Island as well as Green Cape have been producing some good fishing too.
Tuna down south
I recently spent a few days down at Bermagui for the Canberra Yellowfin Tournament. On the day we arrived a sensational 94kg yellowfin was taken trolling due east on the edge. We found a few patches of tuna working under gannets, but try as we might but all we ended up hooking were marlin!
There is some good water forming down south at Bermi and in the last week some huge fish have been caught including a staggering 97kg fin. There are also reports of lots of fish in the 30-40kg range so things are looking up.
Up off Sydney there have also been some reports of fish around Browns. As expected cubing is the main producer. Even though it is a late season I expect the tuna fishing will continue to improve over the next month.
Bluefin head up the coast
Tassie's run of bluefin continues off at Eagle Hawk Neck. Sammy Muscat has caught more than dozen big fish down there this season and even when he went to pick up his boat he topped it off with one more!
Portland is still producing smaller school sized fish but the good news is they are in much closer which means you don’t need a big boat to get into the action. There was a 100 plus kilo fish caught out of Warnambool the other day but I suggest you are quick because the season will start to wrap up soon.
For those who want to keep in the bluefin action then NSW will fire this winter. A heap of bluefin run up the east coast every season and they are already past Bermagui. As everyone knows I love catching big bluefin so I am heading down soon to tangle with these heavyweights.
Teaming up with the longliners
Last month I spoke about teaming up with the commercial guys to defend our right to fish and I have been overwhelmed by the response from a majority of anglers. The odd fool has carried on about them stealing our fishing but as a whole anglers have realised that the battle lines have changed and now with Garrett on his high horse about locking up the Coral Sea there has never been a better time to stick it to them.
I recently fished aboard the Jordan Kate skippered by Shane Ralph. This boat copped a hiding on the fishing forums because of an interaction that occurred off Jervis Bay in March. Shane specialises in tuna and has been chastised for targeting marlin once. I am sick of the gamefisho’s blaming the pros when should be working with them to protect our right to fish. It is time to put our petty differences aside and start working together because believe after fishing with Shane for a week I am a better angler.
What was really interesting was the fact that we caught yellowfin to 85kg, bluefin and bigeye to 90kg, as well as a heap of albies all inside the 1000 fathom line. While the recreational boats caught marlin we caught swordfish, believe me we have a lot to learn from the pros. It is time to work together because at the end of the day we are all just fisho’s!
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