Southern Bluefin Tuna 2008 (victoria, australia)

[aok]

I thought i'd share a report from my first tuna trip this season (first week of April '08)

Well they have well and truely arrived at Port MacDonnell SA with a number of fish being caught out at the shelf for a few weeks now...

Had the biggest urge,... just HAD to get out on the water with reports of fish being caught out at the shelf... My mate played matchmaker and Franky and i were trucking up to Port MacDonnell (South Australia) on Saturday night!

fished sunday in glorious conditions. Reports were indicating fish to the west of the 1000m line so we headed directly south until the 1000m line and then trolled NW. As soon as we finished setting the 6th lure 3 rods went off, Albacore tuna! boated one sml fish just under 5kg and Franky attempted to lift my bigger fish and ofcourse the fish came off!

not to worry, continued to troll until we could find birds which we did and thats were the southern bluefin tuna were, double hookup and boated one beauty nudging 30kg. we lost sight of the birds so continued to troll NW, spot a few more birds circling with the odd one diving, as we get closer we see free jumping tuna!!! 6 lures in the water,... BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!! yes a quintuple hookup of bluefin... Frank and I just looked at ourselves as line was peeling off all 5 reels, we settled in with 1 fish each and getting them up to the boat when all of a sudden both fish take massives runs heading down down down, thats when we see big muma seal surface. The fat $%^& latched onto one of the 20kg fish and we were mighty p*ssed!!! boated the other fish and moved on.... shattered but eager to get our bag.

Spot a few more birds and yet again we were greated with jumping tuna... we were pumped for another multi hook up and it came in the form of a quadruple!!! too many fish, not enough hands!!! 4 fish on we boated ALL of them thanks to Frank and released a few as we had our bag, I was stuffed by that stage and had gaffman/killing/bleeding duties... which i LOVE!!!





Cheers

AK

PS. I had another trip last weekend but didnt turn a reel unfortunately... later back at the ramp we found out there were fish caught further down the coast... aaah well, thats fishing!

[islandshark633]

Awesome!

still no YFT to report from Nassau, very late this year, had a report of a few small blackfins but nothing exciting

[FinalPoint]

Sweet job on the tunas. What kind of lures were you pulling?

[Disco Lady]

Good report matey...

[RiskTaker]

AOK:

Thanks for sharing your Tuna fishing adventure.

Now please pass the bowl.

P.S. - If you haven't already seen it by now..... ways not to cook prime Tuna...

Maui Ahi Poke (or Port MacDonnell SA Ahi Poke, if you want to Pirate plunder Bajakian's recipe )

2 lbs Fresh Sushi Grade Ahi tuna
1 small Maui onion-julienne cut
3 Green onions diced
1/2 Tsp freshly grated ginger
3 cloves finely diced garlic
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 Tsp sesame oil
1/2 Tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tsp Chinese Chile Sauce (Rooster brand)
1 Tsp Hawaian sea salt or kosher salt

Now- Cut Ahi into 1/2 inch cubes
Combine all other ingredients in a large glass bowl and refrigerate for 30 mins.
When ready to serve toss Ahi and marinade ingredients together.
Serve on a chilled platter with chopsticks or tooth picks.

Enjoy- Its a winner!!
-----------------------------

[savanna lynn]

i need to eat. nice job on bf

[B767]

Thx .................

[Disco Lady]

Gracias........

[aok]

...will definitely give that recipe a try with the next batch of fresh tuna!

here are pics of the lures that did the damage:

midi-turbojet


kingfish jet {left} Williamson - Sailfish Catcher {right}


Cheers

AK

[islandshark633]

I need to send you some lures.....

[aok]

happy to trial them on the next trip in a few eeks time Alan!!!



AK

[BanannaMan]

Nice job on the toons... sounds like a fun trip. Just glad we don't have any of those #$&@ seals here to worry about. Nice fish guys. Intresting the lures you tagged them with. Great report.

[aok]

A mate of mine who is a more seasoned tuna fisho than myself told me those multicolours are usually dynamite on the Albacore... i keep catching SBT on them and albacore on the SBT gun colours (dark colours, purple/blacks...)

i'm not complaining!

AK