Longtail tuna

PICKING up where I left off last month on my week-long live-aboard Swain Reefs charter trip with Carlo Fishing Charters, we’d just wrapped up an incredible morning of fishing a glassed-out Great Barrier Reef. This unreal start to the fishing had us salivating, but not for lunch, rather to get back out in the dories and catch more epic fish! …

HI all, I hope everyone has been getting stuck into a few fish since last month’s edition of BNB. I have been taking full advantage of the Easter school holidays, enjoying fishing in both local and out of town destinations. I recently had my first experience of the bluewater fishing options at Hervey Bay with good mates Mitch and Josh. …

AS I predicted last month, April saw longtail tuna, jewfish and tailor dominate catches along the Iluka/Yamba breakwalls and most of the headlands here on the mighty Clarence Coast of Northern NSW. Catches of spanish mackerel from the walls have come to a grinding halt, however given the large numbers of tuna about, they would have to be quicker than …

FINALLY southeast Queensland has got some much-needed rain and relief from the heat and wind. Dropping water temperatures and the influx of fresh water should fire up the prawns and fish over the coming month and make for great fishing. Tuna Longtail tuna have improved in numbers and regularity, feeding off the surface throughout Moreton Bay since cyclone Oma. Unfortunately, …

THE wind continues, but it has settled a bit. With the prevailing wind coming from the east, we’ve beem able to get out and catch fish. Plenty of bait has moved in closer to the shores of Fraser Island and it’s not too small, predominantly being white anchovies and blue pilchards. The dominant successful lures have been soft plastics and …

IN the build-up to winter, the Bundaberg area was experiencing little to no good weather for offshore fishing, and when a weekend finally arose, other commitments prevented me from heading out. But at long last a weekend came along when nothing stood in the way and once Friday night arrived, the boat was packed and the alarms set for the …

THE land-based longtail tuna and mackerel season came to a grinding halt mid-May after a couple of days of howling westerly wind followed by large 3-4m swells that lasted for several days. Sure, you may still be in with a chance of a land-based longtail tuna off the walls and headlands during June, however I would take a good supply …

Adults will be competing to take out a variety of fish categories including snapper, pearl perch, mulloway, tailor, kingfish/cobia, amberjack/samson fish, whiting, bream, blackfish and flathead. Cadets can target the usual estuary suspects of flathead, whiting and bream. All fish are to be alive when pictures of the fish are taken on a brag mat approved by the organisers. Brag …

It had been a long time since I’d caught decent size pelagic fish and I’d forgotten just how much fun it is to have your line-burning retrieve stopped in its tracks as a super-fast sportfish takes off in the other direction with your lure in its mouth. Having not previously caught mackerel on anything heavier than 10lb gear, I was …