Brendan Monks

Some more pics of the day. 🤙🍻 Cheers, Brendo

My first report so I'll try my best Raiders! 🤞 The weather was looking perfect for Saturday to finally try have a crack at a Yellowfin Tuna topwater I heard a lot were getting into. Family commitments stopped this as usual and I finally got home at 10:00pm. I could see Sundays forecast was looking even better for a shot, and we wanted to beat this big Southerly coming up so I tried to not let it worry me. 😂 Saturday night we heard it went off out of Swansea where we were planning to go (Yes, Very f@*#d off!), but we decided last minute to make the journey to Jervis Bay and chase Bluefin Tuna as it’s something we have talked about every season. It’s been 2 years since I’ve hooked and landed one of these beasts, but the confidence levels were very high! I arrived at my mates place at 1:50am and loaded the boat ‘Gomez’ for the 4 hour trip South, picking up another 2 mates on the way. Arriving at the ramp it looked choppy in close but we knew it was gonna die off mid-morning and launched with anticipation! OK the juicy bits…We decided to finally stop 55kms from the ramp in 2600m of water and proceeded to set the riggers etc. up ready for trolling. We had the usual 10-15 min discussion of what rods placed where (Running Talicas and 50W’s) and what lure colour/shape and position to set these in. 😂 We finally agreed 1 Talica run in shotgun set back 100m as it holds a lot of braid, and the other in short corner as this is where we have had previous Tuna bites, with the 50W’s in all the other positions (5 rods in total) and a mixture of soft plastics, skirts and hard bodies. We had been trolling for only approx. an hour whilst conditions were slowing glassing out and come across some marks on the sounder. “We’re on” was the call as soon as we saw the sounder and I managed to get the GoPro recording. 2 seconds later the tag line on long rigger pulled tight snapping the band and the rod buckled under 8kg of drag. We let this run for a couple of seconds hoping to get another bite! Sure enough, short corner buckled over under 12kg of drag followed by the tagline flinging back on short rigger as another soft plastic was smashed!!! We made the call to clear the spread as we had 4 MOB. One of my mates was rushing to get shotgun rod out of the binmi holders to avoid tangles when it is almost pulled from his hands as another beast smashes the bullet!! (All on video) Me and my mates jumped on a rod each while one drove the boat, with a small 20-25kg fish swimming boatside in a matter of minutes. Expecting all the other fish to be the same size (As normally is in tuna schools) we hoped to get the 3 other fish in quickly and released to keep trolling, chasing the 100kg + fish we were here for! Not complaining! After 20-30 mins and still no sign of coming up we all agreed the other fish had to have a bit more size. Eventually we have 2 fish slowly coming to the surface, not sure what fish to concentrate on, One starts the ‘Death circle’ and veers around the outboard tangling a line in the process! Two tangled lines quickly turns to three (Lucky it is all mono) and they both decide to take another run! F$@#K! Some quick thinking and we back two rods down to minimal drag in the hope to land at least one, whilst trying to untangle as line is disappearing deep fast. 15 mins later we have the first of the bigger fish estimated at 50kg swimming boatside, quickly followed by another of approx. the same size. As we lift him over his tail hits the drag lever to freespool resulting in a massive birds nest on the rod still hooked up, we slowly idled off the last fish clearing the tangle expecting to have lost it, but we come tight again. Pheeww! Another 20mins goes by and my mate passes over the rod after it slowly surfaces (He is now onto the second fish since hookup), we struggled to gain any line on this fish but finally comes within gaff range, I calmly gaff this fish in the mouth which is a lot larger then the others! We get him on deck and all hell breaks loose, we covered his eye to settle him before despatching and bleeding it humanely to get the best eating sashimi. All fish are in by 12:30pm with high fives and pictures all round. A beautiful run in back to the ramp, watching whales off the cliffs of JB feeding. An awesome day creating memories with mates, something we’ve talked about for years finally coming true, making it better going 4 from 4 with our first run this season! Somehow we muck around and I finally got home at 2:30am after cleaning and dropping off the boat. Biggest fish went 73.4kg. Yeeeww. Tight lines! 🤙 Cheers, Brendo

Hey Ice Breaker, msg me anytime on 0439 880 341. I have game fished the last 4 years and have all the gear, I don't mind travelling and I'd pay my way for fuel of course. 🤙 Cheers, Brendo

Hey Raiders, I'm 26 years of age and used to be on the forum 4-5 years ago but forgotten my login. lol I currently live on the Central Coast and fish either out of Broken Bay or Terrigal on a dark blue 21ft SeaSwirl Striper centre console 'The Panty Dropper', but travel from Port Stephens to Kiama depending where the good currents/water is. I have fished with a few young lads that frequent this forum, and put some of them onto their 'Firsts' - When are we fishing again? 😉😂 I have fished for as long as I can remember, originally introduced to fishing by my uncles fishing areas like Cronulla, Wollongong etc. beach & rock fishing. I was really into my yak fishing 8-10 years ago until I purchased a small Formosa centre console. Love all types of fishing (Currently have the Hairtail bug) but my heart is game fishing out wide, catching the bug 5 years ago hooking 4 Marlin and a good Dollie the first day (Yes, I now know what a doughnut is!) 😆 For a crust I am a sales assistant selling Modular Homes, so the fishing window is usually only weekends or night times unless I see a good day coming up. I look forward to adding reports (Fingers Crossed!) and learning a lot more from this site. Look forward to seeing you on land, or the water. Tight lines. Yeeeewww 🤙🍻 Cheers, Brendo