YFT from stones

[Marto]

Just wondering what time of year is best to spin for some tuna from the rocks, will be fishing mostly rock ledges from Sydney to jervis Bay? Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[rickmarlin62]

the longtails havnt reached forster yet...the good water pushing down has hit a cold patch from crowdy down..saying that yft can turn up any time..we got 3 yft over 45 kg in one day livebaiting Winnie bay years ago was on xmas eve and the water was 19 deg ..there were striped tuna in hard on the rocks..lots of bait..epic day with over a dozen yft and longtails caught...I carried the biggest back to the bottom carpark and it went 48kg 10hrs after being caught...not sure where you can still fish at jervis but we spun up tuna after xmas most years at eves and beecroft...rick

[Marto]

Cheers for the advice @rickmarlin62! Also wondering about a suitable outfit was looking at the demonblood 962MH matched with a saltist 5000 running 30lb braid, would this be a good combo?

[xerotao]

I would up the braid to 50lb

other than that good combo for livies and lures

[rickmarlin62]

sounds like a good combo..trouble is there are so many rods n reels to choose from these days..for spinning you are better off going 10/11 foot   .bit more punch and extra length for keeping lures off the rocks..rick

[PaddyT]

Havent been to many yellowfin caught off the rocks Sydney south in the last 20 years, reckon that little fruit tree is long dead. I havent fished LBG  for about 8 years now but the little snippets I do hear tell me this- still good runs of Longtails Port Stephens - north, occasionally as far south as Sydney later in the season (March/April), you still hear of the odd one caught at places like Avoca but the pillie tossers getting busted up is a good indication they are around. J Bay is the home of the summer marlin run these days, the occasional rat yellowfin does get picked up on the north coast as well. I used to spin most of my longtails on the north coast with 25lb nylon on an overhead on a 9ft rod- a couple of my fav spots had limited backswing space so i had a cut down FSU 4120 for ever and a day and then a custom made Calstar which hardly got used before I packed in the landbased stuff. Otherwise as Rick said a 10 ft stick is a good option- 50 lb braid is not needed on your average longtail- the first run is a doozy usually and then they will arc back and forth along the rocks in close. Freespool to get them to change direction if they look like cutting you off- I preferred nylon- trying to stop their first run would be a great way to pull hooks or bust off anyway.

[JonD]

Like above, yft are extremely rare from the boat let alone the rocks. 

Ive pulled lures day after day for several years down here out wide on the south coast and haven't had one for about 10 years, had a few north of Coffs though.

If I was you I would try more for kingfish these days and just hope the yellowfin one day make a return.

[brett01]

19 hours ago, Marto said:

Cheers for the advice @rickmarlin62! Also wondering about a suitable outfit was looking at the demonblood 962MH matched with a saltist 5000 running 30lb braid, would this be a good combo?

I'm running that exact setup for Land based game, The one thing to note on the Demonblood 962mh is that the recommended cast weight is way off (50-120g) , it will cast from 30g - 90g nicely with the sweet spot being around 70g and casts 60-80g lure 60-70m. Awesome rod for the price though, the newer Version 2 is blue you should be able get the V1 which is red for really cheap.

[brett01]

and save up for your braid. fully research the highest breaking strain PE 3-4 you can get and the spool will hold 4-500m so you will need 500m or 1km, get it spooled by someone highly experienced or do it yourself under heavy drag (then before casting, do something like put a surface lure on and drift it out 100m and wind it back on so your casting distance braid isn't bedded in when you do your first cast causing loops to pull out and knotting etc on your first session.)

Edited December 17, 2017 by brett01
typo

[Marto]

Thanks for the tips everyone might look at targeting kings instead. Can anyone recommend a good outfit for live baiting? 

@brett01 what do you mainly target with that setup?  

[brett01]

@Marto im gonna try my darndest to catch my first tuna this summer mate, however upon testing my new setup ive had three 100% definate king strikes one was 1m+ so im trying hard at those at the moment but there hard up here especially where i fish

[PaddyT]

plenty of longtails about to roll down the coast- go north- Brett- drive south PM me if you want a bit of info