Albacore

[JonD]

Decided to head well offshore again today targeting yellowfin. Forecast was for strong wind by lunch time so I managed to be on the water by 6.30am. 

It's a fair run in a little rib, especially knowing how quick things could change given there was already a reasonable swell punting a the bar ( Narooma). The big swell is barely noticed offshore due to the distance between peaks (150m

Once out at the seamounts we slipped a couple of small skirted lures over the side which were soon intercepted by striped tuna ( skipjack ). These lively little tuna were well below the size fish we were hoping for and quickly released. I spotted one bird off in the distance showing great interest in something beneath the surface and by the time we reached it it had several of its pals joining in on the hunt.

What ever was chassing the bait was traveling far faster than we could pull our lures. We spotted the large fickle ( fins on the tunas back) which put us on high alert. All so a sudden all rods got hit at once, considering the distance our lures were apart this was a big school of fish.

Still not fishing overly big our spin outfits ripped off line (15lb and 10lb class )but we soon realised this wasn't the bigger yellowfin we hoped for. Never the less we had found the far better eating albacore, which gave a good little scrap.

I got mine to the boat first and managed another clean head gaff shot, gaffing tuna with a rod in one hand from a rib is a little tricky at times. Anyway once onboard I quickly placed a spike through its brain to quieten it down. By this time everything was covered in blood, tuna bleed like crazy and when they go into their death shakes it goes everywhere.

My daughter's fish was slightly bigger and on lighter tackle (10lb class). It was doing the typical tuna circles under the boat, where we could see it had many of its friends staying with it. Once you get tuna close to the boat, the big circles they make can be very tricky at the landing stage as they go under the boat and close to the prop. I like to take my time ( if you could call it that!!!) with my gaff shot and go for the back of the head in the hope of braining them ( tricky with a 3inch gaff gape). 

With another solid gaff to the head it was time for my daughter to get excited (lose her s**t). More blood, a quick couple of photos before packing them down on ice. The other fish stayed under the boat but we decided not to target them as we only had the small cooler bag in the hope to bring home one small yellowfin. Fish simply don't keep in the heat, especially tunas that generate lots of muscle heat during a fight.

 

 

 

[xerotao]

Nice! Cant wait till i can target tunas off the rocks again

[Yowie]

Nice fish Jon, waves in the background don't look too bad.

[JonD]

1 minute ago, xerotao said:

Nice! Cant wait till i can target tunas off the rocks again

Locally or the northern bluefin? 

There seem to be quite a few small yellowfin about at the moment, most are in the 15-35kg size, hopefully this continues.

 

 

[JonD]

1 minute ago, Yowie said:

Nice fish Jon, waves in the background don't look too bad.

No it was beautiful out there, the swells were so far apart you didn't really notice them untill you ran in the same direction as them ( just big deep troughs).

[xerotao]

3 minutes ago, JonD said:

Locally or the northern bluefin? 

There seem to be quite a few small yellowfin about at the moment, most are in the 15-35kg size, hopefully this continues.

 

 

Only Longtails where i target them unfortunately

[GoingFishing]

Great work Jon those are some nice sized tuna. Would have been great fun. 

I can relate to the "tuna death shake". Last year i tangled with some stripeys and kept them for bait and they made a real mess.

Mahi also can be messy bastards they always seem to find a way to make themselves bleed.

[zmk1962]

Great stuff Jon ....  a tuna is on my bucket list this year ... please keep sending them north   (and leave some for us !) .... hahaha

Cheers Zoran

Edited December 1, 2018 by zmk1962

[Berleyguts]

Great stuff, John! I love albacore! Great eating - chicken of the sea! What weight did they go? I got some back in the 80s off Narooma. Haven’t caught one since (but haven’t targeted them either). I got one 12.5kg on 10kg line that was an ANSA national record briefly, until another club member got one next day that went 13.5.  That has since been beaten, with the 10kg class gamefishing record at 25.990kg and the 10kg class sportfishing record at 18kg. Top fish all round and most of the records caught in the Narooma/Bermagui area. I guess I won’t see them up here at Port Stephens.

[Blackfish]

Thanks for posting Jon and Co great read. 👍

 

[JonD]

20 minutes ago, Berleyguts said:

Great stuff, John! I love albacore! Great eating - chicken of the sea! What weight did they go? I got some back in the 80s off Narooma. Haven’t caught one since (but haven’t targeted them either). I got one 12.5kg on 10kg line that was an ANSA national record briefly, until another club member got one next day that went 13.5.  That has since been beaten, with the 10kg class gamefishing record at 25.990kg and the 10kg class sportfishing record at 18kg. Top fish all round and most of the records caught in the Narooma/Bermagui area. I guess I won’t see them up here at Port Stephens.

It wasn't untill we were half way through filleting that we thought about weighing them unfortunately ( something we rarely do). These are the biggest we've caught before.

[rickmarlin62]

Nice size albies jon    top eating fish   pity no yfin....maybe next trip   ..rick

[JonD]

27 minutes ago, rickmarlin62 said:

Nice size albies jon    top eating fish   pity no yfin....maybe next trip   ..rick

I managed a small one just over a week ago while out solo.