Striped and yellowfin

[JonD]

Plan was to head out on my own in search of a yellowfin to smoke and make some cream cheese dip pate ready for Xmas (freeze them). My daughter is normally to busy with charters to fish with me very often but to my surprise she was keen on a morning trip as she only had a midday charter today.

Headed out to the continental shelf and started pulling a few hardbody diver lures. It's a huge ocean so finding tuna can be a very hit or miss challenge when searching offshore without structure or something to hold the fish to an area. Took us about 1hr to get to where we decided to start and close to 2hrs before we hooked the first striped tuna (skipjack). One of these was jumbo sized stripey and gave a hell of fight for what's really a small tuna. We were in about 400m of water and the stripies were now at 4 for the cooler. 

My favourite lure, the Samaki pacemaker was the one I'd picked to get a yellowfin if we were lucky enough to find any. Sure enough this little yellowfin took the samaki on the spin gear and was on the deck of the boat within 5 mins. My daughter was extremely happy, so we spiked, bled and got the fish onto an ice slurry and headed home. To top the trip off I dropped her in on small rock on the way home to search for a lobster and sure enough she popped to the surface with these three. 

Top morning, spending it with my eldest girl and back home by midday. Just over 100km trip for 43lt of fuel, which can't be to bad. 

 

 

[Burger]

Great to spend such a nice time with your daughter.

[Gus-to]

Good times on the water, with goodies to show of as well. Hope to make your charter with you guys again on our annual trip south in Jan.

The smoked Yellowfin pate  is great idea, I assume it could also work with bonito or slimies which I occasionally smoke.

 

All the best!

[JonD]

22 minutes ago, thaichilli said:

Good times on the water, with goodies to show of as well. Hope to make your charter with you guys again on our annual trip south in Jan.

The smoked Yellowfin pate  is great idea, I assume it could also work with bonito or slimies which I occasionally smoke.

 

All the best!

Ive been doing it with trout and Aus salmon off the beach which have been excellent. With the tuna, I'm wanting to do a bigger batch and include the fatty belly and wing parts of the fish. I got a Kamado bbq oven earlier in the year which has taken smoking to a new level, as well as anything simply cooked on charcoals. 

By the way the striped tuna went 23lb on my boga grips and took longer to land than the yellowfin. However I do think she was lucky to of gotten the tuna so quickly.

[Robbo from Sydney]

1 hour ago, JonD said:

Plan was to head out on my own in search of a yellowfin to smoke and make some cream cheese dip pate ready for Xmas (freeze them). My daughter is normally to busy with charters to fish with me very often but to my surprise she was keen on a morning trip as she only had a midday charter today.

Headed out to the continental shelf and started pulling a few hardbody diver lures. It's a huge ocean so finding tuna can be a very hit or miss challenge when searching offshore without structure or something to hold the fish to an area. Took us about 1hr to get to where we decided to start and close to 2hrs before we hooked the first striped tuna (skipjack). One of these was jumbo sized stripey and gave a hell of fight for what's really a small tuna. We were in about 400m of water and the stripies were now at 4 for the cooler. 

My favourite lure, the Samaki pacemaker was the one I'd picked to get a yellowfin if we were lucky enough to find any. Sure enough this little yellowfin took the samaki on the spin gear and was on the deck of the boat within 5 mins. My daughter was extremely happy, so we spiked, bled and got the fish onto an ice slurry and headed home. To top the trip off I dropped her in on small rock on the way home to search for a lobster and sure enough she popped to the surface with these three. 

Top morning, spending it with my eldest girl and back home by midday. Just over 100km trip for 43lt of fuel, which can't be to bad. 

 

 

What a wonderful way to spend quality time with your daughter. Good on you for making the most of the opportunity

[LuckyFil]

That's a very handy daughter you've got there!!

And what a beast of a stripey, never seen one that big before.

Good to see a report from you after a bit of a break.

[big Neil]

Your posts are always so full of optimism Jon. I guess that comes from having a wealth of knowledge relevant to what you target at any particular time. How good to be able to set off with a quarry in mind and return MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Quality.

bn

[JonD]

1 hour ago, LuckyFil said:

That's a very handy daughter you've got there!!

And what a beast of a stripey, never seen one that big before.

Good to see a report from you after a bit of a break.

I have been getting out at least once per week but every trip has been much the same, which makes me a bit reluctant to post the same each time. This is pretty much the average, though I am getting a few kings as well now. 

 

[JonD]

45 minutes ago, big Neil said:

Your posts are always so full of optimism Jon. I guess that comes from having a wealth of knowledge relevant to what you target at any particular time. How good to be able to set off with a quarry in mind and return MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Quality.

bn

What's even better is my daughter cleans the fish and just brings me a few cleaned pieces for one meal and a couple of bits to smoke. I'd be more than happy with just a couple of wrasse and two to three squid, which are normally quite easy to find.

[Basil D]

Just wow 

[Ryder]

Christmas sorted. Awesome fishery you’ve got down south.

[Little_Flatty]

It’d be a dream come true if my girls could grow up to be pro anglers like yours.

I’d love to see the finished (smoked) product.

What do you do with the wrasse?

[Pickles]

Great to read a report from you Jon, I was thinking the other day, “i wonder what @JonD is upto, haven’t read a post for a while”. What a great day and so much better shared with your daughter. Sounds like you’re in for a real fisherman’s basket over Christmas 👍👏👏

[JonD]

43 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

It’d be a dream come true if my girls could grow up to be pro anglers like yours.

I’d love to see the finished (smoked) product.

What do you do with the wrasse?

Maori wrasse are very much like pigfish, a delicate white flesh without to much of a fishy flavour. They can be cooked almost anyway and often a great choice for those who say they don't like fish. They can be a bit more fiddly to fillet but well worth the effort. Normally we crumb our wrasse.

When I first took my kids out fishing, we used to target shallow reef where they would constantly catch sweep, wrasse, jackets and other small reef fish which got them hooked into the hobby. I always had the condition we could head back in if they felt sea sick or had enough, which they never seemed to want to do when catching lots of fish. A big live bait tank with a glass window was also a big bonus in keeping them occupied. 

[JonD]

20 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Great to read a report from you Jon, I was thinking the other day, “i wonder what @JonD is upto, haven’t read a post for a while”. What a great day and so much better shared with your daughter. Sounds like you’re in for a real fisherman’s basket over Christmas 👍👏👏

We've actually had a fair amount of wind down here which always effects the bar more than getting out from bigger harbours, so its been a struggle getting good enough days. The weather forecasts have also been quite wrong lately.

I don't eat lobster, crabs and prawns since developing an allergy to them, so any I catch I pass on to a few oldies who struggle to get out these days.

[Yowie]

Very nice there Jon - tuna, lobbies, and reds on another day. Certainly good fishing down your way.

[JonD]

This is what Im talking about in terms of conditions. Today 14kh wind and the bar is sloppy as. It wasn't much better yesterday. @Pickles

[big Neil]

You're living the life Jon. Good onya. Hope you have a great Summer and keep entertaining us all with your reports and amazing photos.

Cheers, bn

[Pickles]

6 hours ago, JonD said:

This is what Im talking about in terms of conditions. Today 14kh wind and the bar is sloppy as. It wasn't much better yesterday. @Pickles

Looks horrible- wouldn’t like to take that on in my Tinnie - copped a wave over the top at South West Rocks bar a few years back and very cautious now. 2 boats capsized that day (one was a 6m Stabi’)

[Larkin]

isn’t it great when a plan pays off. Well done on the catch! 

Nice sized tunas 👍

[JonD]

Again today, it can make it a tough place to fish from. @Pickles

 

   

[GordoRetired]

That is some high quality eating there. Sashimi Tuna starter followed by Lobster main course. Should be delicious. 🙂