Wind - 10kts WNW
Current - none
Participants - went out alone, saw Yakfinn and Solman out at Halls.
Seeing that the fishing has been rather slow at Sunshine Reef, Jew Shoal, A-Bay areas, I was primed for a shot at bottom bashing Halls Reef for a grassy or two.
I was on the water at 5.20am and was soaking my first bait at about 6am. The paddle out was a bit wetter than expected. The wind was gusting to 10knots at least out of the westerly quarter.
I deployed my big drogue and set about nailing a grassy. I had a big prawn wafting down on one rig and a 5" flickbait soft plastic on the other rig. I was working the sp pretty hard, changing plastics, changing weights, I couldn't get a touch.
As for the prawn, same deal, changing weight etc, couldn't get a sniff bar the bottom which I snagged up on and lost my rig.
Blow this I thought, even with the big drogue out I was getting pushed along at 1 to 1.5 k's an hour. I'd been fishing the bottom for 2 hours without a sniff, time for a new plan.
I decided to troll a LaserPro into the beach at the third cutting and head for home then out to Little Halls when I was due west of it -- a big circle so to speak. No more than five minutes had elapsed when I hear my reel protest. I'd hooked up but the fish only took about 10 metres of line and was coming to the yak very easily.
I could see a silvery fish and thought it must have been a spotty as it wasn't fighting like a tuna. When the tuna got to about 10 metres from the yak, it realised it was hooked and she took off. Not on a long run, but it went down and stayed down directly under the yak for the next 30 minutes or so. By this time, Yakfinn and Solman had showed up from Little Halls. Yakfinn came over about a minute after I landed the fish and took a pic for me. Thanks Sean.
Pic by yakfinn
I chose to head in after that very satisfying fight. I trolled all the way home without another hit and landed easily on the beach where I had a few curious observers checking my catch out. One lady wanted to know what sort of shark it was! When I told her it was a Longtail Tuna she stated "Oh yes, it does have a long tail doesn't it?" Made me giggle anyway.
Jeff (Richmond)
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