Victorian Tuna – by Lee Rayner
Not really regarded as a gamefishing state Victoria has over the past weeks become the talk of the country with a fantastic run of southern Bluefin tuna that have arrived to the western part of the coast, best of all they are 6-8 weeks early and have been eagerly accepted as anglers head out in to the southern ocean in search of these exciting gamefish.
Adding to the excitement of the early arrival of the tuna, this years run of fish are wide spread and of a better average size than the past few years where most of the fish were 17-22kg, this seasons fish are in the 22-30kg size range with a fair smattering of 30+ kilo fish around.
Then just to make it interesting there has been several fish hooked that anglers estimate at around 100kg in weight with one lucky angler actually landing a fish of 112kg at the famous crayfishing harbour of Port MacDonnell, which is located just over the Victorian border in South Australia.
For the most part the majority of tuna action sees anglers head 5 hours west of Melbourne to tackle the tuna at a location called Portland, with great boat launching facilities, plenty of good accommodation and a safe harbour to launch in it allows good access to the waters the tuna come to feed in.
What also makes this area so good is that it is one of the more accessible locations anglers can reach the continental shelf before it heads south towards Tasmania, and in this or any other part of the world the continental shelf is like a big highway for the tuna to travel and feed along, with nutrient rich water and abundant food sources, from tiny krill to squid, pilchards and many other baitfish it’s a proverbial smorgasboard of tuna food.
With tuna available in Victoria and many anglers now owning larger seaworthy trailer boats they are quite accessible especially as the tuna schools are often wide spread from just a few miles from the coastline to as far as you can safely travel, one word of warning though, the southern ocean can be a nasty place when the large swells and wind picks up so make sure you have ample fuel and your boat motor and safety gear are up to scratch, at the same time when the weather is good the sea is as flat as anywhere.
Tackling Up
If you are keen to get amongst the tuna fever but not sure what gear to use there are several options available but for the most part 24kg overhead tackle is popular, especially as it gives you the required grunt if you do hook one of the monsters that are out there, asides from that though any good quality 15kg outfit will provide heaps of fun on the tuna and for any of those anglers who really enjoy there sportsfishing then there are plenty of opportunities to catch tuna on lighter tackle with many people finding 10kg line to be a red hot option on tuna that range from 20-30kg.
Other than the standard gamefishing tackle many anglers are nowadays making good use of the large powerful spinning reels that are available such as the tough as nails V System series, they hold a bucket load of line and can pull big drag pressure, best of all with a spinning reel you can simply cast a soft plastic or a metal slug straight into schools of feeding tuna.
Terminal
Once you have chosen your rods and reels its simply a matter of getting the working end of the gear sorted and to this extent the majority of anglers these days prefer to use wind on leaders as they allow the leader to be wound onto the reel making things much easier and neater in a trailer boat, at the end of the wind on leader is a strong ball bearing snap swivel (preferably black as there are also some very big barracouta in these waters any they love nothing more than to crunch down on a shiny snap swivel, often biting off your lure in the process), to the snap is a short leader and your lure of choice and as in all lure trolling it pays to have a range of colours and styles out to see what the fish prefer to eat on the day.
Our own general tuna spread will see five lures in the water with one of the first being the deadly Rapala X Rap 20+ or 30+, these funky high speed minnows can handle the pace of trolling at 8 knots and the tuna love them, especially in colours such as BTO, RH and SRD, these are generally run fairly short as they get down under the prop wash where the tuna often love to feed.
Next up is either another X Rap or a bibles minnow, while the other three rods run a range of skirted trolling lures of which there are plenty to choose from but good choices are the Williamsons Maxi Hole Jet, 8″ Cavitators, small Pakula’s or any other small bullet or pusher style lures.
As for skirt colours its always a contentious issue with angers and everyone has there favourites but most would agree black, and purple combo’s, blue and white, red and white and bright green (lumo) is always good especially if there a bit of red in it, another true favourite colour of mine is one that not many anglers head for as it isn’t that pretty to look at but the tuna think its awesome and its called Petrolero, basically its brown, orange and silver and closely imitates the squid which the tuna love to eat.
The other key to success on the tuna is to make sure the lures are the size of the bait the fish are eating with a range of lures in the 4-8″ size being perfect.
Finally the tuna are great eating but we need to look after what is returning as a very exciting fishery for all to enjoy so take one or two for a feed and try throwing a few back, it’s a great feeling to see 30kg of tuna swim away.
Before I go there are plenty of other great things on offer in Victoria at present with the offshore waters holding good numbers of mako and thresher sharks, while the bays such as Port Phillip is getting back into the swing of snapper after there spawning period, best of all the next two months sees a top class of fish on offer with many ranging between 4.5-7kg, now I just need to organise that Mark Berg bloke to come back so we can head out and get a few more snapper.
Westernport is also coming alive with large gummy sharks and a great run of big whiting, not to mention squid and a few big mulloway
There you have it Victoria isn’t all about AFL and snapper, its now also turning out to be a pretty red hot gamefishing location too
If you need any info give us a call at Fishing Fever or email info@fishingfever.com.au
Lee Rayner
