Bracing for bigger bluefin tuna

Phillip Island

Craig

Edmonds

Someone asked me for a summary of the season, and I told him that in the 17 years we have had the shop, it was one of the best and one of the worst. It all much sums up the last 17 years as well. Every year someone is having a good one while someone else is having a bad one. As much as people think they have it sorted and worked out what to do, things change, and the successful anglers are the ones who adapt. fish have been reporting the bigger tuna for months. They said the bigger ones were just sitting deep, and not even looking at coming towards the surface. We have also had much bigger fish reported showing up on the sounders, sitting almost on the bottom.

Once the school fish disappear (and as I write this they are doing just that) the bigger fish will head up a bit higher in the water. The other trigger is when the big pilchards or redbait show up, and I’ve had several reports from offshore anglers finding huge schools of very big pilchards.

If you have been chasing the school fish this season and you are thinking of heading out to chase a barrel, you won’t get away with the basic gear that caught you plenty of 25kg ones. Although many of the lures will be the same (possibly with bigger hooks), you can’t use the snapper gear that you were using on school tuna. Generally, if you use snapper gear on big tuna, the tuna will win.

Unlike school tuna, which can school up in their hundreds, the bigger ones will typically be loners, or

There’s no better way to start the day. depends on what species you target. If you are a tuna fisher, you have had the best season we have ever seen, but if you are a calamari or snapper fisher, it’s been ordinary at best.

That last sentence pretty

At the time of writing this report, a few nice tuna have recently been caught. By the time this goes to print there could be barrels everywhere! They have been here all the time, and those who have been diving on the school

With so many school tuna around, many of our younger customers managed to get amongst the action. Oliver was stoked with his first.