With Winter starting to ease and Spring just around the corner on the Fraser Coast. Many anglers will be patiently waiting to hear of reports that pelagics are starting to fire. With these reports, photos of longtail tuna being landed will appear and hopefully start to increase in number.
Locations
The northern entrance to the Great Sandy Strait could be roughly marked between the Urangan boat harbour and Moon Point on Fraser Island. The entrance features a few deep-water channels which make their way past either side of Big Woody and Little Woody Islands.
A couple of these deep-water channels eventually link together and make their way further into the Great Sandy Strait. Running along the western edge of Fraser Island, past Kingfisher Bay Resort and eventually splitting again with one heading towards River Heads and the other continuing towards Ungowa and beyond.
With massive amounts of fresh water spilling out of the Mary River and all the creeks and drains along Fraser Island including those located further into the Great Sandy Strait. These deep-water channels were full of nutrients, massive bait schools and at the right time of year, large tuna schools.
Lessons From Last Season
My first session last season, saw me with only a few hours on the water before I had to travel for work. It was also the middle of the day with the sun up high in the clear sky, so I defaulted to what I knew.
Tactics
I motored to within sight of a large school of longtail tuna and sat there for a while observing which way they were travelling. Trying to pick the lead bird and planning my attack.
It was a simple situation. The tide was coming in, running from NW to SE and the wind was lightly gusting from the SE. The tuna school was simply moving with the tide. They were in one of the deep-water channels, herding the bait, heading into the wind.
Keeping my engine revs constant, I decided to position myself ahead of the tuna school so that I could cast with the wind behind me. Hopefully increasing my casting range. I assumed that the tuna schools would be a little flighty at this time of day.
Frustration
Boy it was frustrating. I could only get one or maybe two casts at a school before they would head deep. Although I was managing to get my lure in amongst the school. They were stubbornly focussed on the bait and not interested in my lure.
After a quick lure change to a slightly smaller, three-inch profile, sinking stick bait. I managed to get my first strike. It was a large longtail tuna and crikey he took off with incredible speed. After his initial run he started circling under the boat. Hanging down deep using his entire body weight in an effort to pull me out of my boat.
The Tax Man
Then, he started behaving erratically and I new I was competing for my dinner. I eased off my reels drag to give him some room to run. But, it was all in vain as a shark took my fish, leaving me feeling quite defeated, tired and very annoyed.
Work the next day was a blur. Over and over again in my mind, all I could think about was what I could have done to make my first fishing session a success, rather than a shark feeding fail.
Take Two
My second fishing session saw much more favourable conditions. I had the entire day, the sky was overcast, and I found the tuna schools exactly where I had left them during my first session.
This time I decided to try something a little different. I did not want to spend the entire day trying to sneak up on the tuna schools only to have one or two cast at them before they headed deep. This was extremely tiring and frustrating. Especially when after all that effort, you can achieve a strike and then face the possibility of losing your fish to a shark.
I wanted the maximum number of casts at a school as I could get, and I wanted to get the fish to the boat as quick as possible. So instead of leap frogging the tuna schools I simply drove a good distance ahead of them, as again they were pushing in with the tide. I found a narrower part of the channel, switched off my engine and sat waiting for them to come past me.
Always Observe
I had noted in my previous session roughly where or how far into the channel the tuna schools had travelled until the tide turned and the tuna schools then changed direction to follow the tide back out of the channel.
After about 15 minutes I had three large schools of tuna busting the surface within casting range of my boat. One looked to be made up mostly of large mack tuna and the remaining two were longtail. I picked my target and cast.
I boated two good sized longtail tuna in quick succession, is was an amazing experience to be fighting these speedsters of the sea as the remaining tuna in the schools continued to bust up all around my boat.
My Lessons
This time I did not suffer being sharked. After the second fish was boated I noticed that I had drifted through the tuna school and that I would need to reposition my boat ahead of them again. I switched on my ever reliable 50hp Evinrude Etec and almost instantly the tuna school closest to the boat disappeared.
They were clearly very sensitive to boat noise. Going stealth had worked and for the rest of the day I managed to boat tuna, both mack and longtail.
During my first session, I had sussed out the need to drop lure size to more closely ‘match the hatch’. The final piece of the puzzle was going ‘stealth’ to get as many casts at the schools as I could. This proved a winning combination. So, next time you find yourself frustrated by tuna schools who simply don’t want to play the game, try going stealth to get the bite.
You can read more about Tuna Fishing on the Fraser Coast – Here.
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