chasing tuna

[JMH]

Looks like great weather, it's much too cold down here at the moment. Great book too!

[Colt45]

» neither of us are great casters. I'm inconsistent.

» though when the wind got up, my casting went to custard a little.

» I'm keen to get out there and have another crack but I do need to sharpen

» the casting.

Is this really Ken?

Sorry you weren't able to do any catching, but thanks for the pics and story!

[Jimmy2]

Ken did you go on the fishing trip?

If so i did not see any of your catchies?

[CIGARHead]

That looks like a blast Ken. I was the one that said they Longtail was similar to Bluefin, and if they taste anything like 'em, they are damn good. How many fish would you say were schooled up busting the bait pods?

Did you take a fish home to eat?

[shrink]

Looks like a great time. Who wouldn't enjoy a day like that?

Beautiful fish, too. Have you eaten any yet?

[marco polo]

Thanks for the pics Ken :-)

[El Presidente]

Oh Ken.

I do feel your pain. Beautiful Day and fish everywhere except on your line.

Do a little practice on the cast as Tuna fishing on fly is rather unforgiving. Yes you can get lucky but in the main you need to be able to cast 15m blindfolded with one false cast (speed) and in any conditions excluding straight into the wind.

You provide the bottle of wine and we can cast for an hour on the park opposite you.

[CIGARHead]

» Oh Ken.

»

» I do feel your pain. Beautiful Day and fish everywhere except on your

» line.

»

» Do a little practice on the cast as Tuna fishing on fly is rather

» unforgiving. Yes you can get lucky but in the main you need to be able to

» cast 15m blindfolded with one false cast (speed) and in any conditions

» excluding straight into the wind.

»

» You provide the bottle of wine and we can cast for an hour on the park

» opposite you.

This advice coming from the true fly fishin' master..........baiter:lookaround:

[Ken Gargett]

» That looks like a blast Ken. I was the one that said they Longtail was

» similar to Bluefin, and if they taste anything like 'em, they are damn

» good. How many fish would you say were schooled up busting the bait pods?

»

»

»

» Did you take a fish home to eat?

gav wasn't certain if they were just extremely closely related or same fish different name.

the mack tuna in the morning were probably in packs of 20 to 30 in spots. the longtails varied but three to five quite often then may be a few to ten.

released both fish. didn't even discuss it with gav but next time might think about it.

[CIGARHead]

» » That looks like a blast Ken. I was the one that said they Longtail was

» » similar to Bluefin, and if they taste anything like 'em, they are damn

» » good. How many fish would you say were schooled up busting the bait

» pods?

» »

» »

» »

» » Did you take a fish home to eat?

»

»

» gav wasn't certain if they were just extremely closely related or same

» fish different name.

» the mack tuna in the morning were probably in packs of 20 to 30 in spots.

» the longtails varied but three to five quite often then may be a few to

» ten.

» released both fish. didn't even discuss it with gav but next time might

» think about it.

They might in fact be one in the same..you Aussie's love to screw around with words and names...I like to call how you talk over there AussiEbonics.

[Ken Gargett]

had my first go at chasing tuna on fly today. with gav, the same bloke that rob and some other members use. i went with an old mate of mine whom i spent 20 years trying to convince to come fishing. no interest. two years ago, on a family trip to kiwiland, he was convinced to toss a fly for half a day before catching his flight home. he rang straight after it and is now fanatical, to the extent he is seriously considering retirement in order to spend his life traveling the world fishing.

neither of us are great casters (yet, he adds wistfully). I'm inconsistent. will suddenly hit a patch where i feel i could knock a worm from a passing bird 40 metres away, then go into a set where I'd have more chance just hurling the rod, reel and entire caboodle at the fish. i had both today.

we went up in his merc cxs63 (i think). a really nice car but for me, there goes a lot of money i would have preferred to spend on cigars and fishing.

on the water shortly after 6.30am and fished hard for 10 hours. in the first bay (mooloolaba), small sets of mack tuna harassing bait balls but not really feeding so we headed south. supposed to be a south-easterly change with storms so we wanted to come home on a following sea (of course, the weather went from idyllic and mirror like in the morning to swift north-easterly winds, no storms, in the arvo, so we battled the sea coming home at high speed. very bumpy but great fun).

all up, a wonderful day, though when the wind got up, my casting went to custard a little.

after heading out of the bay, gav put us near a lot of good long tails (i think that someone mentioned they were like blue fin and apparently this is true). There were some serious fish, some well over 20 kgs, amongst them. Gus got two for the day. I couldn't even get a hook up, but that would almost have been a bonus (I can say that after one day chasing them, may not feel so charitable if I had a second barren day). Just being on the water on a near perfect day was fabulous.

And half way through the day, I had this calm feeling come over me and I just knew that no matter how hard I fished, and we did fish hard, I would not catch anything. Just going to be one of those days. Had been very optimistic earlier but so be it and I got to do a bit of photography.

i had fish follow the fly, fish strike and miss, one chased the knot attaching the lader, others went over/under the fly, once i got nipped off by a small mackeral above the fly and bringing it in, had a big longtail trying to take the fly-less line. just wasn't going to happen. i stuffed a few up with dodgy casts but one good thing was that neither of us missed any fish once hooked (given i didn't hook any, probably not that much of an acheivement on my part). i find that extremely frustrating.

Gus's first, took about 45 minutes, was 10 kgs and a great fish. It actually was towing the boat, a 16 foot triple hull, for a bit. The second was about 2kgs less.

I'm keen to get out there and have another crack but I do need to sharpen the casting.

gus on with his first.

that boil is the fish objecting to being dragged from the ocean. in close but still a lot to give.

getting in close for gav to land

they are truly beautiful fish.

more soon.

[Ken Gargett]

gav gets hold of fish number 1.

cracker fish.

the second fish.

i couldn' resist. i had gav hold hemingway's 'old man and the sea' next to gus. he was not aware of it at the time.