YF Tuna and Murphy's Law!!
Hiya
After a much anticipated wait, reports of fisherman catching small tuna finally arrived. Packed all the kit and went in search of them on Thursday. Went to our usual co-ordinates, but no fish were to be found. We saw a couple of 30-40kg fish jumping out of the water, but alas, we only saw one longfin(albacore) in the water. We ended the day with 8 YF ranging from 10-30kg's and 10 skipjack(Bonnito), all caught on rod and reel. There was fish around, but the schools were very very small and scattered over a large area.
So when the week-end arrived, we didn't have very high hopes. We were invited out by a good friend on his 25' Cat. Well, at least we'll catch a couple of fish. So i packed only my 1500 Carbon RA and a small 57" Mid handled woodie. Tommy also just brought a small 52" two banded woodie (for Albacore) and his 62" woodie. And of course all the fishing tackle. We were planning it to be a fishing trip more for my wife and Tommy's son.
With-in the first hour trolling, we had boated about 6 Albacore and the wife had landed a 40kg YF tuna on 30lb Stand-up tackle!!! Great start!!! So off we go to our "spot". Tommy kiited up, only to realise that he'd left his weight belt at home!! By the time i jumped in, Tommy had already shot and landed two Albacore tuna.
I battled tracking the fish with my 1500 Carbon RA. Those Albacores are extremely quick and don't have a regular swimming pattern, so shooting them is not quite so easy, especially with a LONG gun!!
Anycase, i then start seeing YF's!!!! He glides into the chum slick and...............BANG!!!!!!.........fish on!!!!!!!!! 20 minutes later he's in the boat!!! The first YF Tuna of the season!!! YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!! He wasn't a very big fish, weighing in at just over 100lbs (50kg's), but completely destroyed that 7.5mm RA spear.
We ended the day with about 20 Albacore between 8-15kg's, one Skipjack and 3 YF's. The two caught weighing 40 and 45kg's. We only speared the one YF and a couple of albacore tuna's.
Can't wait for the bigger fish to put in an appearance!!
Regards
miles