Hi all,
What a day we had. We decided to do a full day of trolling something we were new at and had only dabbled in for an hour max at a time in my previous boat. So this essentially is something new to us. We started first at the front of the cape throwing poppers into the wash all to no avail. Then decided the trolling was the go. So the first brand new pusher was deployed and on whilst letting the line out it was smacked. I couldn't believe it was hit so quickly. No hook up though. I found it to check every thing was in order and found a plastic sleeve over the point of the hook. MMMMM something I usually check when reef fishing but missed during this new game. So off we go trolling Roberts first for about 1/2 and hour then off to Brennans then to Smiths past Flinders (Wide) then out to Hutchies to join the rest of the boats an this is where it all started happening. Strike after strike on Tuna both Striped and Mac Tuna was the norm. Total count was well over 30. We were running 5 rods 2 with pushers, 2 with jt heads and 1 Rapalla X Rap. Double and even Triple hook ups were the norm and with three of us on board there was action a plenty clearing rods and each having a go at retrieving fish.
Biggest Tuna was about 5kg not big but with 30 + caught we had a ball and it was definitely not boring. More action. In the distance I spotted feeding birds and in the middle was a big sickle tail smashing the bait. I changed course towards the birds and more tuna not the Marlin we could see. Eventually the Marlin did have a go grabbing a live hooked Tuna but that was lost in quick time. Another hooked Tuna and another Marlin hook up also lost with a third just following a pusher but not hooking up. We kept trolling and hooked up more tuna with another hit on the starboard side that was short lived and upon retrieval found 1 less Pakula pusher and a very clean cut through the 300lb Jinkai. Maybe a Wahoo?? What we did note is the majority of hook ups were between 10am to 3pm. Going with the swell and towards to the sun. We also tried altering our speed from 5 knots up to 12 running different lures, pushers, Jet heads etc but found 6 knots was the best and most productive on the Tuna. We also had a brand new Pakula witchdoctor out the back which I think got smacked as it is in very poor condition and delaminating. Try as we might we couldn't get a Marlin to strike the pushers with out having a live tuna on. Any tips are more than welcome. We are only beginners but will definitely be doing more of this trolling thing. I WANT A MARLIN!!!!We are going over to camp at Morton for a week starting next week so hopeully this will be when the first one will be boated. Fingers crossed for some good weather. I attached the young fella with one of the Tuna.
Goona
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Originally Posted by indy
god it seems to be active out there currently?
