2500 Symetre Not Meant for Tuna

[Blythy]

Went out with a mate for a quick flick before work yesterday with the idea of chasing some of the long tails that are everywhere in the bat at the moment, the only problem was that my brother “borrowed” my 20lb setup so I was reduced to taking my 8 and 10lb gear. We hit the ramp at 6am and by 6:30 I was onto my first dish and starting to wonder why I threw a slug out on this gear, after a 30min fight a 6kg+ mack tuna lands in the boat, not what we were after but good fun on the light stick.

However after landing the fish there was only 1 ½ hours before we had to start work, so I locked the drag up and had another go, I was soon hooked onto another fish that wanted to swim to Morton, asked my mate if he wanted to video the fight looked back down and I had about 6 wraps of line left on the spool. After some quick expletives and great driving by my mate landed another mack tuna of about 8kg. We hooked onto one more on the way back to the ramp, but the long tails just didn’t want to play the game. Beautiful conditions with bust ups everywhere, 5 humpbacks and all before work.

Tight Lines.

[Just_chips]

They're not a bad little reel, but it will never be the same again after that flogging. I got a 10kg golden trev on mine and it never recovered......

[wayno60]

good effort...

[tfish]

Hahah good fun arent they, we got some great footage on our gopro cameras last week. Yeah I'd get the little symetre in for a service sooner rather then later......great photo's.

[malby]

Well done Blythy. What a gr8 way to start your day! Hey just wondered 2 things?

1. is that Bribie Island in the background? Sure looks like it.
2. What lures were you using as we came across a small school of Mack Tuna the other week off the Nth tip of Bribie and could not attract any takers.

[Floating Rib]

Nice catch on light gear, macs are super bait too, I caught one similar size on a Pflueger 2500 size reel at mud last week, 10lb line so a bit heavier than yours but certainly warmed that little drag up, Good fun though and nice way to start the day for you.

[Blythy]

Hey Malby, yep that's bribie in the background, the lures were gillies 15g baitfish in silver, very close to what they were feeding on, and the gillies pilchard. the halco 5g twisty chrome slugs are a perfect match but a bit light for the long casts, the fish were really boat shy some of the schools were dropping out before we got closer than 100m, we tried a few things some schools we came in really hot and killed the engine at extreme casting range, others we could sneek up on bit but we still had to keep our distance.

[malby]

In that case a light 2500 outfit was probably perfect as a heavier line and outfit would not cast far enough into the schools and besides it lots more fun getting them on light gear. I got some slightly smaller ones (I'm guessing?) at Harvey Bay a couple of years back using 14 pound fireline and my 4000 Sahara and Penn Pinpoint Tournament 3-5kg rod and it was awesome so I'm betting you were nearly seeing the bottom of the spool with these ones?

Did you chase them for very long to get the 2? Ie. How many shots did you put in for your results?

[matt fraser]

Well done Blythy, Amazing what light spin outfits can do when pushed to the limit.

Thanks for the info on the slug.

Plenty in the Southern Bay at the moment too, fussy buggers though!

Cheers,

Matt

[Dylan_Rylatt]

Dave this was the same reel you got the 90cm queenie on land based.??... Mate can i borrow this real permanatly????

[Blythy]

Hey malby, yeah the second fish basicly took me to the arbor knot within 15sec of the fight, I would have been greatfull for a bit more line capacity. We fished for about 2 1/2 hours total, landed 3 fish, got busted off by 2 and dropped 1, take out the hour spent fighting and we had 6 hookups in 1 1/2 hours, I don't really remember how many schools that we chased but we probably got a hookup out of every second school that we cast at, we could only get 2 casts in at any one school before they dropped.

Thanks Matt, my light spin gear has accounted for some respectable catches but this is the first time that I have felt compleatly out gunned, looking forward to the mac season, should be a good one

[Blythy]

Hey Dyl, yeah the same reel, i'm thinking about selling it: lightly used, has good fishing mojo - $200 pm if you're interested

[Dylan_Rylatt]

i'll send yah a check mate very lucky reel tho... def time to put her in for a service...... the reel tooo