Chasing (My) Tail

[macka12]

Have been out a few times in the last two weeks chasing longtail as they have been pretty prolific in the bay.

Went out two weeks ago and hooked my first one while out chasing snapper. I saw them busting up not too far away so decided to motor over and was lucky enough to hook one flicking plastics on Bazza's 3/8 oz jig heads. Being on my own in my tiller steer tinny with a 30cm gaff I didn't really think about the repercussions until I had spent over an hour chasing the bastard up and down the bay. Eventually I got it to the boat and attempted to hatch a plan to land the metre plus fish however could not lift it close enough to the boat and be able to reach it at the same time. Not long after still being puzzled it went for a huge run and the big brown shadow I saw behind it made me realise the fight could be soon over. somehow it managed to get away from the shark and i got it back near the boat after another 15 mins only to keep getting it just out of landing distance.. Eventually it went for a dart under the boat and after about one and a half hours I felt that dreaded feeling of braid rubbing against prop and it was all over. Gutted.

Anyway got out again a few days later this time armed with a gaff, a mate, tighter drag, some of Bazza's 1/2oz jigheads and a few gopros and managed to hook another beast and my first, landed in the boat after just over 10 mins. This one went 103cm and 13kg and my mate landed his first also going 9kg.

Went out again on Friday just gone and despite them being a bit quieter and spread out we both managed to land our second one each, upgrading our PBs this time mine went 108cm and 14kg and my mate got a 105cm 12kg one. This topped off the day with the start of the morning landing 6 legal squire with a few going just over 50cm.

Went out again yesterday chasing snapper and some more tuna, despite no hookups on the tail we landed a few good squire, lots of bonito and found a school of spotties going off and boated two over 75cm and donated about 10 lures and jigheads to the toothy critters. Had one good boil show right behind my lure chasing a school of tail but could not get close enough to entice them to hook up.

Anyway have attached a few pics of the last few weeks.

[dayoo]

Good report mate. Looks like the 1/2oz jigheads with 3/0 Owner hooks performed well.
If you get too many fish send some fillets my way in exchange for some jigheads

Cheers
Bazza

[Crossy93]

Good read, nice fishing! I might have to grab some of those jig heads

[FINICKY]

Some good fish there. Are you fishing the Northern bay? Do they come down as far as peel or are the tuna more common up around tangalooma?

[Killing time]

Some great pics and a good read ,I was over moreton a few weeks back and there where a lot of bait balls being pushed to the beach tuna just hammering them everywhere
well done they are sure a lot of fun .

[fishychrissy]

Nice report Mate, a really enthralling read. Some nice photos there too.
Were you up off Bribie or is that Moreton in the background?
Cheers

[PROS]

Well done Macka, great catch there.
Love eating long tails, they are delicious.

Last 2 weeks we have been chasing them as well, bay is certainly full of long tails, mac tunas and mackerels currently.
Mainly using slugs, I will be having a go at soft plastics next time as well however I am pretty much a plastic virgin.

The bait they eat is tiny whitebait, I found that slugs are too big sometimes and they reject it.

When using soft plastics, do you sink it or working on the surface only?
Twitching off the bottom as if fishing for snapper or flat out skimping on surface?
Do you use smaller profile plastic or usual bay size?

Thanks for your guidance.

Max The Turk

[macka12]

There's heaps around between mud and all the way down to coochie just gotta look for the birds and the surface action and be very patient at times

[macka12]

Mostly surface but depends on how the fish are behaving. .. same size plastics as snapper gear 4" or 5" even 3" would be ok but more likely to engulf I would say. I did notice they were eating really small bait when we looked in one of their stomachs.

[SummerTrance]

Awesome mate and very jealous. Never hooked a tuna.