We are over for holidays at Tangalooma and thought of bringing the boat but ended up in the too hard basket for a number of reasons. The Eastern beech has been pretty rough and full of stingers so fishing has been tough over there, restricting fishing to the West side.
After a few days of some morning fishing off the jetty at Tangalooma which produced some School Mackeral and Trevally, my brother in law, nephew and I decided to hire one of the little tinnys from the resort for a morning fish as we had seen a few bigger fish out a bit wider that casting range.
I have fished Tangas from my boat quite a bit with some nice fish caught so went to one of my spots close to the beach that holds bait and jigged up a couple of rainbow runners. Whilst doing this one of the rods with a floating Pillchard went off but we missed the hookup. One of the rainbows went out the back under a balloon and we kept fishing pulling up some nice grasses and small snapper.
We had rerigged the first line that we missed with another floating Pilchard and whilst I was baiting a line caught sight of it disappearing over the side of the tinny like it was being launched by a rocket. Obviously the bait was grabbed by a monster a my favourite Stradic combo now rests somewhere at the bottom of Moreton Bay. Insert many swear words here.
Not much time to lament the loss though. The lively was grabbed by something big and angry that took off at a huge rate of knots. So here we are on a 10ft tinny with a 4hp engine with something big hooked up. Time for a chase as best we can. We were in amongst boats and mooring bouys so with the brother in law driving I was trying to put some hurt on the fish and drag it clear of the obstructions.
Luckily the rod and reel combo was a good one - Penn Slammer, Shimano Jig stick, 60lb braid and 80lb leader, usually my Kingie jigging outfit. I had a serious amount of hurt on the fish and we decided we have to do a beach landing as there was no gaff or net on the tinny. I got the first view of the fish by this stage - a big Longtail that wanted no part in me trying to catch it.
As we got closer to the beach dodging swimmers and moorings the fish started getting more and more agitated with some good runs and gives under the boat. Still I hung on and basically dived overboard when I could see the bottom trying to keep tight on the fish. Was a little deeper that I thought but I finally waded ashore for the last stage of the fight. The fish wasn’t having it and ran straight under the boat but luckily I had him turned and he soon came ashore thanks to a well timed wave.
I thought it was a decent size but this guy was a stocker. A big solid barrel of a fish well over the meter and weighing in around 25kgs - I was stoked as this was a new PB and a bit of a bucket list fish for me. He was pretty feisty and not wanting to bloody up the water near the swimmers I dispatched and bled him on the sand and we then went out deep to gut the fish - pretty hard to do in a little boat with just a bait knife.
I got my wife to call the resort and they were very accommodating to let us use their cool room. Pretty funny walking through Tangalooma with a big Tuna under my arm and a fair few weird looks by the tourists.
The resort did a fantastic job that night preparing the family a great feast with Tuna done four ways. Great way to celebrate a truely awesome catch!
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