Re: Midweek Tuna

[foggy]

Fieldy and I headed over to Moreton on Wednesday in search of a cobia or 2. Left Scarbourough at 4.30am and headed out to Roberts shoal in search of a few snapper first. Landed one keeper and a dozen undersize and got smashed big time by a big reef dweller on soft plastics. With the going a bit slow, we headed back into the M2 to try our luck. Within 5 minutes of deploying the first livey, this tuna decided to commit suicide. It was a hard slogged 30min fight on 30lb braid and considering I had about 9kgs of drag on the fish for the majority of the fight, he was a spirited fish.

Any way that was it. Did not get another touch. We stopped at the Nelson on the way back and there was a good show of fish but they only turned out to be small squire. If there were any big ones there the little fish got to the baits and plastics first.

Can someone ID the tuna please. Have not caught on before. It weighed 9.3 kilos and the small fins down the tail were yellow.

Anyway as they say. The worst day fishing is better that the best day working

[foggy]

second run

[foggy]

Third run just about stuffed

[foggy]

This is getting ridiculous. Last run was about 100m

[isaac]

nice one foggy, northern blue or longtail cheers isaac

[foggy]

conditions outside (cape moreton)

[longtail]

good nth blue there they give you a workout just ask crestcutter he got 3 on thurs , still looked buggered today

jason

[Wesley_Pang]

Longtail Tuna Thunnus tonggol sometimes incorrectly called Northern Bluefin.

Awesome to catch on a flyrod.



Wes

[duckbill]

Wes

You beat me to it. It's a longtail - Thunnus tonggol:

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...esname=tonggol

The northern Bluefin is a different species - Thunnus thynnus:

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...ary.php?id=147

And yes, great fun on a fly rod

[Fishin_Dan]

Very nice Longtail mate! These are starting to show up a bit in the bay from the look of it!!!

Hooked what I was told where some of these a while ago... Geez they run hard!

[Tony_N]

Foggy

Is that reel a Charter Special? I'd be interested to know how you got 9kg of drag on it. Or was that meant to be 9lb? I can't really imagine a 9 kilo fish taking that long to boat with 9kg of drag, or that you can get that much drag on a Charter Special (greaat little reels though they are) without modifying the drag system somehow.

Not trying to be a smartar$e - just after clarification for myself.

Tony

[Tony_N]

Wes

You beat me to it. It's a longtail - Thunnus tonggol:

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...esname=tonggol

The northern Bluefin is a different species - Thunnus thynnus:

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...ary.php?id=147

Hey duckbill -- I've always thought the Northern Bluefin and the longtail were the same fish, so I chased it up a bit :

Grants Guide to Fishes calls them as the same fish.



I think the Thynnus is the (Atlantic) Bluefin


Google says:

The bluefin tuna is distributed throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in subtropical and temperate waters. In the western Atlantic Ocean, it is found from Labrador, Canada, to northern Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico. In the eastern Atlantic Ocean, it is found from Norway to the Canary Islands. In the western Pacific Ocean, it is distributed from Japan to the Philippines. In the eastern Pacific Ocean, it is distributed from the southern coast of Alaska, USA to Baja California, Mexico.

The tonggol is the (Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to New Guinea, north to Japan south to Australia.) Northern Bluefin or Longtail

cheers

Tony

[foggy]

Tony,

Just checked the drag setting I used and it measured 7.4kg on strike and 8.46kg with the lever right up. I did not think this was abnormal. I love the charter special as it still alows me to cast a consideable distance. The first run was about 200m and it took me 15 mins to get back 100 of this. The fish used the strong current around the M2 to his advantage staying deep in the current for most of the fight. Probably would have landed it sooner if we were drifting but we were anchored up. I checked my older charter special and I can only get about 6kgs of drag on it. Maybe it is becuase its new but I have definately got over 8kgs of drag.

[Tony_N]

Thanks for clarifying that Foggy.

I don't think I could get much more than 6 on mine, and I set it somewhere 3 and 4 on strike. Actually believed that 9 would damage the reel since it is really only made for 20lb line. Awesome little reels that you have shown to be even better than I thought.

Tony

[duckbill]

Tony

The proper name is Longtail. Northern Bluefin is just a common name and does not mean much, it could be a white spotted pink striped medium finned tuna and still be a longtail, get my drift? There are so many inaccuracies in fish naming, it's good to try and be consistent where possible.

As far as Grant's is concerned, there are lots of errors in it, I personally trust Fishbase. [smiley=tekst-toppie.gif]