Another fishy West coast report

Over the last few weeks the weather has been kind to us on a few occasions. Winds have dropped and the seas flattened out enough for some great days out on the boat. And, with the warm waters have come Tuna and Spanish Mackerel. Not far offshore, the Longtail Tuna and stripeys have been busting up the bait shoals and, to any switched-on fisher are fair game for some great, light tackle sport. Terns, gulls and auks have been the give away. The birds closely follow the fast moving pelagics around the ocean's surface and, with Lloyd's sharp eye, we have had numerous chances to get close enough to cast lures into the surface mayhem.

Lloyd with a great looking Striped Tuna that fought all the way to the boat on  light tackle

We started with small, sub-surface lures such as the maria duplex, which cast far and matches the size of the bait on which the Tuna were feeding. First cast and Lloyd expertly landed the lure in amongst the boiling fish. And the result, of course, as he started the fast retrieve, was a solid hit followed by a singing Shimano reel.  A little later, when we again managed to get close to the Tuna shoal, the fish moved off pretty fast and, soon, any sign of surface action vanished. Lloyd cast a Shimano Ocea stick bait out and worked it back towards the boat. With little hope of a strike we were surprised to see a good Tuna suddenly surface and smash into the lure. It missed the hooks, but, second time around, it was more determined and a hook up resulted. Exciting fishing indeed!!

A good lure-munching Longtail Tuna for Lloyd

The Longtail I hooked next decided that it wouldn't hang around, but instead head for the horizon. The light hooks on the Maria lure meant I had to keep the drag pretty soft, so after only 30 seconds of screaming reel, the braid was nearly finished. Lloyd and I both saw the backing appear at the same moment and I thought it was all over. But Lloyd was on the throttle and in a second we were after the fast-moving fish, which eventually came to the net after a hard fight.

Longtail Tuna that nearly emptied the small reel in thirty seconds flat.  

In between the high speed Tuna action a spot of jigging was in order to see if any Dhufish might be hanging around in the inshore water despite the continuing high temperatures. Macca didn't waste too much time and soon hooked into a solid fish on a soft plastic lure. It was a dogged fight, but, after a few minutes, a good Dhufish of nearly 10kg came to the boat. Amazingly, people claim these great fish don't fight; use the correct tackle and the experience will be one to remember!

Macca with a good Dhufish that hit a soft plastic hard

A little later Lloyd's rod bent over in an alarming curve as a big fish made off with his butterfly jig. Screaming reels again as he battled the fish off the bottom and towards the boat. Another big Dhufish was a the result. A real result considering that we weren't too hopeful of landing any so close to shore.

Lloyd and a solid jigged Dhu fish

After jigging, a troll was in order to try for a few maccies and it didn't take long for the swimming lures to get well and truly nailed. Thanks, again, to Lloyd, location was the easy bit.  Trying to keep the hooks in proved a bit more tricky.The first two made it to the boat then one was dropped. The day after I fished, Macca was going, finally, to settle his score with Spanish Mackerel. Having lost them before, he had the chance to get even and ,as it happened, hooked into a very good fish that fought deep and hard. Yet again though the fish got the upper hand and made a fast escape as the hooks bent. Better luck next time mate!

Trolled up Spanish Mackerel

Lloyd with a decent Spanish Mackerel