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Tuna - Gear Mods
Have you ever been fishing and looked into your collection of tackle and not seen exactly what you wanted? On a recent tuna session I was faced with exactly that. Looking back over the years, especially at some of my most memorable sessions, my lures, soft plastics, hooks, etc. have not always been used exactly as intended. More often than not I have found myself shortening plastic profiles to match the hatch for tuna, making ganged hooks for mackerel, modifying Mepps spinners to chase Murray cod. I usually needed to do this as I hadn't made the weekly trip to my local tackle shop, lol!
Following what was the best longtail tuna session I had in ages, fishing ZMan plastics, TT slugs and Fish Inc. Flanker stickbaits, the bay longtails were back to their usual tricks. The schools were super-spooky, not hitting metals or plastics, and to make things worse the Tax Man (sharks) were working the tuna schools pretty hard as well. This meant I couldn't use the light gear, nor play them for any length of time without getting sharked. So, returning from my fourth arvo trip of trying to land one, I was left frustrated but not beaten. I was determined to come up with something a little different.
A recent trip to Spotlight (a material shop) with my partner Kiri provided me with the perfect opportunity to buy some materials to build a modified fly that I could throw on spin gear. I know it sounds a little nuts but I wanted to throw a presentation that would represent a baitfish that had just been hit by a tuna and was falling lifeless through the school. You know, an easy meal scenario. Unfortunately I had given all of my fly tying gear to my brother years ago, so with roll of cotton and a few 3/8oz and 1/2oz TT Lures jigheads, I proceeded to make my own spin flies. I got some white feathers and tied them just behind the jigs head, then once tied a few dabs of super glue locked it all together. The TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jighead, with the 'head lock' gap between the head and grub keeper is especially effective as in gives you an area to lock down the feathers, while also being built on a brutally strong hook. The hard core trout fly guys will be hating the look of this modified fly but for a tuna I was confident this was a game changer.
Test Time
The perfect afternoon came around, light winds, clear and sunny. You couldn't ask for a better day. Although there were quite a few boats hitting the schools, I still managed to find my own little patch where I could place a cast without getting hassled by anyone. As I drifted into the school I had a look at the sounder and it was lit up, with sharks! I had my work cut out for me. An hour rolled past and I had managed three good hook ups but got nothing into the boat.
Eventually I came across a bait school that was huddled up tight and as soon as the boat drifted into range the bait fish sought refuge underneath. I thought 'it's now or never' and I quickly lobbed the fly out and let it sink for a few seconds... BOOM, fish on! In no time at all it had peeled tonnes of line off and because I had drifted into the school with the motor off, panic soon ensued. Drag screaming in one hand and frantically starting the engine to chase with the other. Following about ten minutes of the frantic tuna freight train fight, I managed to land a 98cm longtail on my homemade spin fly. So stoked!
The next hour saw more hook ups and crazy freight train runs, unfortunately once again I struggled to keep them pinned. As I made my way back home I came across another school that was smashing the bait pretty hard. I chose my other fly this time and once again lobbed it in and let it sink. Sure enough I was locked on again and this one went really hard. The battle was tense. Ten minutes to get a glimpse of it and when I did, holy gees it was solid. It was a lot bigger than the 98cm model.
It saw me and boom another 200 metres of line was gone. During the fight I managed to keep it away from at least one shark and then the twenty minute mark rocked up. The inevitable happened and I got sharked. In the back of my mind I knew the time was going to be a deciding factor and sure enough it went the tax man's way. I managed to get the head back... with some meat, lol.
Throughout the session I threw metals and plastic and only managed one bump on plastic. Any tuna fisherman will tell you that they are painful to get a hook up at the best of times... but aren't most fish? Sometimes you just need to get creative and modify your gear slightly to get the bite. I might go have a crack at tuna on fly next... with a fly rod, lol.
Tips for Targeting Tuna
Match the hatch. My go-to's are ZMan 3.75" StreakZ on 1/2oz or 3/8oz TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jigheads, the Fish Inc. Lures Flanker sinking stickbaits or TT Lures Hard Core metals... and of course my modified TT Lures jighead fly. I will cycle through all of these until I find one that works on the day.
Stealth. Don't drive onto the school as quick as you can, tuna get super-spooky with engine rpm changes. When possible identify which direction the school is working and drift onto them. They tend to push the bait into the wind or current and doing this will get you a couple of minutes of hitting the school.
Combos. Have a few combos ready to go. I tend to use Okuma 4000 Azores spinning reels paired with 3-6kg Helios rods and 8000 Azores spinning reels matched to PE 2.0-4.0 Pressure Point rods. When the sharks are out you need to knock the tuna over quickly.
Isolate. Try to find you own patch of tuna and take your time. Boats screaming in from all directions is only going to make things more difficult.
Good luck get amongst it!
Gear List
TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jigheads
TT Lures Hard Core metal slugs
ZMan 3.75" StreakZ
Fish Inc Lures Flanker 85mm sinking stickbaits
Fish Inc Lures Flanker 115mm sinking stickbaits
Okuma Azores Blue spinning reels - 4000 / 8000
Okuma Helios spinning rod - 3-6kg
Okuma Pressure Point Jig / Popping rod - PE 2.0-4.0