Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Bay-Harbour » Chasing Bay Tuna

Chasing Bay Tuna

By Sean Bekkers

Last year wasn't the easiest for chasing down schools of tuna, now whether I wasn't looking hard enough or my timing was off I couldn't tell you, however when I found a school the other day, I wasted no time chasing them down. Some schools had tuna pushing 10-15kg (absolute barrels when it comes to Moreton Bay longtails) and other schools around the 2-4kg. The smaller schools were made up of mack, longtails and yellowfin. The yellows were lit up too, with a lot of them coming clean out of the water. As you can imagine my anticipation went through the roof in the hope of getting a hook up. A good mate of mine Mikey was out with me and although not a diehard fisho like me he was also keen to hook up.

When targeting tuna you really do need to 'match the hatch', which can be a hard thing to do when they're feeding on small (extremely small!) bait. If you check the water after they've destroyed a bait school, there is usually some dead fish floating around, the size, shape and colour of these dead fish is what you have to try and match. On this morning that didn't help us because they left no clues as to what they were eating.

We spent around two hours chasing the school all over the place and throwing everything you can think of... metals, soft plastics and stickbaits until eventually I got a nice hook up on a ZMan 5" StreakZ in Pearl colour, rigged on a 1/2oz TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jighead. As Mikey had never hooked a tuna I handed the rod over to him before the tuna had realised it was hooked. Mikey said "what do I do"? My response was really simple "hang on!" Almost on cue the tuna tore off on that unmistakable run!

Because the schools were so spooky, the gear used was only 20lb leader and 20lb braid. After a good tussle the leader eventually wore through, resulting in one point to the tuna. We continued in pursuit of the schools for a while longer before heading home. An awesome morning on the water but we were both left a little defeated. On the way in the fisheries pulled me up for an icebox check and chat. The icebox was easy as there was nothing in there, lol, but they did mention that everyone they had spoken to had said the same thing "the tuna are super spooky and hard to hook", in fact the fisheries said we were the first boat they had spoken to who had actually hooked one.

During the working week I went to my local fishing tackle shop and restocked for a sneaky arvo session, with a mix of 1/2oz and 3/4oz TT HeadlockZ HD jigheads and 2.5" Slim SwimZ (Blue Glimmer) and 3.75" StreakZ (Pearl). The plan was very simple. I had a three hour window after work to head out and smack some schools. I pre-rigged three rods with a Pearl 5" ZMan StreakZ, 3.75" StreakZ and a 2.5" Slim SwimZ on three different weighted rods. The mission had been locked.

Day 2: Arvo of Reckoning

Earlier in the week I had arranged to leave work a little earlier, so it was game on. I woke to check the weather and saw that the wind was gusting 30-35km on my intended fishing location, so I spent all morning at work watching the wind and contemplating not going out at all. Come 11am and the wind had started to drop and follow the forecast. Sitting and waiting (I mean working) seemed to drag on forever until my stage left exit. I made it back home in record time and once again my anticipation of landing a fish was huge.

It was a clear sunny day and blowing a solid 15 knots onshore. I shot out the front and started patrolling the water, looking for the tell tail sign of tuna smashing bait. The chop on the surface made it pretty tricky to spot the schools from any great distance and the first two schools I came across disappeared before I even got to them.

One and a half hours into the trip and not even getting a cast in, I was starting to get a little frustrated. I decided to head further out and run back with the chop, getting a clearer view of the schools busting up and with tuna predominately feeding into the wind, I could drift onto the school rather than chase and scare them off.

The first school I came across seemed to have some good size longtails amongst them. Throwing the 3.75" in first resulted in nothing, so I quickly put the rod back down and scaled back to a 2.5" Slim SwimZ. My next cast was on point and landed right in the middle of the school. After letting it sink for a minute my Slimmy got smashed and the unmistakable tuna run began. Unlike the previous trip, I had attached a 30lb short trace to my 20lb leader, just to give me a little more wear resistance. So, it became a battle of patience. After 15 minutes and about a thousand laps around the boat I had landed a solid longtail and I was so stoked, as it had been a long time since I landed a bay longtail. I wasn't sure on weight but it went mid 80's and on light gear it was a heap fun.

I decided that the next time I hit the school I would change it up, opting to tie on an 85mm Fish Inc. Flanker in Clear Pearl colour. Knocking the engine into gear, I caught up to the school again and just as I cast the school dived. Instead of winding back as fast as possible, I chose to let the lure sink hoping there would be a couple of fish just sitting down deep, cleaning up the stragglers. Sure enough it got smashed, game on!

Now this fish played up completely differently. It stayed high on the surface and went hammering off in all directions. At first I thought I had hooked a mackerel. It proceeded to accelerate past the boat and I caught glimpse of what turned out to be a mack tuna only about 40cm long. I was thinking... man this thing is going hard, on what was to be its last dash past the boat before I saw the tax man shoot out from under my boat, massive blunt snout on it too. With the shark between me and the tuna I opened the bail and let the tuna go, however after a tense battle of speed unfortunately the shark got the better of it.

Disappointment with losing my fish and my lure, I jumped down off the casting deck and started looking for the next lure. I flicked the bail arm back over and started winding in, only to realise I had actually managed to hook the shark that had eaten my mac tuna. How the hell did I hook this! The shark was nearly as long as my boat, so as you can imagine the fight was over real quick. It got me thinking, hats off to those peeps who chase tuna in kayaks... you guys are nuts! That's directed at you Paddle Guy ;).

The rest of the arvo was spent casting with little success, however I had achieved my goal of landing a quality tuna for the table and once again something new, I had never had the tax man steal my fish. Pretty sick way to tick of a midweek session.

Day3: Kids Day Out

Following my success on the midweek session, I had two very keen daughters who wanted to land a tuna of their own. Both Kaitlin and Maia, 11 and 8 at the time of writing, have chalked up some awesome catches over the years but this was to be Maia's first trip running outside. I'm going to put it out there right now, this trip was by far the best session I have had for ages.

Saturday morning came and under the cover of darkness we snuck out. As we approached our intended fishing spot first light cracked the horizon and before we knew it we had crept into a school. Kaitlin wasted no time grabbing a rod and placing a cast right in the middle. I put a cast in for Maia and within seconds both of them were hooked up to some 80cm models, which just about tore their arms off!

With the sun being low and the water almost black we could use the heavier gear and this allowed the girls to back the drags off and let the fish run without the risk of losing the fish (saving their arms). The next hour saw us land 5 fish and by the time Kaitlin landed her third tuna she needed a break. Maia had landed 2 and with probably the proudest dad in the world by this stage, they let me have a crack. I managed to land one before the sun came up.

Once the sun was up the tuna got a lot harder to convince. Throwing softies didn't result in a hook up this session and unlike the other day, today was all about the metals. Fish Inc. 85mm Flanker sinking stickbaits and TT Lures Hard Core metal slugs seemed to be the perfect size. In fact I know they were the perfect size because I lost heaps of them, LOL. The photos speak a thousand words but the final tally was 8 fish boated, 4 to Kaitlin, 2 to Maia and 2 to me.

Whenever we are all fishing it is super competitive and unfortunately I lost first spot to Kaitlin with an 82cm fish, second to Maia with an 80cm model and me, well I rounded things out with a 78cm. This, along with seeing the sharks smash our fish, made for a pretty incredible experience and one that the girls won't forget anytime soon... in fact they are already planning our next trip out.

All in all, tuna can be an incredibly frustrating fish to target but when you nail the presentation it is game on!

Gear List:

ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ
ZMan 3.75" StreakZ
ZMan 5" StreakZ

TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jigheads - 1/2oz and 3/4oz

TT Lures Hard Core metal slugs

Fish Inc. Lures 85mm Flanker sinking stickbaits

Okuma Azores Blue Spinning Reels - 4000 and 8000 size

Okuma Pressure Point Spinning Rods

Okuma Helios spinning rods

20lb and 40lb braid