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5 Tips - Casting for Southern Bluefin Tuna
By Luke Smith
Tackle Preparation
Southern bluefin tuna, or SBT, are a pelagic species that love to fight hard and pull some serious string. For this reason, tackle preparation must be up to scratch and ideally done before you are out on the water. It's a lot easier to tie on new leaders and lures, check hooks and other rigging while you are still at home, rather than out on the water and in a panic as tuna are busting all around you.
My routine is to lay out the rods that I intend to take with me the night before. I go through them one at a time, checking each guide to make sure none were damaged on the previous trip. I then check each leader for damage, the length, the connection and I check the last couple of meters of braid before the connection. If any of these show signs of damage or wear, or the leader is too short, I will cut off the leader and tie on a new one via an FG knot.
For most of my tuna casting the standard leader is 50lb Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader. Rarely do I have to go lighter as I don't have trouble getting bites and I usually don't go heavier, unless there are bigger fish about or big kingfish mixed in with the tuna. At the business end I connect the lure via a loop knot, or alternatively I tie on a small crane swivel, via a uni-knot and use a split ring to attach the lure. The loop knot is great and offers plenty of movement to the lure, however the swivel and split ring allows for easy lure changes and it does not change your leader length. Once the rods are rigged up, I then check over the lures, making sure that all the hook points are sharp and ready to go.
Game Plan
It's quite easy to get out on the water and be overwhelmed with the situation. You can have ten different ideas running through your mind and get caught in the middle, without effectively committing to one. Time on the water and experience helps to prevent/overcome this issue, however I think about the possibilities and how I will tackle each one as they arise the night before heading out. By having a clear mind and a game plan in place, it makes it easy and stress free to adapt to the situation as it changes.
It might be as simple as knowing when to give up on a school of fish that aren't feeding and finding a school that is. Too often I hear of people saying that they were casting at a school for several hours without a hook up. Whilst it's hard to leave a school of fish, you need to weigh up the situation and take the risk to get the reward. By having a game plan in place, a lot of these decisions have already been made and it takes the stress and anxiety out of the situation. The key part is just to back your gut feeling and stick to the plan, don't get caught in between.
Stealth
At times we are blessed with schools of busting bluefin, smashing helpless baitfish and they could not care less about the boat that is idling thirty metres away or the lures that are landing on their heads. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. More often it's the other way around, where the school spooks as the boat approaches or when the lure splashes right above their heads.
In winter we are more likely to encounter feeding fish that aren't as shy, however these fish are usually around the 10-12kg mark. The summer run of bluefin usually averages around 18kg with some 30-40kg fish mixed in. These fish are usually slower moving and are rarely seen busting up on bait schools with working birds. Instead the fish sit on or just under the surface and mill around, slowly eating tiny bait. In this situation I prefer to take my time and approach slowly. There is no point rushing in full noise and scaring them before the lures can hit the water.
Assess where the wind is coming from and slowly work upwind of the fish. When in position, kill the motor and let the wind push you toward the fish in silence. This also allows you to work with the wind and gain valuable yardage on the cast. The use of an electric motor can also be priceless in this situation, just don't forget to lift it each time you jump on the main motor.
Technique
Following on from the above, the technique is just as important. There is no point creeping up on some shy fish only to bomb a lure in the middle of the school and have them spook. It is important to read the fish and predict their movements, then cast slightly in front of the school and further then required. This allows the lure to splash down away from the fish, the retrieve can then be started and the lure working when it intercepts the front of the school.
Retrieve styles need to be varied on each school to find what the fish want on that day. The simple straight crank is always a good starting point. If the fish are hungry this will usually do the job, however at times a slight mix up will work better. Throwing in some short pauses (burn and kill) or short bursts of speed can be enough to trigger the fish to bite.
The next retrieve options that I use are the more traditional "GT" styles. I start by making long casts ahead of the school, keep the rod tip low and begin sweeping the rod from left to right or vice versa. Start with the rod pointed down and towards the lure, then sweep the rod tip away from the lure and repeat. As soon as the sweep is finished, start winding in the slack to keep in contact with the lure so that when the next sweep begins you are moving the lure. With some practice this is a simple but versatile retrieve that can be the difference between a bite or not.
If a fish is following or strikes but misses the lure, just keep going. They will usually commit or get fired up more. This retrieve can also be modified with longer sweeps and pauses in between or shorter sweeps and faster winding, just making the lure dance side to side at a good pace. The main thing is just to keep mixing it up until you find what they want on that day.
Paying Attention & Perseverance
Some days we are blessed and the tuna will just smash anything that is put in front of them, while on other days we cast all day to only have a few follows and no bites. The days when they eat everything are super fun and enjoyable, however you learn a lot more from the tough days. Be observant and note how the fish react to different retrieves and even lure styles or colours. Also pay attention to the weather conditions on these days as they may all help to make the puzzle pieces fit. Keeping a diary is handy for things like this. For example, on a bright sunny day a tuna might show no interest to the natural pilchard presentation but instead will smash the hot pink stick bait. Next trip out is on a dark overcast day and you start with the hot pink lure from last trip with no luck, so you swap to the blue pilchard pattern and instantly hook up. This example is something that often happens in all forms of lure fishing and it comes down to being observant and persisting instead of just giving up.
By paying attention and learning from these situations you might then try and predict the lure colour to suit the conditions. Another handy tip is to start with multiple rods rigged with different colours. This makes it easy to pick up another rod and try a different colour, rather than having to tie on a new lure each time.
Hopefully the above info helps improve your results.
The great thing with fishing is that there is no right or wrong way to do things, just find what works best for you.
Cheers, Luke
Gear List:
Fish Inc. Hooker 110mm Sinking Stickbait
Fish Inc. Right Wing 120mm Sinking Stickbait
Fish Inc. Tighthead Prop 140mm Sinking Stickbait
Fish Inc. Hooker 160mm Sinking Stickbait
Fish Inc. Fullback 190mm Floating Stickbait
Fish Inc. Scrum Half 140mm Popper