18/01/10 back of carnac

A mate had spoken about a guaranteed feed of whiting behind carnac at a particular depth. "Just find the water at XXm deep, directly behind carnac and u'll be straight onto em, guaranteed."

Well on the way out we saw a heap of bird working the surface and i was keen to give it a go, as i have never really done any of that sort of fishing. raiding trough the miscellaneous section of the tackle box, and managed to find a 4" stick bait lure that i thought would do the job. Coasted up to the action and cut the engine. Worked the lure hard for 20 mins with no hook ups. Very frustrating when i could see the little tuna right infront of me, following the lure but not striking. finally managed to nail one and get him into the boat. little tuna at 40cm. Little schools kept popping up all over the joint and we  kept playing chasiey with them, picking the drift and stopping just short of the action and drifting through it before the disappeared to the deep only to resurface  100m away in 2 different directions. 

A huge bit of action was spotted "just over there". My Mate Jemma was behind the wheel and she dropped me right on the action (she's a much better deckie that any of the boys). By this time i had switched to a small halco slice in a bid to replicate what they were feeding on. amongst the tuna where a heap of YTK at a respectable 60 to 80cms. hooked another tuna. in the eski and back to it. got a solid hook up right next to the boat and i could see it was a sizable YTK, I was surprised at how little fight he put up, considering i was only on 2kg line and as i reached for the landing net... POP. a bust off. So much for the lack of fight, probably didn’t realise he was hooked until the bust off. Very disappointing. I knew that drag was set too tight. No one to blame but me.

Try as we might we chased the school around for 2 hours in total and only managed 2 fish. It was an awesome sight to see these fish right at the boat and following the lures but very frustrating not to convert to strikes et alone hook ups.

Anyway, change of tactic and off to hit some whiting...... and it was a total non event. not a one.

So home ward bound with only a hand full of squid and a couple of little tuna in the eski; but I'm glad to have put another species on the board albeit with the frustration on nearly putting 2 species on the board. I also saw my first flying fish. Great day in all. beats going to work on a Monday.

Now to the questions. Has anyone had any success with casting into these schools and if so, what sort of lures where you using and what breaking strain line would be best?

Also, has anyone stumbled onto schools of tuna in that area that are bigger than 40cm?

And lastly is it a good idea to bleed out tuna as soon as they are caught? I didn't think about it all the excitement of all the fish exploding around the boat and when i went to fillet them, i found the flesh around the lateral line very bloody. Haven’t cooked them yet thou.

If anyone needs a deckie or a boat to go and chaise tuna, drop me a PM. I'm keen to learn. Cheers

Adam


Faulkner Family's picture

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Date Joined: 11/03/08

yeah they get bigger and you

Mon, 2010-01-18 18:37

yeah they get bigger and you have to bleed them straight away and if you have a jimi spike do that first so the flesh doesnt get damaged . sounds like a great but frustrating day but i would be going for a 20lb line next time, if you get onto the 5 to 6kg ones that sometimes hang around you wouldnt stand a chance even with a very loose drag

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RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together

Posts: 145

Date Joined: 02/02/09

Yeah i noticed one o the

Mon, 2010-01-18 18:45

Yeah i noticed one o the fillets had a bit of a mushy spot in it. How does it get damaged? Is that from if they are trashing around in the kill tank?

Faulkner Family's picture

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Date Joined: 11/03/08

spot on. the way those

Mon, 2010-01-18 18:58

spot on. the way those things thrash around they get bruised realy quick. go to Oceanside before your next trip out and get a jimi spike and ask them for advice on where to spike them.. takes a bit of practice and each fish is slightly different. you will be pleased with the taste diff in all fish

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RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together

PJAY's picture

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Date Joined: 12/05/09

hi slothwan i hooked into

Mon, 2010-01-18 18:52

hi slothwan i hooked into the schools on saturday by trolling  around them at about 8knots. using halco slices and picked up 4. did samw again on sunday and even tried casting into them but they were a lot more skiddish . a soon as we approached the school they dived every time.  great fun on the hook up though. first ever for me.

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The Kimberley....perfect one day and more perfect the next!!!

Feral's picture

Posts: 1508

Date Joined: 01/11/06

down here im trolling

Mon, 2010-01-18 19:01

down here im trolling ricther lures if im trolling .. funny enough a largish "dorado" in pink and purple .. the smaller rod gets a ricthers metal jet head with a blue and silver colour . .. got double hookups on 5-6 kg fish for the last 2 weeks .

if your going to cast at them i can recomend soft placs in a white colour (about 2 inch long) and 8lb line for great fun .. if your using heavier line use a 3 inch snapback in pink

hope you get a few :)

 

wopjrb's picture

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Date Joined: 05/03/09

sounds like fun mate

Mon, 2010-01-18 19:28

pity abou the whitin tho ive noticed theyve been scarce

Brody's picture

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Date Joined: 06/02/07

TT Assassin 30gm metal slug

Mon, 2010-01-18 20:32

TT Assassin 30gm metal slug if you can find them. They are awesome for chucking into tuna schools.

biggerfish's picture

Posts: 669

Date Joined: 02/03/09

we have been getting them

Mon, 2010-01-18 20:51

we have been getting them for the last month we have had more luck casting than trolling. Weve been using halco slices for casting. If u see the birds and tuna smashing the surface drive flat out at them and when u are about 20-30 meters away cut the motor and let the boat glide into the school have the rods ready and cast where they are smashing the surface. let the lure sink for about 5 sec then give it a jerk wind flat out give it a jerk let it sink wind jerk sink jerk wind  wind sink jerk wind etc you have got to make it look like a injured baitfish we have been hooking them as close as a meter to the boat awesome fun on 5kg braid . Havent got any huge ones yet but they are great  fun on the bream rods. any size slices will work but better to match the baitfish size. try the tuna recipe that was posted on here tastes better than can tuna. If we get a calm afternoon this week I'l be going out leaving for  bali saturday so gotta get my weekly fix send me your number and il call u if im going out

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Play hard fish harder

Bodie's picture

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Date Joined: 05/11/07

sounds like a great little

Mon, 2010-01-18 20:54

sounds like a great little session mate, those tuna can be frustrating at times.

had some out a little wider around rotto, and one flock of birds would have been 500 birids big!!!! those tuna were 60ish cms i guess.

Always looking for deckies, will let you know when im heading out and need one :)

FishOn570's picture

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Date Joined: 14/10/09

bigger tuna

Mon, 2010-01-18 21:58

yeh those tuna are around hard at the moment got onto a huge school 20 mile or so west off hillaries last sunday and drifted with them for a good 2 hours it was my first tuna experience and lures were flying everywhere the winner was a halco metal slice but they were smaller about 60 cm's or so to start with but after 40 minutes or so the bigger ones came on the chew and we pulled out few nice fat 80-85cm which served well for a very fresh lunch. good fun on the light spinning gear and 15lb braid .... just dont forget wire trace!!!

Paul_86's picture

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Date Joined: 27/03/09

3 mile tuna

Tue, 2010-01-19 08:05

Ive seen a few small schools on the 3 mile the last few weeks, the bait fish were taking cover around the boat and only looked to be about 30mm in lenght. So i tried flicking a few small metals into the busting up schools but everytime i motored upto them they went down. Was still exciting just watching them though.

HuggyB's picture

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Date Joined: 03/08/08

caught a couple

Tue, 2010-01-19 08:18

maybe a week or 2 back. Did 2 trolling passes and got one each time on a halco 190DD - probably around the 50cm mark from memory, but didn't measure them.

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Paul_86's picture

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Date Joined: 27/03/09

tried trolling skirts

Tue, 2010-01-19 08:24

I tried trolling a few small skirted lures around without succes either, ill give the deep diving hard bodies a go next time then. Care to share what colour halco did the damage huggy?

HuggyB's picture

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Date Joined: 03/08/08

fluro green

Tue, 2010-01-19 08:59

if memory serves me correctly?

 

But we had 2 identical lures out at virtually the same distance back from the boat, and mine was the only one hit, so maybe the colour isn't that important?

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Leader

Tue, 2010-01-19 09:05

Yours had leader gazzas was Braid to swivel to lure.

HuggyB's picture

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Ah, I see

Tue, 2010-01-19 09:12

didn't even notice that!

 

thats why you're the skipper and I'm the non skipper occasional fish catchering guy.

 

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                    The Terrorist - coming to a fishing spot near you.........

Paul_86's picture

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Date Joined: 27/03/09

cheers

Tue, 2010-01-19 10:30

ok cool, thanks for that. I mite try mixing it up a bit next time.

Lamby's picture

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biggerfish has it spot on,

Tue, 2010-01-19 08:32

biggerfish has it spot on, we used the same tactics at west end with good success! Jeez they are fun little 'bullets' on light gear

Ewan's picture

Posts: 271

Date Joined: 15/05/06

5 or 10g halco twistys for

Tue, 2010-01-19 08:34

5 or 10g halco twistys for me! you can't fail with these when they are smashing the small bait. Which means you need the light line = fun fun fun! and you're in a boat so there's no reason why you cant land a largish one. They just take a while when they are circling under the boat! Then you just motor forward to get some angle and angle them up...

dallasthedog's picture

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Date Joined: 22/04/09

I came across a  school of

Tue, 2010-01-19 10:13

I came across a  school of tuns on hale raod reef last year - i killed the eninge and casted un weighted ganged mulie with no luck - i saw on a fishing show a technicque called "cubing" - it is involves chucking cubes of mulies into the water every min or so and wait for the school to approach

scottnofish's picture

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i got 4 in 2 min

Tue, 2010-01-19 12:52

on the weekend trolling christmas trees lures wernt in the water for more than 30 sec before each hookup secret is match the hatch they are feeding on blue bait size fish so big lures dont work as well as somthing that is about 2inchs long . gilleies do little 15 /20 gram whitebait and bluebait lures wich are what i use when casting but the trick is to try and get in front off the school and drift back into them with the motor off , less noise to spook them the better . and any more than 4 kilo line just isnt any fun 2 kilo is best as you get to fight them longer but 4 kilo for trolling as the drag of the line and lure in the water is enough to pop 2 kilo on the troll

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Date Joined: 25/05/09

Yeh mate i got 4 tuna

Tue, 2010-01-19 20:34

Yeh mate i got 4 tuna yesterday while i was offshore near rotto , massive school seen birds diving into the water every where went over there n chucked a lure in n managed 4 . all around 4 kg , n 80 85 cm long was the most amazing expereicne i have had fishing in my life, tuna SMASHING a lures  n they were schooling n jumping out of the water insane !! i love every minute of it. n they go HARD

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living is fishing

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Date Joined: 25/05/09

Yeh mate i got 4 tuna

Tue, 2010-01-19 20:34

Yeh mate i got 4 tuna yesterday while i was offshore near rotto , massive school seen birds diving into the water every where went over there n chucked a lure in n managed 4 . all around 4 kg , n 80 85 cm long was the most amazing expereicne i have had fishing in my life, tuna SMASHING a lures  n they were schooling n jumping out of the water insane !! i love every minute of it. n they go HARD

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living is fishing