After spending most of this summer chasing yellowfin whiting around the Peel estuary system, primarily to avoid the yahoos at the various boat ramps throughout the school holidays, I finally decided to haul the old girl out of the shed, dust her off, kick her in the guts and give her a bit of a run offshore.

The day started not too flash when my tie up rope let go of the jetty while I was parking the vehicle, forcing me to jump in after my ride...ordinarily would've been quite refreshing but today there was a lovely diesel slick wafting across the marina! On that sour note, it was off to the FFB, where some microjigging produced three blown hookups, one of those yellow footballer things, and a miniscule flathead.  I know there are bigger flatties all along the back edge, and for anybody interested, I reckon micojigging would be the way to go for them...ambush predator's smorgasbord!

Anyway, headed out to my old demersal stomping grounds, and as I approached one of my more reliable spots, the little pink/white christmas tree skirt I was trolling got belted. Took all the 30 lb braid off my little Calcutta, and into the mono backing. Was able to chase down the offender with the boat, get some line back, and then settle in for what turned out to be a half-hour slugfest, knowing full well it was a tuna of some sort, courtesy of the deep, circling battle. I knew it had to be of good size, and figured it for a yellowfin or perhaps a bigeye. When the deadlock was finally broken, up came 12.3 kg of the biggest southern bluefin I have seen in local waters.

Gave the nearby bottom spot a couple of PE3 drifts for no result, then buggered off back in to get that puppy on ice!

Cause it was a solo mission, and I've only just worked out the timer on my phone camera, the pic is not the best but at least it tells the story! Thanks for reading!

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