YFT fun
Hooked up with silly on Friday morning to head out chasing yellowfin tuna after catching a few reports here (cheers John) that they were around.
Launched from Mindarie around 6.30am and spent a while motoring to where we wanted to start our run. Dropped the lures in (one Laser Pro and two skirts) and trolled for about an hour without any action. The conditions were perfect but it made for quite uncomfortable trolling because it was hot and humid, there was only a light breeze and we were travelling with it so there was nothing to drop the temp down. Still better than being at work I spose.
Things all changed pretty quickly though with - 1 - 2 - 3 - rods suddenly bending over with drag ratchets going mental. I grabbed the first and Eugene grabbed another but my fish dropped the lure so I turbo wound the lure in and then grabbed the other rod and we both had some fun with fish reluctant to come to the surface. We ended up boating two yellowfin one around 820mm and the other around 550mm.
Kept going for a while finding plenty of huge bait schools but not finding any fish around them before we had another couple of hookups. I boated a stripey around 600mm and then a short while later Eugene dropped a fish before landing another yellowfin around the 800mm mark.
We thought we'd have a crack at dropping jigs on the flareups just off the bottom hoping for kings or sambos but after stuffing around for half an hour with a northerly that had picked up well beyond what we'd expected plus getting fed up with a recalcitrant sea anchor we decided to turn in. We could only sit on around 12 knots heading in because of the wind and chop so we dropped two skirts out the back just incase and ended up with another stripey around 660mm for our troubles.
All up it was a great day on the water - caught some quality fish, met a new FW member and ended up with a great nosh-up later that evening.
(Got some reasonable GoPro footage which I'll put up later too.)
sammy85
Posts: 831
Date Joined: 31/08/10
Good report and nice fish
Good report and nice fish mate can't wait to get out for a troll
Plumber and gas fitter- 0415489103
Wookiee
Posts: 54
Date Joined: 07/05/13
excellentdays fishing. looks
excellentdays fishing. looks like the YFT's are going to be thick this year and its shaping up to be a bumper pelagic season. Bring it on!
Carpe Piscis
Ben85
Posts: 442
Date Joined: 20/11/11
Thanks for the report ben.
Thanks for the report ben. Very nice fish there, would have been a great feed. What depth range were you fishing and any idea of the water temp? Also do you find the fish prefered the skirts or bibs? Would appreciate any feedback cheers/Ben
Ben Derecki
Posts: 1926
Date Joined: 10/10/07
Fish were caught in a mix of
Fish were caught in a mix of depths between 35-45m Ben, not sure what the temps were... I think I remember Eugene commenting on 21 degree surface temp but can't remember for sure.
Re lures; after the first hookup we ended up swapping the only hardbody to a skirt - so most of the day we using skirts. They seemed hungry enough for the skirts when we found them.
silly
Posts: 382
Date Joined: 02/01/09
Good write up Ben D, the pics
Good write up Ben D, the pics came out good!
water temp was 20.5, didnt alter much from that figure from what I saw.
first rod to go off was a laserpro then the other 2 running skirts quickly followed. All the others fish took the skirts as that was all that we're offered to them.
Ben85
Posts: 442
Date Joined: 20/11/11
ok thanks for that guys. good
ok thanks for that guys. good to see the fish are in relatively close. Lets hope the weathers ok for the weekend, its not looking that way at the moment. should of taken a sicky today!
Travisd
Posts: 315
Date Joined: 07/05/11
Bring on summer
Tragic that little one wasn't skipped around for a while Euge!
Baron Sportsman
Just the depth that Varies
dkonig82
Posts: 2091
Date Joined: 06/07/10
veery nice guys
veery nice guys
When asked by a non-fisherman 'how many fishing rods do you really need?' the correct answer is either:
n+1 (where n is the number of fishing rods you currently own); or
n-1 (where n is the number of fishing rods which would cause your significant other to dump you.
Notorious
Posts: 914
Date Joined: 23/02/12
Nice fishWhen you say bait
Nice fish
When you say bait schools, do you mean bait that you spotted on the surface, or seen on your sounder below the boat?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/174055815943047/?fref=nf
Ben Derecki
Posts: 1926
Date Joined: 10/10/07
Yeah on the sounder mate, we
Yeah on the sounder mate, we didn't spot any surface action - few spots where there were loads of birds hanging around but they weren't feeding. Not while we were there anyway... had to be something getting their interest though.
beau
Posts: 4104
Date Joined: 24/01/10
Exciting for us small boat
Exciting for us small boat owners to see them getting caught pretty shallow! Gonna be a top summer for sure thanks for the report Ben!
Ben Derecki
Posts: 1926
Date Joined: 10/10/07
fish 06
Posts: 164
Date Joined: 30/06/13
Was watching you
Was watching you pull away from the jetty on Friday morning
wishing I was going out as well, but life keeps interfering with fishing, slipped on the ramp 2weeks ago & popped my knee :( looks like you had a good day and ended up with a mouth watering feed. Top report keep up the good work
Ben Derecki
Posts: 1926
Date Joined: 10/10/07
Mmm... can't remember any
Mmm... can't remember any bystanders. Must have been up near the cafe?
Bad luck on the knee, lucky it's during the ban if nothing else
Tim
Posts: 2497
Date Joined: 26/09/06
Report
Great report Ben and looks like you guys really suffered with the conditions that day as well.
How heavy was the gear you got them on?
beau
Posts: 4104
Date Joined: 24/01/10
Can I ask what skirts you
Can I ask what skirts you were using and how fast you trolled them? Ive got some richter tornado juniors and I thinks its a jellybabe or something but im not sure if they are too small or not?
silly
Posts: 382
Date Joined: 02/01/09
Beau,was using
Beau,
was using 75mm pink skirts. tornado's or jellybabes all work. dont think they are fussy.. the first hit was on a 190 laserpro then kept going and the other 2 rods went. I like to run at least one laserpro when trolling as you get the rattle of the lure to help entice them. I've caught some good tuna on smallish skirts too so dotn think size makes much difference if they are on. Trolling speed was 7knots right up to 15. Good luck if you give it a crack
fish 06
Posts: 164
Date Joined: 30/06/13
Sitting in the car
Sitting in the car on the unloading jetty
Then out to the rock wall & watched you disappear north
Hope they stay around for a while
crasny1
Posts: 7001
Date Joined: 16/10/08
Thats a strange looking YFT
Thats a strange looking YFT curly fillet on the bottom right off the plate
. Id like one off those please.
Well done guys, top tucka, but I might have had a raw piece or 10.
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
johno
Posts: 468
Date Joined: 20/07/08
Well done top looking fish
Well done top looking fish and sounds like a great day out :)
Cockburn Power Boat Member (CPBA)
PGFC
Ben85
Posts: 442
Date Joined: 20/11/11
Thought I'd bump this post
Thought I'd bump this post back up- anyone chasing tuna this weekend? I'm looking at heading out from ocean reef or Mindarie for a troll.
Has anyone heard of any action over the last week?. I'm thinking 30-40m would be a good place to start, maybe even closer. latest sea surface temp charts seem to have the warmer water in very close (20-30m)
cheers/Ben
beau
Posts: 4104
Date Joined: 24/01/10
Looks like I'll be out
Looks like I'll be out friday, saturday and sunday. I'll be in similar depths out from Pt Peron. Was going off last week for tuna and baitballs but no yellowfin
Ben85
Posts: 442
Date Joined: 20/11/11
cheers beau, hopefully the
cheers beau, hopefully the weather holds up for until Sunday, should get most of the morning in before the wind gets up, bugger all swell though.