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Hot Tuna
It’s no
secret that my biggest passion (apart from my family) is fishing for
Barra and as some one aptly put it, there’s only two fish in the sea and
they both begin with “B” Barra and By-catch! But I do have some other
smaller (they are now) interests that are basketball and greyhounds. Now
you may well ask what has this all to do with fishing? Well basketball
is how I found all about fishing for barra, I was playing in the
Master’s with a bunch of guys and when we toured the North I would go
fishing and that’s how I met Lumpy and got hooked on Barra. That’s
cleared that bit up and on to the greyhounds, to cut a long story short
and get to the fishing bit. I had got hooked up with a decent bloke at
Deeral, Stan Montague and found myself with some pups. I was on my way
to deliver some to Stan, Lumpy had decide we were of fishing and had
organised to meet at the boat ramp and go chasing Mac-Tuna off the
Franklin islands. Whew! That was a bit long winded but it got us to the
boat ramp.
I duly arrived at the ramp, after being late, Lumpy was at the ramp and
I was at Stan’s (another senior moment!)! We finally head out from the
Heads and rip out around the Islands, looking for birds working and the
fish chopping up the bait. It wasn’t long before we were right in the
action, long casts were the order of the day and mine always seem to
fall short! it wasn’t long before the big fella was into a fish and
don’t they go, the line was fairly ripping off the reel. These fish are
power packed and take some work to get them to the boat, it soon has its
throat cut and in the esky.
For those technically minded, we were using Angler 2000 spin sticks,
Shimano Sahara 4000’s loaded with 20lb Braid and Rio silver slugs on the
terminal end. Apparently the trick is to have the spool fully loaded,
other wise the lure falls short, as was the case with mine. It doesn’t
take much to spook the school and we were soon of to try a bigger mob.
Now I’m up the front of the boat, rod at the ready ,we go roaring in, I
go to cast and Lumpy kills the motor, two steps forward and one step
back and I’m nearly in thee ocean with the fish! And of course Lumpy has
hooked up again! Same deal, fish swimming all over the ocean, ripping of
the line and finally boated.
The next time I was ready and gave a massive cast, there was a crack
like a pistol shot and the lure whistled of into mystic. Good job, it
was one of his!
We soon got closer to a bigger school that were holding over a big
school of bait that also was holding over a pinnacle (which was duly
GPS-ed). Finally I was on and stuff me if Lumpy wasn’t on as well! You
would think he’d pull out wouldn’t but No, here we all dancing the tango
in the back of the boat, playing pass the rod and wouldn’t you know ,I
was the one to lose the fish and another one of Lumpy’s lures.
He had another outfit already set up so I pelted that out and was
rewarded with an instant hook up. It’s not a bad look when you see the
fish grab that silver slug and then hammer off. This fish I had to
myself and I let it run about for awhile getting the feel of the fish
working against the drag. No Ariel antics fore these fish just plenty of
blue collar work, trying to bust you off or pull the hooks.
It to was soon in the esky, now a lot of people don’t like this type of
fish but marinated in lime, soy and a bit of white wine then whacked on
a hot bbq plate for a couple of minutes ,leaving them a bit “blue” in
the middle. They come up ok, serve it up with a green salad and a
beverage of your choice, nothing better!
We had caught about six fish (I came good in the end) and dropped that
many easily, so we finally called it a day.
It had turned out a real “Bonza” of a day the water was as clear as, the
wind had dropped and although we had great fun on the Tuna, the
highlight for me was yet to come!
As we headed back to the Franklins to clean and fillet the fish, Lumpy
suddenly swerved to the left and we spotted about a dozen big Manta Rays
gliding around in the current of the shipping channel! Taking no notice
of the boat even gliding up close enough to take a pic (which didn’t do
it justice). What a magic moment, we spent some minutes just watching
them! I had seen these fish before but not in these numbers and not that
close, unbelievable!
What an end to a great fishing session, it only lasted a couple of hours
but was action packed all the way. It may not be Barra fishing but it
sure is fun!
Jim
Lee. |
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