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Southern Bluefin Tuna (Victor Harbour)


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Went out to Victor Harbour last Monday to chase Tuna for the first time.Left 4:30 Am at Morphett Valethingking we are early enough to get a park and we are WRONG!!! We arrived 6:00AM and it's like RUSH HOUR in the city...and no more parking... FInally launced the boat and got a parking half kilometer away ahahaha..... Without any experience only from magazines, posts talking to other people got the knowledge off we go. We've been told that after the Bluff you can start trolling and we did, 1 skirt 10 M away, 20 feet deep diving 15 to 20 M away and another deep diving roughly 25 m away. Got nothing. After couple of hours, we decided to go to the pages, check the map so off we go. We reach the pages by 11:00AM round and round and round with 100's of boats got nothing ahahaha.... tried the school of salmon just to have something to do but even salmon ZERO lol... So we decided to leave by 1:00PM and troll gain going back to Victor got nothing. We saw bunch of boats 10 K before Victor so off we go... and then about 2 K away they them knowing that we are coming they move out from that spot hahaha.... then we roughly stop to where they were and try to drift and we spotted school of fish at the bottom so we anchor... thinking snapper we give it ago so we can at least bring snaps but they are not biting... caught 2 ruggers 1 keeper after 2 hours. So we decide to go home trolling back to Bluff......TO wrap this off, 0 TUNA....lolIt's long (12 hours on the water) and an expensive trip to catch 1 39 cm snapper hahahah... So if anybody could give us tips/ tricks / x spots would be appreciated... Please help!!!! We are planing to go back in two weeks time....

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Best advice is not to give up on trying! Keep on moving the goal posts as it's not just as simple as dragging lures around all day, try surface lures that make a splash and then go under and re surface, try deep diving lures, any sort of lure... red, green, blue, white, red and white, yellow, black and yellow. Try different speeds. Every day is different and I couldn't tell you to go and buy some special lure as it could be the wrong colour on any given day. Another piece of advice is get away all on your own away from the other boats and don't even bother following others.. as soon as another boat comes on the scene the fish will sound and mostly go off the bite. Try different distances out from behind the boat sometimes the best hookups are 15 feet behind your boat in the propwash.I was the first boat out there way before sun up and we got our bag of 4 with and had a triple hookup on the last fish and nearly got spooled on 300 metres of 80 pound braid but my leader wasn't long enough and with so much line out the braid cut on the fishes tail.Here's a pic of yesterday's fishPosted Image

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There's a few guys like Fishie on this site that I listen to, they been there & done it.2 years ago I was fortunate to go to an evening with the SA Game Fishing Club on tuna & it took 2 years to put it into practice .One of the main subjects was about watching those Petrels flying in a particular direction & follow them, which is what we did to catch our first tuna. I heard the same about Tuna near the Bluff & on wards, so we did the same for a half hour, no action then took of looking for the birds first, which we ended up east of the pages, then we did a further 40 ks following the birds & schools of tuna.Same as Fishie, we were first at Victa at 4.20 am during a midweek & waited untill a local informed us about the channel update & get out early as they can go of the chew by 8.30. Speed was lacking in our department I think, but when we bumped it up to 7 knts, thats when we got our first hit. We will be giving it another shot soon, so good luck. B)

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We bagged out by 8am my first time out, left the ramp at 5.30am we trolled skirts and divers at between 12/15kmhr found the fish about 10km east of the Pages…. went out 2 days later and did it all exactly the same and not even a touch…. saw fish and plenty of them, even jumping schools….. but like Moggy said the birds are the key, you will see 3/4 birds heading out follow them they aren't going out for fun :laugh:

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Cheers Fishie and Moggy. That will help us on our next trip..... what sort of wind swell we need to consider before going out. I heareda bit of wind changes water and dangwrous. We got 6.1 m fiber glass carribean boat....I heard tuna bites a bit more now late arvo..

I usually look for those days with northerly breezes around 10 knots, or days with up to a mtr seas & the swell doesn't matter too much, they just roll pass at about 22 knts.A mate caught tuna on the mid day tide change a couple of weeks ago
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g mate, too many boats by the sound of it. get out early! before there spooked and keep trolling, most of mine have been blind this year no birds no bait just big hook ups outa nowhere running 1 short diver and two staggered skirts longer. oh yeh the average troll time from my crew has been 5-6 hours continues with no stopping to power to other spots or boats(your most likely driving over fish doing that and spooking them more) weve averaged 2 per trip up too 13-15ish kg this year but mostly 8-10kg(bigger last year)butstill time im thinking, defenetly tinning out from what im seeing though.

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Mate, as you can probs tell from your replies, there isn’t right and wrong answers. You will also notice, you very rarely read of the donuts on these forums, but ALMOST always hear when people get their limit.Take it all in, and just keep trying is all I can say. The seminar like Moggy mentioned would be a great start, but again, just soak it all in and try it all out.One thing is for sure, getting to the ramp so late will put you behind the 8 ball from the start.Maybe get confident with your boat in low light conditions in the gulf first, but it’s no secret most fish will feed better as the sun is coming up or going down.Aim to be in the “prime” spot during these times.

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Thanks Ale!!!! Yes no giving up this time.... I'll keep all these in mind.... We are confident with the boat as we are out on gulf on times that only us on the water hahaha... however, knowing how is water in Victa and the pages give us advantage....It would help me even more if somebody would invite me on board to their boat chasing tuna.... Sharing for all the expenses is not a problem....

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like the rest say its a matter picking your day , getting out early, follow the birds and try different lures. The most important tip is patience and keep trying. I've been out twice with an experienced fisho and had donuts :boot: have seen fish, trolled through them and past them but no hook ups. I guess it comes down to the day. On both occasions the boat has hooked into fish the very next trip. :clap:

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I've never been keen on the idea of following birds, if you do, keep a mental note of how much your fuel burn is and at what point you seriously need to turn around and head back for shore... take into account adverse sea conditions etc that could deteriorate and see you travelling off the plane and usinfg twice as much fuel on the way home.

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That's why we went back straight after not catching at the pages and troll back to Victa. So if weather changes and turns rough we are close to the ramp...So Fishie where do usually blind troll? We saw few fish while trolling however they are deeper (15-25 M deep). Only got 6 M deep diver that time. Where is saunders bank by the way???

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What you need to do is look at your chart.. legally you are required to have a local chart for the waters that you are fishing in.The best spots to troll is anywhere on your chart that has contour lines in close proximity.. this means that this particular area should have a steep decline or dropoff where the sea current uplifts or swirls around. This upwellng of currents should hold baitfish and predator fish such as the tuna. There is a dropoff east of the Pages and perhaps this is why there is so much baitfish and tuna there. Another good area is the threshold bank where the bottom drops away on all sides. Saunders Bank is a long way offshore and can be quite dangerous in a sou westerly wind as the swell hits the southern end and the swell stands straight up. You'd want it to glass out and have all of the required safety equipment if considering Saunders as the next stop southwards is fishing for pategonian toothfish.

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So, basically from the info I've given.. you're best option is always have one or two lures sitting in your propwash... the tuna will see the shadow of your boat as a big baitball and the propwash will simulate frenzied feeding tuna. Secondly, run along dropoffs etc if you can.If the tuna are smashing the surface or jumping clear of the water then run a lure that skips across the surface. Another bit of advice it to match in size what the tuna are feeding on... if the baitfish are only 50 mm long then match with lures close to the baitfish. If the tuna are big and chasing big baitfish then run big lures.Unfortunately on monday we had our bag by the time we had located the big tuna, they were smashing a school of 35 cm slimies.

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Tennoayell, you mentioned you saw fish down 15 to 25 M and you only had a 6m diver, don't wory, with all the commotion of your boat going over them , if they are on the chew, they will shoot up and grab your Feathers that are skimming the surface tight behind your prop wash running on the face of one of your stern waves.moggy also mentioned a tackle night from 2 years ago, the GFCSA are running another one next wed night, see the post in tournament's for details.It is a prelude night for there annual tournament. this year being run out of memory cove just South of port Lincoln. during the last week in March first week in April.

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Also i remember, we saw school of dolphins swimming in a particular spot for a long time. When we anchor for snapper after a long troll, the school of dolphins are just 100 to 300 m aways moving around and stayed there for an hour. Just wondering if they are like that could there be school of tuna too underneath? We didn't try to chase them we thought it's only dolphins. And at some point we saw a big school of fish on sounder 20 to 40 cm fish pass by and gone.

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  • 1 month later...

Guy`s, my first season on tuna off victor - 1st outing on 09/01/2014, went to the pages-no tuna, boats everywhere, got some snapper on the way back, second outing01/02/2014 out to sanders bank 6 tuna 18-25 kgs on blue & white skirt only, would not touch anything else. 3rd outing on 17/02/2014 Sanders Bank again 6 fish 22-28kgs only on 160mm Halco Bonito or Pilchard deep divers only. 4th outing on 04/03/2014 Sanders Bank again 6 fish 22-32 kgs on anything that was being trolled in the water. I launch at 4-4.30am and we are getting back to the ramp by midday.Hope this helps, by talking with other tuna fisho`s, I have found that the tuna at the pages are generally 6-12 kgs and are spooked easily by all the boat traffic. The Bank is a long way out however if you pick perfect conditions there will be other boats out there and the bigger fish are awesome fun, they also test out every aspect of your tackle.

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Yeah you are correct, however if you do enough research, use the charts, and be a persistent bugger I reckon you have a good chance. What I would like to know is what time of year and on what tides is the best for snapper down our part of the world ?? I have had SOME success however fair bit of hit & miss. Some guidance here would be greatly appreciated.

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  • 6 years later...

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