Tips for targeting tuna

The windy weather continues here on the Fraser coast. But we now have a northerly wind in the mix too – which is regular at this time of year as the temperature climbs to summer levels. The fishing however has not built to match. targeting tuna

Usually I would encounter many schools of hungry surface-feeding mack and a few longtail tuna through September. Not this year though, and it’s a bit of a surprise considering how many tuna we caught through winter when only targeting fish in deep schools. targeting tuna

Maybe the tuna were working areas I haven’t seen before. By early October mack tuna had arrived in decent numbers and this made fishing a heap easier. Still, not too many longtails lurking around. targeting tuna

Most times tuna are relatively easy to catch using a fast retrieve, but they can get difficult if they’re eating small bait, which is very common here. If you see a lone longtail in the school, target it. I find that the fish doing the bulk of the baitfish herding, tend to be fussiest. Up here they would be the mack tuna.

With this in mind, if you see the sounder light up under some tuna it is often easy money dropping lures into the fish because they might be different species working with the tuna, and for the most part they are extremely easy to catch. I tell anglers to ignore the tuna if they are fussy and drop below.

When I say it’s easy, I don’t mean they hook themselves and I often see anglers miss bites. If you follow me on social media, it’s common to hear me announce to the angler that they actually have a fish on. These are the times I watch the rod tips.

As you can imagine it’s hard to watch every angler every moment on every drop.
I get asked how I can tell and it’s purely being observant enough to notice the subtle changes in the tackle as the lure is worked.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE!!!

If you’d like to book a charter with Tri, visit the Fraser Guided Fishing Facebook page or website.