Encouraged by my success with poppers two weeks back, I hit the water at the crack again yesterday, Good Friday.
The fish were in close all day today. I hooked my first longy before Id drifted to the sharknets. Tailwrapped and on 50lb I had it to the boat in under 5 mins. Today I wanted to take home my girlfriend's first longtail, so I quickly released it. Right about then her only hookup for the day spat the hooks after the first run.
Next up two guys in an outrigger canoe had a huge sweetie on and when they tried to land it they rolled the boat and lost the rod and reel. :shock: I asked him later and he was happy to lose the rod for the good bag they ended up with.
I had another good longy on but ended up tangled in another line and lure and took the pressure off for but a few seconds... goneski!
As the tuna have been slug shy the past few weeks, I spent the day throwing poppers. I got a 2kg GT first up on 20lb and the little Halco Rooster 105 in King Brown.
I released it and a few casts later, hooked another longtail but wasn't up to the challenge.
Whilst trolling up to the rock, this bloke smashed the LP120 and gave me a good old dusting for a while. Definitely an upgrade from the 2-3kg models Ive been landing but still not caught on a popper.
A good cast into a healthy boil had me hooked up to what I thought was another GT when this fellow popped up. I got one on a popper in WA a few years back but this is my first at home.
That little Fat'R's popper was on fire. The next boil I got a shot into, a good longy nailed it. Having turned its head back to the boat after the first run I thought I had him. I saw the leader for a brief moment before he turned and went ballistic. Hanging on I hit the pedals but the line went slack. I looked down to see the braid to backing knot had parted. 9lb mono backing just wasnt enough. Not happy about leaving 50m of braid in the water. Not to mention the popper in the fish.
Not a lot I can do but be better prepared and try to improve my knots. I switched to the fg knot on all my 30lb braid to 40lb leader connections but have struggled to get one to tie satisfactorily in 20lb braid to 25lb leader knots. Does anyone use the fg knot on lighter line? Is there a secret to tying it I'm missing? Is there a better knot?
1:00pm amd we decided to call it a day. After packing up we stood above the beach and watched a huge school of longtails busting up in the bay, 60m from shore.
Awesome day.
