Any Longtail Tuna gurus here ?

[Sam Walker]

HI all, it's been a while since I dropped in here and since our local (Gove, NT) Longtail Tuna season is getting close I thought I'd ask if any of you have any hot tips + tricks for getting Longtails to hit poppers ?
They are usually feeding on tiny baitfish so metal slices or maribou jigs work very well, but I'd really like to feed them a popper or two. I've had a few follows, right to the boat but no take. Maybe I should focus on stickbaits more for these fussy feeders ?

[Gavin Ng]

Hey Sam, I think the positioning of the lure at the cast in relation to where the fish blew up and where it is heading is just as important as matching the hatch when enticing a strike (in the context of sight casting).

However if you are talking about blind casting, thats a different story,

There are three "go to" poppers for longtails which come to mind:

- nomad/heru tuna 80's
- cotton cordells- with additional added weight for extra distance,l and other similar styled pencil poppers
- kakoda roger popper.

All three lures have very different actions, the tuna as u know is a traditional popper, with smaller cup face, the cotton cordel is a pencil bait that skips on the surface, the roger popper is a sinking acrylic type lure, u can use at on the surface or sub surface (a good retrive to work this lure is lifting the rod in a jigging type action).

All three lures will produce on their given day, u might want to mix them up a bit if you are getting follows but no commitment. You might also want to try some of those japanese pencil poppers (the old saltigas i think and plenty of others) as they are quite small in profile.

[Peter Morris]

Hi Sam,

Having caught plenty of longtails on poppers I rate the fast skipping poppers the best.
Nomads GT candy Teflon poppers would have to be some of the best I have used......(There are variations of these also).

The time you will find them easier to catch on poppers is when they are feeding on schools of Garfish.
I have done plenty of landbased work and normally the fish are after larger bait such as Gar and Slimey Mackeral.
The Halco Roosta poppers also work well in the 135mm size.

Pete

[Dale Ianna]

Hi Sam

Glad too see someone else is thinking about this subject. I've recently been (trying) to targeting longtails on larger poppers but without much success.  Here down in moreton bay at the moment the bigger poppers if anything seem to scare them away, as if there already not had enough to target.  The only longtail on popper i have managed was on a halco rooster 100mm.   However i have had a ball catching them on smaller pencils and sticks.  I have been using a yo-zuri sashimi pencil in 100mm and tiemco red peppers in 100mm both have proved themselves.  We find that if they won't take a fast moving lure then one of these placed in the area where they last busted up will do the trick. Just lob it in, and  crank half a dozen movements and pause, wait 10 secs and go again. We find most of our strikes come within the first two pauses.  Not quiet as much fun as a burnt lure getting nailed across the surface but, if times are tough.  There not a bad size lure to cast either on lighter gear as we only tend too find fish to about 6-8kg.

[Nigel Hagley]

Hey Sam

Just like to share some tuna fishing around Brisbane with you mate. Been chasing them on sinking pencils, the hits are just as spectacular as on a popper, big explosions on the surface as the pencil swims only  less than 0.5m below the surface. Works for Mac tunas and Yellowfins too.

Have caught them on skipping pencils like Yo-Zuri surface cruiser and Lively lures, all in the medium and smaller sizes. Longtails love feeding on Gar as Pete mentioned. Just depends on the day and the way they are feeding, if they are feeding in a big mob long enough on the surface, more than likely a pencil would get smashed. Some days the schools are small and spooky and will stay up only a few seconds, this is when i find a well positioned sinking pencil worked slowly draws the bite. Rod : Evergreen Posiedon 77. Reel Stella SW5000. Line : PE 2.5. Leader 40lb FC. 

[Peter Lowe]

[Janelle O'Connell]

Sam, like Pete says, position is everything with hunting tuna in SE QLD. Your fish hopefully won't be anywhere near as spooky, but they definitely will benefit from having the popper leading the school and having it move in the same direction that the tuna are feeding. That way it makes the lure too easy for the fish to ignore and it is much more likely to eat first and ask questions later.
I think the poppers tend to work best when the longtails are chasing gar and other big baits. A lot of the time when they are balling up bait it is much smaller prey they are after and they tend to ignore larger poppers.
When the tuna are scattered and working in ones and twos over a broad area then poppers can work great to bring the longtails in. It might be that they are chasing larger more mobile baits or that the smaller bait is not thick enough to herd into dense balls, so they are very happy to chase down a bigger meal like a popper. Like Nigel, sinking stickbaits have worked really well for me. When the longtails are on 70-80mm whitebait, they usually seem quite happy to eat a 90-130mm sinking stickbait, like a Sebile Stick Shad or Daiwa OverThere.
If all those options fail, then it's back to the bubblegum pink Zoom plastic. Not as spectacular as the popper and stickbait take, but you get plenty of hits within sight of the boat.

Heres a recent case of matching the hatch on fussy bay mack tunas
Cheers
Duncan

[Duncan O'Connell]

Oops
Impersonating Janelle again

Cheers

Duncan

[Damian Fantozzi]

Hi all,

im not a guru, just a keen angler who will be based out of mooloolaba on the weekend for a couple of days.

Can anyone reccomend the way to go about locating tuna in the area? are there particular birds to watch, areas to target, water temps to fish etc?

thanks

[Nigel Hagley]

Hi Damian

i'm not a guru as well, just a very keen angler and fish Mooloolaba frequently.

As you come out of the Mooloolah river, keep an eye out in the bay towards old woman island, tuna do hang around the bay and just depends where the bait are, at times they can feed right close to the shark nets or even close to the surf beaches, whereas some days they will be out wide of the bay. Always keep a lookout for terns and feeding on the surface. sometime you do see tuna feeding without any birds following, it pays to have a drive around keeping an eye out on whats happening on the surface. Try around old woman island as well, over the years have caught really good tuna there. It all depends on where the bait are. If you do see flocks of terns sitting on the water, its a good indication that there has been or will have good feeding happening. Hang around for a while, the birds and fish could just be waiting for the tide to change and the whole area could fire up. I have found that the run in tide good there and lead up or after full moon seems better. Have got fish on run out also, just depends on wind, tide and bait. hope this helps mate.   

[Geoff Volter]

Nigel, good advice there mate, I dont fish there as much as I used too, or should.  It never ceases to amaze me how people go about chasing the same fish in the same spots and come up with different patterns, for example, you like the run in up there, I like the run out.   Particularly in the loose vicinity of maroochy mouth, noosa mouth and caloundra bu lately the water coming out of those has been pretty dirty, and we have found bait and tuna on the colour changes.  But having said that I'll fish the run in with out a second thought. I like any run in the water and generally find the slack tides the least productive. I dont like FULL moons, I reckon the fish can and do feed  at night on those nights.

I guess what you can take out of that is that you wont catch fish unless you are the on the water

PS-check out coolum too. No tricks there, just drive a big loop starting a couple of K's off the beach. Sometimes they are in the breakers.

some tuna from a few weeks back

[Damian Fantozzi]

thanks all,

ill be in the Signature in the photo, might even see you out there!

cheers
damian

[Nigel Hagley]

Geoff

Cool photos mate, you're right mate, did find them after the flood's brown waters feeding at the mouths of the few rivers up that way, it was mega cool watching them feed in and out of the chocolate water and that was run out. Will keep an eye out when run out next time. Found the bigger fish seem to like the run ins, that last bottom photo of the longtail i posted was on run in, fought from sunset till dark. Sorrrrrrrrrr after that. When are you heading to Singapore??? I grew up there mate.

cheers mate.

[Matt Kilpatrick]

Hi Nigel,

Nice fish. Is your little yellow caught on a Duel  Adagio ?

Matt

[Nigel Hagley]

Hi Matt

Good to hear from you mate! Yes, on Duel Adagio 105, was a cracker of a day, 12 fins, lost count on skipjacks and mack tunas, not one longtail though. Hmmm.... always dream of special days like this, good weather and fish everywhere.

cheers mate