BACK TO SALT

With a break in the windy weather, and good reports of Tuna in Platypus Bay, we were full of anticipation for those arm burning runs. Neap tides and the lack of Northerlies produced the best water we've seen in Hervey Bay. Visibility was to 15m, and we could clearly see reefs in 10m of water.

We spotted our first bust ups halfway up Platypus Bay, and landed a 77cm Mac Tuna from it. A great start to the day. That school went deep upon the hookup, so we moved on in search of the next school. Over the next couple of hours we landed another 3 Mac Tuna from flighty schools, making us work to get close enough for that perfect cast. In search of some Longtail Tuna action, we headed to Wathumba where there were plenty of bust ups, but they were dispersed over a large area. With plenty of casting practice, we got the hookup we were looking for, and landed a solid Longtail.

Seeing 4 huge arches on the sounder, we thought we had a some huge fish under the boat. Closer inspection showed the arches were ~1.5m high and ~3m long, a bit big for our target species. We hoped they weren't sharks but after landing the Longtail tuna, some big grey shadows appeared close to the surface, revealing 3 bronze whalers that were now stalking us. Time to move on, by this stage Northerlies had kicked in so it was time to move closer to home. Unfortunately, the surface action diminished as we headed home and the closer we got to the marina, the rougher the conditions became. With 5 tuna landed for the trip, it was a good way to return to saltwater fishing.