Fishing Australia

In the late 70’s, my Dad took my three brothers and I, along with three close friends, to Eaglehawk Neck - "EHN" at the remote south-east corner of Tasmania.

This was one of our first game fishing trips and weather reports were not as detailed back then, so Dad wanted a place where there was good shelter, should the prevailing south easterlies come up from the open expanse of the Southern Ocean.

EHN was the perfect choice with its grand cliffs as much as 275 metres high offering great protection from some winds. To add to the equation, we had heard that you could catch tuna within 50 metres of the cliffs!

7 boys between the age of 8 and 14 led by a single mad dad, all of them mad keen on fishing.  Well, that was a recipe for one of the most memorable adventures of my youth.  We caught a swag of stripey tuna, some reef fish and I got lucky with the only bluefin of the trip - a ’40 pounder’. Yep, I was as big a fluke back then as I am today...

After dozens of trips back to Tasmania since, I had yet to have the opportunity to return to EHN but that day had finally come. As part of the FISHING AUSTRALIA shoot which faired last Saturday, I was back in EHN and delighted to find the scenery and people were still as welcoming.  Hopefully the bluefin tuna would also come to the party.

On arrival, I found that EHN is no longer a remote little town with just a couple of old wooden crayfish boats that also doubled up as game fishing charters.

There’s now plenty of charter boats to choose from, along with a big boat ramp with great facilities to service the increasing number of trailer boats that visit the area.

You may have seen the show, but not all the fish we catch and techniques we use make it into the half hour of television; so here’s some more of the details that keen fishos will appreciate:

At 6am on the first day out we boarded the 7 metre trailer boat owned by the skipper of South East Charters, Michael Kent. The plan was to beat all the other boats down to Tasman Island where the tuna had first arrived on the 20th of March.  One month later, a few more bluefin had gathered in the area.

I am a big believer that it is first in best dressed when trolling the rocks.  Each subsequent pass after that typically gets less attention from any resident fish, but today was a little different.

The tuna were no where to be seen at first light and even after half a dozen boats had arrived to troll the better spots like the Lanterns, the Pillars, and Monkeys.  No one had seen a tuna, let alone had a hook up!

Perhaps we had missed the dawn bite by half an hour? Regardless, I was still confident, especially as Michael suggested that the tuna had come on the chew around 9am over recent days.

Around 9:30am the tuna alarm went off in the form of a screaming reel and a fish bolting between a bommie and Tasman Island.

Two minutes later, things had settled down and we had the fish well clear of the reefs and happily powering away towards deeper water. I was thinking she’d be a typical schoolie around the 25 kg mark when the afterburners kicked in and 100 metres of 37kg braid disappeared frighteningly quick.

Sammy the seal was the culprit.  He'd put the wind up the tuna and now I had a real challenge on my hands.  Trying to get a panicking bluefin tuna past a 400-odd pounds of seal.

We drove up on the tuna and then I went for broke as we got close. The gaff shot came quick and the first bluefin tuna of the day was boated with only a couple of small scuff marks made earlier by the seal.

At 27 kg or 60 pounds she was only slightly above average size, but it never ceases to amaze me what a magnificent creature they are.  The best video-game designer in the world could not design a more sleek and powerful looking swimming machine!

Michael dispatched the fish with a brain coring device and after a few quick pics the fish was filleted and laid on ice to prevent "burnt tuna syndrome" which renders their otherwise delectable flesh useless.

The next tuna came about an hour later but despite our best efforts we couldn’t beat the seals and Michael was faced with a tug of war as he tried to pull the gaffed tuna free of the seal's wolf-like teeth.

It was team FISHING AUSTRALIA 1, the Seals 1. While Michael and the rest of the fleet said the fishing was slow due to calm seas and bright sunlight, my crew and I were having a fantastic time.

Next week, I'll continue my account of the full Fishing the Edge trip but in the meantime you can find much more bluefin and other tuna information through the site search function on the website.

See you on the water

Rob Paxevanos