FISHING REPORT FOR 12th April 2006.
The awesome big bluefin tuna continue.
Over the last weekend albacore to 24kg and southern bluefin tuna to 85kg were caught by the Port Fairy boys. Bill Raucci and local crew caught their largest southern bluefin tuna weighing in at 106kg in amongst a good bunch of normal sized ones in the range of 27kg and upwards.
Sunshine’s Kevin Clark had his largest tuna weighed in at 50kg whilst Ron Baker’s biggest tipped the scales at 43kg and numerous other tuna were exposed in the 27kg mark.
Last Monday 3rd April, fifty S.B. tuna were brought in and weighed between the ranges of 80 to108kg. The normal run of S.B. tuna has started early this year as compared to previous years, which are normally in the second week of April with weights in the 27kg mark.
A lot of albacore were caught at Port Mac on Sunday. On Monday, forty S.B. tuna were caught here in Portland, including Albacore weighing from 6kg to 40kg.The 40kg Albacores height was 1090mm and a girth of 375mm. Weights of tuna were recorded: from 27kg, 30kg, 50kg, 65kg, 78kg and 99kg with these fish caught in the numerous numbers.
The biggest tuna was 99kg caught by Matt Boulton, Andrew Buttigie’s biggest was 69kg, Bell Chen’s at 66kg, Jake Robertson at 55kg and numerous other fishermen were lucky too. Most large captures of big tuna are still coming from the shelf country.
The seas this weekend were rough with considerable swell which didn’t produce any catches of tuna for our crew Paul Worsteling and Lee Rainer of “I-Fish” channel 10, but I’m sure they’ll be back.
With the last few weeks of quality fish exposure here in Portland you’d expect quite a lot of tourism over this coming Easter weekend.
So those chasing tuna should have approved safety gear, carry extra fuel in jerry cans, keep in contact with other boats, make sure your sea skills and experience is up to the task and always check the weather beforehand.
The shelf is at least 28miles out and if you have a small boat stay in the 100metre water and fish for the traditional 27kg S.B. tuna. This area is in the range of no more than 6 miles behind Lawrence rock in toward Cape Nelson lighthouse area.
This Southern bluefin tuna fishing boom has given Portland a wealth of fishing exposure and is enticing a huge amount of tourist dollars to the city with many businesses benefiting from this now and in years to come if it continues to repeat itself.

Fishing Report for the 5 of April 2006.
Awesome large Blue fin Tuna Continue.
This week numerous fishermen have exposed large Blue fin Tuna from a vast area out the rear of Laurence Rocks on the Shelf country. This water is in the region of in excess of 100 meters and onward. Our Trawl fleets fish this area and it is approximately 30 to 45 miles out from the Port South Eastly.

The largest weighed S.B.Tuna we have weighed was 108kg this week caught by Anthony Cotania and usually these massive size fish are a duel crew effort from the crew on the boat.There is so many names of tuna that a lot can not all be mentioned. On Sunday we took a film crew from Tasmania from channel 10 of Hook, Line and Sinker programs. We did not hock up but they shot footage of the area, hooked up Tuna, Tuna at the weigh ins, scenery, information of the area etc. We didn’t see any Blue Whales which they were keen to see.

On Sunday of what we know about 14 Tuna were bought in up to 98kg of the biggest we know of was Julian Dickerson’s yet Monday we were told a 106 kg one came in late. The most unusual one of talk from Sunday was the 2 hock ups of Rob Millard and Dave Clarks which were hooked at 9am and one on for 4hrs and the other was still on 8 hrs later and was lost at the Boat after 5p.m.

On Monday aprox.45 to 50 Southern Blue fin Tuna were bought in With the largest weighed in at 108kg, Plenty near the 100kg, Quite a few in the 90kg and very few under 80kg if any and I reckon we weighed most of them. We could not name all the people who had the Tuna and yet nearly all the Tuna are prize size trophy fish and have never been seen like this in most peoples recollections.

As previously stated the biggest weighed Tuna so far is still 120.7kg from last week and the longest was 205cm long. The cycle now is set in the next week for the normal size 20kg Tuna to come through and some are just starting to be exposed this weekend. That means most won’t have to go much further than 100meter water and only 3 to 5 miles off the mainland. This should continue till mid July from past history runs. It’s great to see some releasing some of the big Breeding stock numbers of Tuna as these big ones are the Stock Breeders and the Southern Blue fin Tuna is in a lot of recovery trouble and is no where out of recovery stock trouble and is still listed as endangered from the early 60’s over killing and Persian netting. Lot of these huge Tuna has in a lot of cases released them selves from the angler with there powerful fighting power. Lot of these huge Tuna have been angled on 24Kg and 37kg lines and still have beaten the angler..

FISHING REPORT FOR 29th March 2006.
Awesome bluefin tuna caught out of Portland.
Over the recent weeks most of our eyes were opened up early with Ken Heinze’s 90kg tuna caught from out of the shelf off Port Fairy. The Port Fairy boys continued with several “smash ups” loosing fish weighing some 50 to 60kg and this activated locals early for catches of southern bluefin tuna.
Brett Wakely, Brett Murray and Jason Oakley returned with a weighed 90kg SB tuna, a 26kg SB tuna and an 22kg albacore on Friday.
More boats targeted these huge fish including Kevin Dark, Rocket Harris and Tim Otter. Tim caught one weighing 83kg and Rocket lost a big one at approx 100kg with a 3.5 hours fight on the gaffe shot beside the boat.
Steve Atchison and myself landed a 83kg one in the same area and others talked about what happened to what fish with their hook ups.
Next day Darren Dyson, Lee Dyson and crew boated a tuna weighing 86kg whilst Kevin Dark blew another large one at the gaffe shot. Next the Port Fairy boys came in and Terry Roberts from Timboon produced his 108kg southern bluefin tuna which was weighed out of Portland.
Now for those who would like to know, some tuna have taken 2.5 to 4 hours to reel in and these tuna have been hooked in 160m to 260m water and the shelf, with some on 50kg braid but most on 24kg mono line.
These tuna take 24kg mono line off 1000m to the steel and further.
The weights and measurements of tuna caught here over the weekend were: 108kg and 190cm high, the 90kg one was 180cm high, 86kg tuna was 175cm high and the 83kg tuna were 170cm high.
Tuna caught here weighing 83kg has twice taken our 1000m line on one of our rods to within 50m of line remaining after using our boat against the tuna. So they are an awesome powerful sports fish. If they are to be caught larger than 90kg you may need 36kg gear, but I have never seen tuna of this size caught here. A few seasons ago I hooked a tuna here in 140m water amongst dolphins and was thrashed by the tuna therefore it would possibly have been one of these monsters.
Normally tuna in season come through here mid to late April till mid July. I don’t think anybody has looked early before for these big ones but the fishermen who did look using 10kg line would never have thought that you’d ever need 24kg gear in Victoria but it looks like you do. These are serious fish and need a minimum of 24kg gear, marlin lures, leaders and hooks if you are serious about angling one of these awesome tuna.
Normal barbed lures would be a waste of time.
Our water is just below 18deg Celsius with lots of brown krill, bait, dolphins, bird life and is looking good for the normal size run of tuna to follow.
Other fish making a show are the 1kg trevally and snapper to size from the marina, some mulloway and snapper surfishing at the Fitzroy river outlet. One boat that I’m aware of had whiting to 43cm and two snapper of his catch to 3.5kg whilst Vern McCallum is still catching 2.5kg snook at snapper point.

FISHING REPORT FOR 8th March 2006.
Many fishermen have exposed Mako sharks in recent weeks.
Last week, Joe Carpillio caught a mako weighing in at 73kg which came from the waters behind Lawrence rock and numerous blue shark species have been caught in this location with the majority being released by most fishos.
Saturday, Darren Dyson toiled with a mako shark only to be beaten near the end with their fast line screaming and jumping out of the water aerobatics in several sensational jumps. These makos are one of the top sport fish and unfortunately for the shark are good eating. Still quite a lot of sport fishermen release these sharks and take only one occassionally. Some fishermen claim that makos under 70kg are better for eating and it is a good idea to release the big ones as they are a huge and dangerous handful to gaff for the inexperienced fisherman if anything goes wrong.
On Sunday, Tim Clark and I caught a small mako, approx 50kg and which was attacked by a large shark while we fought with it. The bite and tear marks including the teeth bite suggest a big white shark.. The white nearly nailed the mako which was just over 1.8metres long and the damage of the teeth marks were incredible with a mouth gap size of approx 45cm apart and quite deep with V shape teeth marks punched well into the mako.
We took the mako as he was bad for wear from this attack, so it just shows that there are big sharks in this same water. We also sighted a pair of blue whales with a calf and some other blue whales another mile away and they were feeding on the rich krill lines in this area. Plenty of dolphins and bird life are feeding in this area too.
Before the weekend, Tony Jones and Neil Tonkin boated some yellowtail in the 7kg mark and a few others were reported to have been hooked but other than that the water is warm and not much has been exposed with these fellows.
Snapper have been caught by some including Vern McCallum and Chris Humphries who are feasting well on nice size snapper to 50cm with whiting mixed in amongst the catches.
Some gummies have hit the fish cleaning tables caught from the north shore, others are having a nice taste of flathead and whiting such as Alan Warburton and trevally are appearing again on the marina jetty.
Now we only obtain a certain amount of fish exposure from some and not all so it gives an indication of what’s going on. For more up to date catches, location, timing, species and baits you should investigate the local tackle shops in person or by phone and plan your adventure from here.
Remember the “King of the Rip” competition is on this weekend in Port Philip bay for those who are interested

FISHING REPORT FOR 1st March 2006
Still plenty of snapper.
This week, lots of snapper were caught with size increased considerably and weight ranging between 1 to more than 2.5kg. Vern McCallum, Tim Clark, Bob Hamlin, some charter clients including RA Charters, and numerous other fishermen enjoyed their snapper fishing and these catches should continue for a while yet.
Mick Sheehan caught a snapper to 3kg, Steven Atkinson showed off one of his 10kg bronze whale shark and others have produced good size school sharks.
Quite a few medium sized snook and lots of small thin pike or lythe as known locally.
Some “tackle munching” couta have showed their heads in various locations and these fellows measure well into the 100cm mark.
Not too much exposure this week of yellowtail, but things will change very quickly.
Two yellowtail weighing 9kg were caught by a Melbourne tourist and more information on this can be obtained from Portland Bait & Tackle.
With the clean water, settling conditions and water temperature at 19.5 deg C and rising should set off the yellowtail with the hotter days ahead as forecasted this week.
Monday, two good sized mako sharks weighing 72kg and 92kg were caught by Colin Russell and John Carson from Ballarat. These sharks like warm water above 17 deg C and in the 60m water the temperature is well in this range. Colin & John both hooked three makos and lost one with one of the sharks doing 11 jumps.
These sharks had a diameter of 35cm, a length of 2m and John’s mako was caught on light 10kg line taking over 4 hours to land. Makos nearly always have an attitude problem, a short temperature fuse and they do spectacular line ripping leads over 2m out of the water.
Saturday, Tim Clark and I had a “play” with seven sharks of which all were released in good condition after taking photos of these amazing creatures. One blue shark was 3m long and 65cm diameter and two of the seven sharks were makos.
When fishing for grey or large blue large shark you need to make a decision whether to release it before the gaffe stage if you have no intention of eating these fish. Shark of this size should not be gaffed with a fixed head as they can spin and cause serious damage to the fisherman, boat and usually swim off with the gaffe.
You should never try bringing them into the boat until they are completely dead because they bite whatever is touchable including the fisherman and boat. They’ve been known to become airborne, land in boats causing unbelievable damage and can also rip out cables on outboard motors when at the rear of the motor.
John’s mako bit off his parachute drift anchor. Sharks bite through ropes like a sharp knife and one big problem with the big shark is if they tail tangle in a heavy drift anchor rope they can pull your boat under water so you need a sharp knife handy to cut the rope quickly. They can roll up the rope into your boat or a flying gaffe rope so a knife should be ready to cut the rope or gaffe.
Lastly, some have caught calamari squid and large whiting up to the 1kg mark

FISHING REPORT FOR 22nd February 2006.
Mixture of fish continues.