A big weekend on the tuna in the South-West! There are literally thousands of tuna in 45-50m straight off Warrnambool, and by all reports east and west as well, and while they can tend to be finicky, most boats given a whole day caught a few. Similar story in Portland, along with the barrel capture from Joe on Game On Charters, pictured below. The Warrnambool Offshore and Light Game Fishing Club hosted the GFAV sanctioned “South West Alliance Gamefishing Challenge” over the weekend and all competitors were blessed with great weather! 8 boats tagged and released 64 tuna for the 2 days, and there were also a few notable catches weighed. Matty Cook and the McKinnon boys are pictured below with some of their tuna from Saturday – they caught 5 of which 4 were released, with the Samaki deep diver accounting for most of them. Aboard Cassius Cray we ducked out late on Saturday for the last couple of hours of daylight and caught one on the JAKS Rigid Reggie Barrel Bullet lure, while on Sunday we caught 5, nearly all on divers, again the Samakis in both sizes were irresistable for the tuna! Pictured below is the stomach contents of one of the tuna, full of tiny whitebait. Sid and Ivy Richardson experienced their first tuna when Ed took them out late yesterday off Warrnambool in the Seacruiser 6300 – it certainly was a day the kids could enjoy with the glassy seas. Ken Bott and Wayne Holland had a good day off Warrnambool yesterday, catching some crays.
