Saltwater Fly Fishing (SWOFFING) Darwin, NT: 20180414 - First tuna of the year have showed up

So a late night phone call changes our location for the next day’s fly fishing trip to wider regions and it also moves the start time up an hour. And this motivates me to get straight to bed for sleep - as it will be a long hot day on the water.

Next day it’s a 3:30am get out of bed time – then gather a few things out of fridge (rest of gear already in ute) and start the drive to Peter’s place 40minutes away. We launch a little after 5am and it’s very dark with no moon – so we back off the throttle given the trees and logs washed into harbour over the wet season.

Once to the Six mile buoy we set the charts to a heading of 308 degrees towards out first location of the oil rig that has been offshore for a few years now. We have always manage countless fish from its piers but after the long ride out we found very little around the rig.

We get a few small queenfish, but only just as the large schools of them seem in a swimming slumber barely reacting to the flies we retrieve in the clear green water. I got a beautiful blue finned trevally, the photo here doesn’t do justice to its beauty as in the water the blue was incredibly iridescent, while the yellows on its lateral line so contrasting – what a beautiful fish! If only 35 or so cm long.

With every cast to one of the massive piers, I was getting plenty of touches and brief hook ups with the resident meter plus Long Toms. Most that may the flyline come tight with a little jump and flick remove the fly which is usually only twisted in their teeth and no real hook penetration. However, I finally manage to stay connected to one of the big ones, connected long enough to get a hand on it for a photo or two

A very much unique fish with its blue tinged teeth aligned along its beak like mouth with rows of tiny super sharp knives, and elongated body with an squarish edged head.

After a few hours working the area around the rig, we decide to head back towards some humps we spied on the sounder on the way to the oil rig. We putter away from the rig and move back to the outer regions of the harbour.

We get to about 10 or so kilometres off Lee Point in about 20m of water and zero structure showing on the sounder. The water has calmed to an oily slick-like surface and in these super calm conditions we clearly see a several hundred meters away some water surface action with a few wheeling birds hovering above it. We quickly decide zip over to investigate - hoping it is not the small fringe-finned trevally (the biggest usually barely 15cm) that filled this area later last year and at that time we ended up targeting the black tipped reef sharks that were in turn hounding them)

Can you see the boiling water a cast length from boat? that's a few hundred spottie macks!

On arrival near the actively feeding fish, we hook up regularly but they are all small spottie mackerel. A few larger ones are spied amongst the school of fish keeps us casting that we don't sadly hookup to. The water is absolutely crystal clear and watching all the fish move about is a massive thrill. The macks are all round the boat and under it, ignoring it and us completely as they chase baitfish and feed with abandon.

We can clearly see the large schools of macks deep in the clear water as they wheel about and circle the bait. They push the bait upwards to then ravage the small baitfish on the surface. Quite breathtaking to see so many fish after basically a fishless morning in such clear and calm water. So graceful in their movement through the water - well until the baitfish could be corralled and then with utter mayhem - consume them.

While I am hooked up to a small spottie mack I think I see off in the distance a tuna doing its porpoising type surface breach which makes me want to get my glasses prescription check if I am mistaken and increases the heart rate all at the same time if it is the first tuna for the season that we might be able to catch.

Despite plenty of fish, if on the small side, around us we leave them feeding and we head straight to the tuna. With predator schools starting to hammer bait all around us, we avoid some of the action that due to the surface slashing are clearly mackeral and veer towards what is now absolutely seen to be longtail tuna. our excitement has risen immensely to say the least!

We had hoped to see the tuna out at the rig earlier this morning, one of the reason for going there due to a few reports buzzing out the social media circles of tuna out wide.

But here we are with 120 plus kilometers travelled for the day to out wide and back to harbour, and ironically here within sight of Lee Point and the city skyline - the longtail tuna are all about us. We both hook up and lose fish. We chase, we drift we cast poorly but we still get hook ups such are the numbers and their lack of concern about being near the boat – typical early season behaviours.

So we found them, in large numbers too - right at the side of the boat too! (wait till you see this action on the video - awesome!!!!!!!!!

Our buck fever at seeing the longtails for the first time this year, create so many ways to not to cast and others ways to lose fish – I lose two fish with a few hundred metres of backing out leader breaking near the fly - takes so long to wind in especially when tuna are still at side of boat feeding with abandon. Peter loses one tuna a few seconds after hook up when the free line on the deck loops as it rapidly races out of the rod, and the flyline briefly wraps around one of his fingers and it pauses the fly line just enough to snap the leader as the tuna is racing for the horizon at an unbelievable speed.

Such is the mayhem of Long tail tuna!

Once, I am so busy looking for the tuna - I don't see my only 8w sinking fly line wrap around the ticking over prop - which results in a shredded fly line. It is now in three pieces - so I join it with double uni knots in two places and keep using it (as my this is my backup line and the other line is at home in the same condition! - as least I know what I am getting for my birthday this year!). This is all happening while countless tuna continue to gorge themselves on baitfish around the boat.

At one point on retrieve and unwrapping my shredded fly line, I also almost fall out of boat and end up hanging over the motor leg. I was on the verge of cooling off in the 31.2 degree water, and Peter has to stop casting, hop down off front casting deck, and haul me back into the boat - thanks Pete!

These tuna are not huge but very strong, and I mean very strong. These 65-70cm versions we are catching this trip, fight like the 80-90cm fish we were catching at the end of last season in 2017. Just absolutely love these football/torpedo like fish – frustrating chasing them when they are boat shy – yes, but awesome fish all the same.

I brutalize my fish during the fight never given them an easy time, to such a degree even opening slightly the hook of the fly I am using on one the larger fish for the day. in case you want to know - the main fly we used was the Silicone sirf candy in sizes 1/0 and 1, about 5-6cm in length. Search the whole blog using the search option at the top right of this blog for the tying instructions of this fly. my favourite saltwater fly for the saltwater regions I fish (freshwater tarpon like it too!)

my second and biggest tuna was caught onc a fly line that had two double uni knots holding the fly line together

Peter is exhausted with early start and fighting two very strong fish. My forearms, my shoulders and back are aching intensely from my two to hand and several lost tuna but I want more. Peter said just after bringing one tuna to the boat that the next fish is mine and he will drive the boat, but it only takes one comment from me (and twenty to thirty tuna pound the water surface right near the boat) to get him casting and hooked up again. This time we get a double hook up, I lose mine after a bit but Peter stays hooked up to his ,for his second fish in a short period of time. I don’t know whether his groan on hook up was excitement at another tuna or despair at the pain he would feel getting it to the boat over the next 10-15minutes. Man! These fish are tough, stubborn and in turn a fantastically awesome species to target on fly.

Both us agree to do some fitness work to ensure we can fish all day for these awesome fish over the next few months.

With the great weather we experience this trip, the ride back to the ramp was so much smoother than for as long as we could remember - both us enjoying the calm afternoon water not experienced for a few years now. Ssuch were the conditions, Peter opened up the throttle to achieve a top speed of 50.2kmh - not bad given the weight of all our gear and two very big guys in the boat! (both of us well over 6 feet.

The trip back to the ramp was spent planning the next tuna focused trip - we revelled in knowing they would be about for several months more! Hopefully the calm weather is travelling with them!