How to Catch Southern Bluefin Tuna: A Beginner's Guide for Australian Anglers

Southern Bluefin Tuna are the gateway gamefish in Australia. They show up cold and angry in autumn and winter, run the southern edge of the continent, and pull harder than anything else most anglers will ever hook in their lives. Tasmania, Portland, and Port MacDonnell are the names you keep hearing. There is a reason.

This is not a backyard species. You do not catch a bluefin off a jetty. But if you have caught a few bream and flathead and you want to know what the next level looks like, this is the guide that tells you the honest version of it.

Where they live

Southern Bluefin (the Aussies call them SBT) live out on the continental shelf edges off southern Australia. The three spots that matter for recreational anglers are Eaglehawk Neck and Storm Bay in Tasmania, Portland in western Victoria, and Port MacDonnell in South Australia. There are others. These three are where it is easiest to get on a charter and where the fish show up most reliably.

The fish follow the cold water. They move north along the shelf as it cools, and they pull back south as the water warms again. The patterns shift year to year. Your local charter operator knows them better than any guide on the internet.

When to target them

Roughly April to July is the recreational peak across most of the southern coast. Tasmania can run a bit later, into August in some seasons. Portland kicks off earlier some years and dies off quicker. The fish are not on a calendar. Follow the reports.

The size mix changes through the season. Early on you tend to see "schoolies" in the 15 to 25 kilo range. Later in the season the "barrels" turn up, fish over 100 kilos. A barrel changes your life. It will also try to break you.

Boat or charter

If you are reading this guide as your introduction to bluefin, you want to be on a charter. Not because it is fancier. Because Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean kill people. The boats that fish bluefin water are big, set up for the conditions, and run by skippers who watch weather windows for a living. A charter is two to four hundred dollars a head depending on where you go. A funeral is more.

When you have run a few charters and you know what the gear does and what the water does, then talk to your skipper about what a private boat needs to look like.

Gear that catches bluefin

This is heavy gamefishing tackle. We are not pretending this is a Daiwa BG and a 4000 reel job.

For schoolies you want 15 to 24 kilo class overhead gear. A stand-up rod around 5'6" to 6', a lever drag overhead reel like a Shimano Tiagra 30, Tyrnos 30, or an Avet HX, and 24 kilo mono or braid with a long mono topshot if you are running braid. Wind-on leader of 200 pound mono into a heavy swivel.

For barrels you step up to 37 kilo class. A Tiagra 50W or equivalent, a chair or harness setup if you are serious about it, and you do not need a guide to tell you about that. You will know.

On a charter the boat will have all this. You will pay a tackle fee or it will be included. Listen to the skipper. Do not bring your trout rod.

What you troll, and what you watch for

Most bluefin in Australia are caught trolled. The setup that puts fish in the boat is straightforward: bibbed minnows running about six metres deep at six knots. Halco Laser Pro 190, Rapala XRap Magnum 30, Nomad DTX Minnow 200. The skipper will run four to six rods in the spread, some flat-lined and some on outriggers.

That is the gear. The technique that actually puts fish on the deck is something else.

Watch the water. Surface action is the go. You can troll Tassie water all day with nothing on the rods. Sometimes the fish only show up for an hour and then it is over. A day on bluefin is mostly waiting, with short violent windows when everything happens. The cues you are looking for are birds working, baitfish skipping, splashes on the horizon, dark patches of disturbed water. Anything that looks like life on the surface. The skipper will steer hard for any sign of it and run the divers straight through.

When fish are clearly up busting birds on top, you stop trolling and you cast. Stickbaits and poppers in the 150 to 220mm range. Bertox, Shimano Orca, Nomad Riptide. Cast into the white water. The bite is violent. This is the moment people talk about for years afterward.

Live baiting

The other proven method is live baiting with slimy mackerel or yakkas, slow-trolled or set on balloons. The bites are fewer. The fish are often bigger. Your skipper will know whether the day calls for it.

The fight

A schoolie SBT in the 20 kilo range will run a hundred metres of 24 kilo line off your reel and not feel it. A barrel will pour two hundred metres out and keep going. The fight is mostly about working the rod with the boat. The skipper will turn the boat to chase line. You lift, you wind on the down stroke, you keep the rod loaded. Do not muscle it. The fish always wins that fight. You are wearing it down by being patient.

Twenty minutes is a good schoolie fight. An hour is normal for a small barrel. Two or three hours is not unusual on a big fish. Drink water. Eat something before the fight if you can.

Rules

Recreational Southern Bluefin Tuna are managed jointly by the Commonwealth and state fisheries. Bag and possession limits, minimum sizes, and tag requirements vary by state and they have changed in recent years. Check the current rules with your state fisheries body before you go. Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia all publish them online. Your charter operator will run you through them on the boat.

If you are going to kill a fish, kill one. SBT is a stock that has been hammered for decades and is only now starting to recover. The barrels you see on the wharf in season exist because the catch is being managed carefully. Take one for the table if the rules allow it. Tag and release the rest. The flesh of a single 25 kilo schoolie will fill a chest freezer.

If it is your first time

Book a charter. Tell them it is your first bluefin. Most skippers will set you up on the easier rod in the spread and put you on the first fish that comes up. Take seasick tablets the night before and the morning of. Bass Strait is not kind to optimists. Wear layers, wear gloves, take sunglasses you do not mind getting wet.

When the reel screams and the skipper yells "you're on", do not strike. The lure has done the work. Lift the rod off the holder, get the butt into the gimbal or your belt, and start lifting and winding. The skipper will talk you through the rest.

You will be sore the next day. You will also book the next charter before you get off the boat.

Rodney Baker, Harson Outdoors