# TAS: Southern Bluefin Tuna by Sea Kayak



## kayaka (Apr 22, 2010)

Over the last couple of years in Hobart i have been chasing bluefin tuna from my sea kayak, alone on the southern ocean.
Its become a bit of an obsession, and the effort finally paid off this season.
Trolling a lure with a handline from a 5.5m sea kayak my first fish was a 30kg bluefin about 8km offshore. It was quite an experience. 
A photo is attached. The full story is featured in the june-july copy of the Tasmanian Fishing and Boating News
which is available from http://www.tasfish.com The website will be updated soon to show the new issue. I hope you enjoy the story and 
since the whole thing was dreamed up and undertaken in isolation im keen to hear about other kayak game fishing stories, experiences and strategies.

best wishes to the kayak fishing community. 
Cheers,
Kayaka


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## shiznic (May 14, 2008)

oh yeah thats an amazing fish, well done on the capture. how was the paddle home looking at that beast.


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## madfishman (Dec 10, 2007)

Thats great, and in Tassie , wow. you must have been freeezing.

How the hell did you get that in with a HAND LINE.... :shock:


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Was that the best you could do for your first post? ;-)

Too good!


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Congrats on an amazing catch! :shock: I would love to read the details of your handline setup


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

W  W

Hands of leather and balls of steel !


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## Craig67 (Jun 12, 2010)

Thats an awesome catch mate, lucky you didnt hook a 100kg model, or you would still be out there somewhere.


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## AndyC (Feb 29, 2008)

Far out!

Alone on the Southern Ocean? There's just so many questions running through my head kayaka. Reading reports from the guys who fish for the big tuna off SE Tasmania, it seems that they are plagued by seals which routinely eat their catch while they are hauling it in. I once heard of a fellow who spent an entire night perched on the cabin of a commercial fishing boat because a huge male seal came aboard, ate everything he could find on the deck and terrorised the fisherman! A recent report talked about a 100 Kg fish that was badly mauled by seals and the captors literally had to battle the seals for it! Just wondering if you have had any such experiences .... and just what does happen when a few seals decide that they want your catch? A kayak seems like such a small craft!

Also, I'm fascinated to hear that its possible to catch one of these fish on a hand-line, from a kayak. I have visions of Ahab and his men being dragged along to their destruction in a whaleboat! And as someone else has suggested, it might be really 'interesting' when one suddenly hooked up to a 100Kg fish!

And finally, I am wondering what equipment is necessary to enable you to safely paddle 8K's offshore, alone in the Southern Ocean. I feel sure there will be other local yakkers who will be inspired to have a go, now that you've shown that it can be done. Certainly something they might aspire to! So some clues about any particular safety issues would be great.

Welcome to the forum, by the way.

Cheers,

AndyC


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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

Mate you are a legend. I have recently heard about this capture, I believe it is the first yak caught SBT in Australia. I have been keen to chase these guys for a while but the seals deter me. Given that the seals tug a war with you over 100kg bluefin out of the powerboat, how do you deal with it on the yak? I have had two big bull seals steal smaller fish from me when yak fishing and the big bastards intimidate me


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## vertigrator (Jul 25, 2006)

Marathon effort and well deserved! 8) I just read the article this morning. It makes my trout from a yak a few pages after your article look tiny. :lol:

I too am interested in the handline approach and setup. In the article you said you used gloves.

Did you have the handline latched to the kayak to stop it getting pulled overboard?
Any sort of method to winding in such a beast on a handline, such as having it on an axle with handle to wind?
Did you have the line in any guides while trolling to stop the fish pulling the line across you?

From what I have heard/read the seals tend head over to the boats only when their engines stop, when they've hooked up to a tuna and are clearing the lines. So theoretically they wouldn't have that kind of indication form a kayak.

Cheers
Craig


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## gummyshark (Jan 12, 2010)

great post kayaka, dam good looking bluefin 8) 
no wonder your smile goes ear too ear, keep up the good work 8) 
cheers gummyshark/norm ;-)


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## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

Top effort mate. I've landed 25kg longtails on the yak but using a handline on SBT's - that's extreme   

Just yesterday I was on a mates boat and we stumbled upon a few longtails. The biggest to the boat was 18kg and during one of my hookups, that I dropped, I actually thought of you on your SIK in the middle of the Southern ocean with all those seals and GWS.

I imagine you've got a bungee type stringer system set up where on the strike the rubber absorbs the shock until you're at the point where you can start handling the reel without getting dusted?

A mate of mine uses that setup in his SIK with 130lb mono and just 25m of line loaded on the spool. Last summer he reckons he got smashed so hard the front of his yak was pulled into the water up to the spray skirt. :shock:


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## Southerly (Apr 20, 2007)

Well done, SBT from a yak in that cold water, ummm.
David


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## hardyaka (Dec 22, 2008)

kayaka, thats is one great fish you have in front of you mate!
have been toying with the idea of landing one out of vic waters for a while now
awsome effort fella and looking forward to reading the artical


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Kayaka what a great achievement, and after the dedication to your goal is well deserved.



> I imagine you've got a bungee type stringer system set up where on the strike the rubber absorbs the shock


Dan I met a bloke just inside the GC Seaway a couple of years ago in a Minnow SIK and he had just come in from outside, and on suitable days he trolled offshore GC with a 100lb hand line wound on about a 12" hand spool and he was using a heavy sewer pipe O ring seal as a shocker, and in season reckoned he often landed mackerel on a red white 6" HB.


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## kanganoe (Apr 30, 2008)

Thats a fantastic effort there Kayaka.I wondered who would be the first to catch an SBT from the yak.Fortescue bay offers a great opportunity for kayak fishers to access those fish .Theres no need to paddle all the way to the hippolytes though.Just off the lanterns or around the corner is still in the zone and a lot closer to shelter.I have burleyed tuna in SA using pilchards a few times with some success and wonder if this approach would be easier on a kayakers endurance than having to keep up such high speed trolling.There is deep water just off the lanterns and the strong tide running past there makes it somewhere where a trail of mackerel cubes might bring the fish to the kayak.Well done anyway.I hope someone else gives it a go too.


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## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Awesome effort Kayaka, I am waiting for my subscription to turn up in the mail, can't wait to read the full story.


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

Unbelievable; awesome, must have used the yak as drag.


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## legs2691 (Jun 19, 2010)

Great effort, Some people at Tassie Paddlers would be intested in this story....


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## kayaka (Apr 22, 2010)

Hi all
many thanks for the comments on the bluefin capture. im glad others got excited about it too, cause i was stoked. it took a lot of long days of paddling before i finally got one trolling, but in my life time of fishing it will not be forgotten. the abundance of hungry and aggressive seals on the tasman peninsula means you need to get a fish in quickly, and with big powerful tuna, from a sea kayak that is a challenge! some of the suggestions about alternative methods for fishing are very interesting but im not sure how they would go with so many seals around....

there was interest in how the handline was set up, so i will outline the key bits to this cheap, simple but effective setup.

My sea kayak has a mast step for a sail. It is directly infront of the cockpit and its like a short rod tube holder, but very tough, since its made of stainless steel with a big support plate to take the mast and load of the sail. I cut a wooden dowel to fit the hole and inserted it vertically so it sticks up to about the height of the handline. The central hole in the handline is placed directly over the dowel, and a heavy bungy cord (strung between decklines) is drawn up through the middle of the handline hole. A wooden club (which can later be used to pacify the fish) is inserted horizontally through the bungy cords to hold it onto the deck and provides the tension on the handline and necessary drag as the fish runs. SO the vertical dowel prevents the handline being dragged off the deck and the horizontal club through the bungies holds it down. agricultural, but cheap and reliable. just get the tension right on the bungies!

see pic of set up attached.

best of luck out there.
cheers
Kayaka


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## vertigrator (Jul 25, 2006)

Thanks for sharing the setup. My mind still boggles at the thought of hauling in such a beast by hand form a kayak.


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## yakspearo (Oct 22, 2009)

Wow that's an incredible fish and on a hand line with hungry seals about even more so! Amazing! Best of luck for your future endeavors.


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## paulthetaffy (Jan 27, 2010)

Congratulations that's an amazing capture!! Love the handline setup too - simple but effective. Who needs expensive reels with heavy drags to chase big fish when you have a plastic hand line spool, a bungee cord, and a piece of wood? Love it 

Paul


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