Northern Blue Fin Tuna at
Barren & Child Islands
(Keppel Group, near Yeppoon, QLD Australia)
Jake, Hayden and I were spearing mainly in the passage between Barren & Child Islands.
We moved later in the day to the northern side of Child Island. The water drops here from 17m to about 25 meter.
There were no Spanish Mackerel around, but I could hear a strange dull clapping sound underwater. What was that? As I looked around, the noise increased and there came a large school of Tuna towards me.
Tuna swim fast an in a somewhat erratic way & since there were 100'ds of them - they made that very characteristic & unusual noise.
I took a long dive and dropped motionless to the approaching school of Tuna underneath me. It wasn't for long and they were circling around me, but they were keeping a maybe 5 - 6 meter distance. I selected one of the wary Tuna and lined up its head.
My spear hit it's target with a whack. I knew at this moment, that I had a good holding shot and the fight was on!
I am using a break away rig setup with a slip tip. Once you have shot the fish, your gun separates and the fish is connected to your spear, shooting line, (in my case) 30m float line, 270 kg blue water bungee and to my 2 atmosphere float
I ascended back to the surface and I looked for my gun. Luckily for me, Jay - a friend of mine - saw my rushing float came by and came over with his boat for a closer look.
I told Jay that I had just shot a Tuna and asked him if he can get hold of my floating gun..
My float came rushing past me at this moment. I grabbed it and I hung on. The powerful Tuna pulled me away from Child Island.
The strong Northern Bluefin Tuna fought deep below. I got it slowly up and took care not to get entangled in my spearfishing rope or shooting line.
Jay & his crew had found my floating gun in the meantime & I got it back (Thank you Jay!).
I had just subdued the beautiful metallic blue and silver fish and showed it to the boys.
Jake went into the water and we had a lovely photo shoot from my first Northern Bluefin Tuna.
The Tuna hit the scales at 13.5 kg.
Those bullet shaped Tuna are pure muscle. They have a lot of power in them and they got to be amongst the strongest fish for their size. I really appreciated the fact that I had no Shark for a change LOL Grey Reef Sharks, Bronzies and the residential Tiger's are my biggest worry in this area.
Needless to say, my first Bluefin Tuna had made my day!
Thank you Jake & Hayden for the awesome video shoot!
Also a big Thank you very much to Jay and his crew to pick up my gun & to follow me & to assist if I would have got into trouble!
Enjoy the video,
Stay safe out there
&
Happy Hunting
