THE now annual run of big southern bluefin tuna appears to be well underway in southern parts of Australia.
Fisho this week received reports of some mega SBTs caught off the coast of Victoria.
Noteworthy was the capture of a 153.5kg SBT last Sunday. The monster tuna was caught in 80m of water about 58km from Apollo Bay Boat Harbour. The lucky anglers involved in the capture were Dean Candy, Troy Jannens and Dan Kent, who reportedly all took turns on the 24kg stand-up gear over the duration of the 4.5 hour fight.
The SBT was hooked on a trolled Rapala X-Rap Magnum 30 in Silver Blue Mackerel colour.
Reports of good SBT action also filtered through on the following Monday, highlighted by a report of a 122kg SBT taken by Max Cole (see accompanying pics). Cole’s tuna was also taken out off Apollo Bay, again on a Silver Blue Mackerel Rapala X-Rap Magnum 30.
Three other large SBTs were hooked last Monday by another angler, all ending in favour of the hooked fish; two came off after initial runs, while another SBT was fought for two hours before being lost due to straightened treble hooks.
