Watermelon Feeding Frenzy

[Fixation]

Headed out off Mooloolaba on Tues morning for a spot of reef fishing at about 4 am. After moving round about 100 times and catching about 50 under size reds we decided to change tactics a little. We could see birds to the south and east of us working on balls of bait so we geared up the TSS4's and headed down there for a look. Second cast into them produced a hookup and a great fight the tuna were nice stocky fellas and peeled the line off the reel at amazing pace. We thought the fish working were mac tuna but they ended up being skip jack's or watermelon tuna. They get that name from the strips on the belly. Anyway we ended up hooking up 15 and only landing 7. We used one for bait. Anyway it was a great day out on the water accept for the ugly northerly that came in at lunch time. They were feeding on massive schools of white bait. The sounder was showing massive clouds of them under the boat too. Their guts were full of them as well. One of the feeding schools was about 500 m long. Biggest frenzy I've seen in a while.

[Fixation]

Peeling some line.....

[Fixation]

The catch.....

[outsiderskip]

hi fixation

never got a feed
but u got best bait for fishing


cheers pete

[Scott15]

Nice fish, those ones good for eating?

[vertico]

striped tuna ?
nice haul

[redbullburley]

I had tuesday off and not even a phonecall i'll have to get dad to reconsider giving my sister away lol

[barraboy2]

Good sport on light gear.

[rajawolf]

Water looks nice and calm...top day by the looks.

[Spaniard_King]

Dunno about chewin on those tuna :P

More fun than apertizing :D

Better than sittin at home, maybe next time they will be mackerel ;D

Garry

[Fixation]

Yeah vertico I thought they were called striped tuna as well until I looked em up in grants when I got home. Brilliant blue colour when they come straight out of the water...

Spaniard_King:- Yeah my mate got em in the photo. Grants guide reckons they are great eating but I can't stand oily fish :'(.

redbullburley:- Sorry mate I did consider calling but I got up at 3am and after last time I thought the conditions might suit you....Maybe monday dunno yet. The sly deckie lost his charm too...no luck this time.... ;D

[Jeremy]

Yeah vertico I thought they were called striped tuna as well until I looked em up in grants when I got home. Brilliant blue colour when they come straight out of the water...



I am pretty sure they are striped tuna. I also got 2 off Caloundra on Tuesday. I checked in Grants guide and found your watermelon tuna (skipjack) but notice that he has no reference at all to striped tuna. Maybe it is the same thing?

Jeremy

[Anne-T-Dote]

Nice fish there fixation.

I'm also pretty sure that I have heard some people refer to them as "striped tuna". And I think I remember a TV add a while back for a brand of canned tuna (Green Seas I think it was) where Jeff Janz (the TV chef) was talking about which tuna were the best eating. I'm 75% sure he referred to the Skipjack tuna as being among the top 3 in Australia and I think he also mentioned it was otherwise known as "striped tuna". Could be wrong though - my memory is disasterous.

But if so, then they must be pretty good eating (as far as tuna go, anyway - I'm not really a tuna lover myself, unless it's sashimi or sushi or whatever it's called when it's raw, so I couldn't really say).

Never the less - great catch - must have been some awesome fun hooking into the school. Well done.

[redbullburley]

that's allright mate the conditions might have been good for me to lay a burley trail maybe could have got some more maori. ha ha

[stingermuz]

Hey guys, this thread is a few days old I know but...

Striped tuna = Skipjack tuna (and maybe also oceanic bonito?) I'm pretty sure. Those tuna you have there are them.

As for eating - Maccamania's on the money: I'm not a fan of canned tuna AT ALL but those skipjacks cut into steaks/fillets, seared very quickly and then slowly baked are IMO delicious. A very creamy fish to eat and not too strong. I used a recipe I'd seen another TV chef use and made a mayonaisse with lemon and finely chopped basil to drizzle over. Yum.

All in all a welcome surprise when I too thought i was battling a MAc tuna a few weeks ago.

Muz.

[duckbill]

Forget about Grant's and use www.fishbase.org, it has all the info you need.

Here's the link on Striped Tuna - Katsuwonus pelamis: http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=107

P.S.: Cooked they don't taste too good, same as mactuna... Maybe raw...

[thumps]

Stripped Tuna for sure

we used to catch heaps down in tassie trolling for southern blues
caught them up to 5kgs

pull too bloody hard for a fish that size

cut into cubes...dipped in breadcrumbs and deep fried.....kids love it

[thumps]

yes Smithy...that ad IS talking about Nth Blues

or as all of us serious Bluefin Fishermen ( ;) ) call them....longtail Tuna

[Grand_Marlin]

[quote author=stingermuz link=1135774406/0#14 date=1136517896]

As for eating - Maccamania's on the money: #I'm not a fan of canned tuna AT ALL but those skipjacks cut into steaks/fillets, seared very quickly and then slowly baked are IMO delicious. #


Just a quick non-malicious question Stingermuz... have you ever eaten any other tuna apart from stripies?

In Tassie we ued to catch and eat a lot of Albacore, a few Yellowfin and a few Southern Blues, but the Stripies we found very dark, strong tasting and only used them for bait.

Although I must say that an Itallian Butcher in Hobart smoked all four types of tuna for us and the Stripy was the best smoked.

[Smithy]

Because the longliner fleets have decimated the Yellowfin Tuna very little Yellowfin now ends up in cans. What you are eating more than likely are these Stripeys/Skipjacks. The YFT are too valuable to can and got straight to Japan whole. In that one add on TV when they talk about Northern Bluefin I hope they aren't talking about Longtail Tuna? Anyone know? The drifting gill nets in the Gulf certainly seem to catch a lot.

[TheSlyDeckie]

What do you mean i lost my charm? I hooked up four and pulled in two or three!! ;)

Not a big tuna fan but made good dog food. Loved it. Will keep them feed for a month.

[Fixation]

Don't cry sly.......you did lose your charm. No reefies... Might come back next trip if there's no bananas being eaten. :o

[Billo]

i hear some people say they go good with a bit of potato , onion and made into fish cakes .....i think i will leave them for the Crab pots and look for a white fleshed fish ;D