There are many varieties of Tuna and I am going to talk a little about some of the best known varieties. Tuna as a whole are an important sport fishing species, they also make excellent bait for other fish species.
The major game and sport fishing Tuna are , Albacore, Yellowfin, Southern Bluefin, and Northern Bluefin.
Albacore is a schooling fish, usually found well offshore, they can grow up to 1.5 mtrs, and they are usually taken when trolling.
Yellowfin are truly beautiful fish, they can be found in all deep waters, they are fish of great stamina and speed and they will demand good game fishing tackle, they are caught by trolling lures or by cube fishing in a berley trail.
Southern Bluefin are a highly prized fish in Asian countries and this has meant that they have been over fished to some extent by commercial fisherman , nevertheless they can still be found up to sizes of 200 kgs or more. They are mostly found around the southern coasts of Australia and are most often caught by trolling skirted lures.
Northern Bluefin are sometimes called Longtails, they are predominantly a tropical fish, who gather in schools in the northern regions but grow bigger and exist more as loners in the southern areas. They are quite often caught by fishermen working off rock walls and casting lures into schools from boats, Longtails do not have a swim bladder.
Other types of Tuna include Mackerel Tuna, Bonito, Skipjack or Striped Tuna. Frigate Mackeral, which is also a Tuna is universally reconized as a very successful strip bait for Jewfish and Snapper. Bonito and Skipjack are known as great fun sport fish when taken on light tackle, they can both be caught when trolling small lures, or casting into schools working on the surface.
If you are going to use Tuna flesh as your bait, you must be prepared to use it when it is very fresh, it becomes mushy and difficult to put on a hook if kept too long, it is also very difficult to freeze successfully unless it is well salted before hand.
One of many long tails we caught at the great barrier reef.
