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Long Tail off the Rocks

By Ron Hasegawa

Autumn marks the end of summer Nor’easters, school holidays and scorching hot weather and the start of cooler southerly winds, but fear not. It’s one of those seasons where you get a mixed bag of species such as Blues AKA Long-tail Tuna, Kingfish, Bonito, Cobia and Spanish Mackerel chasing bait up and down the Mid North Coast of NSW, making Autumn one of my favourite seasons to fish.

I decided to spend a couple days solo up the Mid North Coast driving straight from work to chase Blues. With little to no sleep I battled it out to get onto the ledge pre dawn with only my head torch to light the way. I precariously made my way through the goat track and the dense shrubbery. As I emerge I am welcomed with a cool but inviting southerly ripping through, a good sign for blues but in 2.8m swell it would be dicey spinning off the rocks and gaffing fish.

As I eagerly casted hoping for a blue before first light a fellow angler beside me hooks into something big! It makes a screaming run towards my line tangling the two together — my heart sinks… My line eventually untangled, old mate was still in the fight and I was ready with my gaff. I ran down the ledge with my 6 meter long gaff like a Pole Vaulter would in the Olympics bouncing up and down. I chase his fish, being mindful of the raging swell so as to not get swept in. We eventually see the elongated body and indistinguishable stripe markings of a Spanish Mackerel surface through the white water. I carefully but swiftly land my gaff shot and the ledge erupts in cheers — the Spanish Mackerel ended up weighing 15kg. After a brief exchange of words we finished it off with a handshake and I was zoned in to get my blue.

As the first bit of light hit the ocean. The action erupted — Garfish spray out of the water, birds dive bomb the bait from above and Blues attack from below. The amount of bait I saw was incredible, with 5 to 8 different pods of Blues chasing bait up and down the ledge. I cast my trusty Samson Lures Longtail Wedige with my Yamaga Blue Sniper 106H in-between the chaos of blues busting up. My eyes focused only on my Samson Lure skipping across the water's surface and out of nowhere a Blue erupts behind my lure engulfing it down. The fight is on and tensions are high as I see another angler winching only a head of a Blue up the ledge. I can only pray that my fish doesn’t get sharked.

As I’m fighting my fish, it takes off. My drag screams as it peels over 100 meters of line gunning it around the headland. Luckily I turn its head back towards the ledge and bring it closer within eyesight. But just as I think everything is going smoothly someone next to me shouts “THERE’S SOMETHING BIG ON YOUR FISH!” My worst nightmare… a big and hungry Bull Shark shadows my Fish. I quickly loosen my drag so my fish can swim away from the shark. After a tense moment and making sure the shark was gone I tighten my drag and fight my fish back in and the gaff man at the ready. I try washing my fish up on the rocks but the swell is pumping, thrashing my fish across the rocks. I manage to get the fish in a safe area and the gaff man makes the shot bringing it up onto the ledge. The tension in my body disappears and I am overcome with joy, I thank the gaff man, proceed to get a few photos of my fish and weigh it — my Long-tail Tuna ended up weighing 17.1kg and 14kg gilled & gutted.

Throughout the course of the day 8 Blues were landed, 2 were sharked and 2 Spanish mackerel were caught as well. A very memorable day out on the ledge, I’ll be sure to get out the next season to hook into some even bigger fish!