Fishing - Big bluefin tunas coming out to play

There's been some great fishing for big Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) from Bass Strait in the North lately.

But the tuna capital of Tasmania, Eaglehawk Neck, has struck back after the biggest SBT caught in our waters was landed there last weekend.

The lucky angler was Aiden Barnes, who managed to reel in a whopping 160.3kg fish that was 198cm long, which he caught off Little Hippolite (Cheverton Rock) using a 37kg line.

The male Tasmanian record for that line class is 149kg, set by Wade Wheeler back in December last year.

It still stands because to be eligible for records, anglers need to be club members, and Aiden wasn't one.

He's still got bragging rights and gun charter operator Stuart Nichols said "it's definitely the biggest ever caught in Tassie, and 155 kg was the previous mark".

The Australian Record for SBT using a 37 kg line was caught in 2009 by Phil Body, weighing 167.5kg, and was landed at Tathra, off New South Wales.

Another beast was also caught last weekend, weighing 133.5 kg, by Michael Lovell on his first trip with deckie Joshua Smith and experienced captain and angler Kerry Salter.

Kate Towe also recently took a chartered run with Stuart Nichols off the Neck and caught her first Southern Bluefin Tuna, which weighed 105 kg and also measured 190 cm in length.

Another big fish weighing 111kg was caught by Archie Cashion with his 4-year-old son Vinnie on their new boat with mate Ajay Cox on Sunday.

Stuart Nichols said that "fishing should ease up in a week or two when the water warms up as the East Coast current pushes down to us".       

Congratulations to Tony Robertson and Martin Evans of team Prostrike for winning the Light Tackle Tournaments 2025 Tasmanian Trout Classic held at Great Lake and Arthur's Lake last weekend.

Sitting in 4th position after day one, the Prostrike team (444 cm final total length of 10 trout) rallied at Arthur's Lake to take the title from the fast-finishing team of Daring Duo - Paul Digney and Paul Smith (430cm), with team Grey One 2 Zero of Scott and Zane Grey finishing in 3rd position with 427cm.

Team Frogleys of Brendan Ayres and Josh Williams also finished with 427cm but were pipped on a countback.

Great Lake produced some good fish, with a few pushing 50-55 cm, and Damien Boehm of team Get Bit won the longest fish of the tournament with a 56cm ripper.

Around 7,000 wild rainbow trout fry were recently released into areas of the Inglis River in Northwest Tasmania.

The trout fry were successfully hatched in four unique floating egg boxes built and maintained by local volunteers.

Fertilised wild rainbow trout eggs were collected from fish in the Liawenee canal and they were then incubated at the Salmon Ponds until they grew eyes.

In mid-October, the eggs were transferred to the Northwest and placed in the floating egg boxes.

The fry, once hatched, were released in small batches across several sites (with suitable habitat) in early November.

The boxes are designed to keep the eggs in a safe, secure environment that allows sufficient water flow to keep them well aerated until they hatch.

Egg boxes are used in Europe to supplement natural trout populations in rivers.

This trial was established to explore whether this would work in Tasmania and the results show that it does.

Tip Of The Week - Fish have a keen sense of smell, and handling baits or lures with dirty hands can contaminate them and turn fish away.

Sunscreen and insect repellent are among the worst and most common scents, along with oil and grease, when fishing from a boat.

Send in your fishing reports, pics and tips to valleyfishes@gmail.com

Tight Lines until next week.