Fishing - Titanic tuna weighing more than 130kg caught by 12-year-old

Twelve-year-old Harrison Nicole and his father, Daniel Nicole, have been out chasing record Southern Bluefin Tuna off Bass Strait for some time.

Little did they know their time was coming early last week.

The father-and-son duo, and mate Brodie Munday, set off recently to Table Cape in search of big fish aboard their "Orange Stabi" boat.

It didn't take long for a reel to start screaming once they were "in the zone".

Unfortunately, they lost a fish after a half-hour fight, leaving a sour taste in everyone's mouths.

But they put the lures back out, and only a short time later, they were back onto another big tuna.

Harrison was harnessed up, hanging onto his favourite rod and reel - the Shimano Tiagra 50w - and now the mission was on with the big fish taking a lot of big, powerful runs.

After a brutal, tense one hour and nine minutes, Harrison had the fish boat side, and the gaff was set in place.

On the third attempt, the crew managed to get the big SBT onboard.

Alone, this is a memorable catch for a father, young son and mate.

But it turns out the big tuna is a potential Tasmanian Junior record catch on a 24kg line, weighing in at 130.5kg.

The giant Southern Bluefin Tuna passes the previous record by 4kg, and the Game Fishing Club of Northern Tasmania has put in paperwork with the hope that Harrison's record catch will soon be confirmed.

More great catches of big SBT were recorded around the state as well.

There was a monster that weighed 142 kg, clean caught by Peter and Jen Booth off Bass Strait, and one from the crew of Team Ultra in the south, who dedicated their 124.8 kg catch to their late skipper, Tye Curtain, who passed away earlier this year.

Recreational anglers have been warned not to eat any fish caught up to 3 km from a Salmon Farm (Meads Creek and Stringers Cove leases) for around 3 weeks after they've been treated with Florfenicol.

Tasmania’s salmon industry recently got the ok to use the antibiotic Florfenicol at leases to treat a bacterial infection in fish (P. Salmonis), with a vaccine also developed to fight off the infection.

The antibiotic has been used in Australia's beef and pork industry, and is given orally by mixing it with food.

Salmon Tasmania said companies would provide "real-time updates" on websites about when, where and why florfenicol was being used.

The EPA (Environment Protection Authority) has also developed a new residue monitoring schedule which will provide data on the detection and breakdown of antibiotic residues in sediments, wild fish and water.

Working with IMAS (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies), they'll oversee tests of water, sediment, and microbial communities for both medicated and non-medicated leases.

There have been questions raised after the Chilean Salmon Industry used the same antibiotic in 2023.

A study found that florfenicol use affected sediment microbial communities, leading to reduced taxonomic diversity, and an enrichment of bacteria potentially resistant or tolerant to antibiotic exposure.

The STLAA Interclub Challenge was held at Great Lake last Saturday, which was hosted by the Clarence Anglers Club.

All Southern Licensed Angling Clubs are invited to compete for the interclub shield, which was last year won by Kingborough on the Huon River.

Decent conditions greeted members as they hit the water at 5 am, and by the 3 pm cut-off, most had landed some trout.

The New Norfolk Licensed Anglers Association claimed back the Interclub Shield with a winning total length of 5 fish, tallying 227 cm.

Dylan Pearce (47cm), Laurie Harrison(45cm), Anthony Harrison (45cm), Mahalia Robertson (45 cm) and Andrew Slater (45 cm) were the club's winning anglers.

Junior Mahalia Robertson also claimed the longest trout prize for the juniors and Adrian Slater also took the mystery length prize.

Runners up were both Clarence and Huonville on 220 cm, and Bridgwater was next with 219 cm.

Notably, the lake produced a good number of healthy rainbow trout and many were caught trolling lures at around 4 m of depth.

Tip Of The Week- The Opossum Bay Boat Ramp will be closed from Monday, 17th November to Monday, 1st December while works to upgrade the ramp are carried out.

These works include widening the boat ramp by 2.5 metres and extending it by 4 metres.

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

Tight lines until next week.