Australian fishing YouTuber Mick has finally ticked off a long-held target species — the tuskfish — using a handline that has been in his family for three generations, after a chaotic Queensland reef session aboard a mate's boat that produced red emperor, coral trout, queenfish and even a giant trevally cameo.
The session aired on Mick's Gone Fishing channel earlier this week under the title "Giving the Fish What They Want!" and ran just over 40 minutes. The plan, Mick explained at the start, was deliberately low-tech. After spending the previous afternoon scratching around collecting crabs for bait, he wanted to put both soft plastics and natural baits through their paces across broken reef ground.
The gear of choice for the opening drift was a Samaki Sultan 4000 reel paired with a P2 Focal rod, a half-ounce jighead and a Samaki prawn soft plastic in golden grape. But the showpiece was his late grandfather's timber handline, recently restored and re-spooled with fresh 80-pound line and a 130-pound leader.
"It has been in the family for three generations. So fingers crossed I can christen it today," Mick said early in the trip, explaining he had added a fresh coat of timber oil, a 100-size live bait hook and a number five bean-ball sinker for fishing the rugged coral country.
The lure session produced quick action in three metres of broken ground. A cod hit first, followed by coral trout, a spotted emperor and several queenfish on prawns — including one queenie that was chased right back to the boat by what Mick identified as a very large giant trevally. "I can't believe it's a GT trying to eat a queen fish," he remarked as the apex predator turned away from the angler's net.
As the tide eased, Mick switched to the handline and bait rig, first running buffalo and blue-eye crabs through a classic reef ambush lane. The tuskfish target species eventually came to the handline after a series of rod-busting tusky-like bites that earlier broke off on 80-pound fluorocarbon. When the hookup finally stuck, Mick pulled in a healthy tuskie that promptly started vomiting jellyfish onto the deck.
"Finally ticked off a milestone. And that green ping too," Mick said, before the crew pressed on to collect more moon crabs by hand in order to continue the bite. The day ended with four tuskies in the esky, a legal 10-kilo red emperor initially mistaken for something smaller, and a small blacktip shark that had to be extracted from the action.
Mick closed the day reflecting on the rarity of tradition in modern sportfishing. "Three generations I've been catching on that thing. So, pretty cool to pull it out of retirement and give it a bit of a run. Definitely going to do it a bit more," he said. He also flagged a broader shift in his own fishing preferences after the session: "I'm a bait fisherman now."
The video will resonate with reef anglers working the Queensland coast this autumn, where tuskfish — also known as blue bone or blue tusk — continue to hold in broken coral country between six and twelve metres. Mick's takeaway was simple: old tackle and crabs collected off the beach the night before can still out-fish expensive kit when the tide turns and the fish want a natural meal.