Southern bluefin tuna season on South Australia's far west coast is a short, weather-dependent window that draws sport fishers down to Streaky Bay every year. A recent two-part video from NON-STOP Fishing shows the rewards of getting the timing right — and a tackle approach that flies in the face of the assumption that bigger lures catch bigger fish.
The Streaky Bay stretch of coastline, three hours west of Port Lincoln, has been the centre of Australia's southern bluefin tuna fishery for decades. The fish run heavy through autumn before the main commercial season hits, and the recreational fleet works with skirted lures, teasers and pop gear in the cleaner blue water beyond the inshore reef.
For NON-STOP Fishing's session, the host launched with a trio of regulars — "Robson, the Mask Mick and of course Muna" — on a hot, glassy day with a steam out to clear water. "It's a ripper of a day. Super hot. Hopefully we can get on to a couple," he told the camera before the run out.
The gear selection was deliberate. Despite the fishery's reputation for big southern bluefin, the crew rigged smaller skirted lures rather than the heavier patterns that the species can carry. "We've got a massive lures to select from, but what we find best is they like the smaller style ones. We don't want anything too big," the host explained. "Tuna here aren't eating huge things."
Two skirts were selected from the spread — a blue and a pink — paired with a teaser running between them on the surface. The teaser is a critical piece of the spread that often gets overlooked. "Mirrors, reflectors, and if the fish are a bit lower, basically they'll come up, have a look, and then our lures swing past, and then hopefully boom, shaka lucker, tuna on," the host explained.
The first action came on a small school spotted from the bridge. The crew brought the boat across the patch on a wide arc and hooked up almost immediately. "Two in the boat," the host called as the first pair came over the gunwale, both small enough to release. The crew popped Mick's tuna cherry with his first fish, then went back to looking for an upgrade.
The upgrade came on the next pass. Doubles loaded on different setups, and the host called a fish he believed was substantially bigger than anything they had seen recently. "This could be one of my bigger tunas I've caught over the last few seasons," he told the camera as the line peeled. "Pump and wind. That's the motto. Pump and wind."
The fish was eventually netted at an estimated 18 kilos — not a giant by Streaky Bay standards but well above the schoolie class the day had been producing. "That is a ripper. That's the biggest I've seen out here for a while," the host said. The boat then ran into a footy-oval-sized school of cruising fish that had multiple anglers connected at once.
For anglers planning a Streaky Bay run, the session reinforces three points. Smaller skirts often outperform the heavy patterns on southern bluefin in this water. A surface teaser earns its keep by bringing curious fish up to the spread. And the bite, when it comes, can flip from a quiet boat to absolute chaos in the time it takes to drop the gear back.