Tasty Tuna

Nothing else has me jumping out of bed faster than the thought of chasing Southern Bluefin Tuna! Searching our hotspots off the Eastern entrance from San Remo, we’re looking for the telltale rafts of shearwaters & birds working. Bait on the sounder with fish marking up and sometimes a zoo of dolphins, seals and even penguins.

We set our spread of skirted lures, divers and our favourite spreader bar in the shotgun position out the back of the boat. There’s the adrenaline rush when a reel screams off with the rod bending and bouncing in its holder and sometimes multiple hook ups at once!

Then the chaos that ensues, teamwork getting other lines in out the way while the pump and wind begins. I love feeling the power and weight of the fish whilst keeping the pressure on and guiding him to the side of the boat. The feisty ones give you a run for your money and often freight train off a second or third time when they get to the boat and you have to work them back in again.

My partner Terry is my gaff man, and he always aims for the head, preferably the back. It helps prevent damage to the tuna and bleeding in the muscle.

Once on the boat, we brain spike the fish quickly to dispatch it, locating the soft circle on the top of the head. We then bleed the tuna for 10-15 minutes as the heart will still be pumping. We make a cut in the membrane between the gill collar and the gills.

We have a deck wash hose which we use to put in the cut to accelerate the bleeding and rinse all the blood away. Bleeding improves the flesh and gets rid of bacteria in the bloodstream that would otherwise foul the meat. The fish is then gilled, gutted and put in a chill bag with ice. We put ice in the fishes cavity as well, ensuring the best sashimi grade tuna on your table that night and top quality tuna ready for a myriad of recipes. Enjoy!

Cut the tuna sides into steak sizes that will be easy to cryovac.

Coat the tuna pieces in a dry brine of 40% salt and 60% brown sugar. Leave the tuna to marinate in a large casserole dish in the fridge for about eight hours.

The Salt and sugar will have mostly turned to liquid. We just dip the tuna pieces in the liquid to rinse off excess salt.

The tuna pieces are then put on racks in the smoker for around 40 mins @ 140 deg C.

We use Red Gum wood chips in the Smoker.

In a food processor, blend one avocado with 250gm of cream cheese, a dash of lemon or lime juice to taste, salt and pepper.

Pipe or spoon the mix on to water crackers and top with a piece of smoked tuna.

I guarantee your guests will be coming back for more!

Boil up a cup of long grain rice and have it drained and ready in a saucepan.

Smash an avocado and distribute between two serving bowls.

Lightly sear two serves of tuna steaks in a pan with around a teaspoon each of butter and oil. (I use canola, vegetable or rice bran oil) The butter gives flavour and the oil stops the butter burning.

The Tuna should only take a couple of minutes each side. Watch the colour change on the first side as you cook the steak and flip well before the colour change reaches the middle of the steak. Do the same on the other side and leave a thick under cooked line in the middle. Be careful as you can overcook tuna very easily.

Place the seared tuna on top the bowls of avocado mash. Season with salt and pepper to taste and then cover with boiled rice. This will create a steam oven effect and continue to cook the tuna.

Leave for a few minutes then sprinkle a good soy sauce over the top. Stir through with a fork to combine then dig in to the tastiest healthiest poke bowl from the Sea!

3 tuna steaks (about 300g each)

3 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil, plus extra to fry

2 handfuls of rocket or baby spinach leaves

1 small Spanish red onion, cut into rings

1 1/2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1.Cover the tuna in two tablespoons soy sauce. Press sesame seeds into both sides of fish and refrigerate for 1/2 hour.

2.Heat a little peanut oil in a pan over very high heat and fry tuna quickly on one side for about 1 minute, then turn and cook for about half a minute. Set aside to rest.

3.Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients and transfer to a serving plate. Cut each steak into six diagonal slices and place on top of salad.

This is one of our favourites, the tuna rolled in crunchy black sesame seeds and quickly seared, will melt in your mouth. Recipe courtesy of Delicious Magazine.

Starlo with a school-sized southern bluefin tuna from the dramatic south eastern corner of the state, near Tasman Island. These fish have made a spectacular comeback in recent years.

TASMANIA IS JUSTIFIABLY FAMOUS FOR ITS TROUT... BUT IT ALSO OFFERS SOME EXTRAORDINARILY GOOD SALTWATER FISHING! IN THIS CONCLUDING CHAPTER OF HIS DETAILED, TWO-PART GUIDE TO PLANNING YOUR NEXT (OR FIRST) APPLE ISLE ANGLING ADVENTURE, STARLO LOOKS AT THE VERY BEST OF TASSIE’S SALTY OPTIONS, AND OFFERS SOME PRICELESS TIPS THAT WILL HELP YOU TAP INTO THEM.

In the previous issue of Spooled, I focussed on Tasmania’s world-class trout fishing, and explained how best to make the most of it on your next visit. This time, I want to shine the spotlight on the island state’s diverse seas and estuaries, and their rich bounty of prizes: from bream to brown trout, trumpeter to tuna, and snapper to swords.

Tasmania’s saltwater fishing can be nothing short of spectacular, and the truly incredible thing about it is that certain aspects actually seem to be improving with the passing of each year — which isn’t something you can always say about our popular mainland fisheries! In particular, stocks of snapper, King George whiting and yellowtail kingfish — three species that were rarely encountered by anglers around the Apple Isle a generation ago — are not only increasing in both numbers and sizes, but also spreading their ranges further south and west around the coastline every season. This is obviously very exciting news for local and visiting fishers alike!

Dramatic light at Pirates Bay, Eaglehawk Neck. Never forget that the weather can and does change fast in Tasmania!

Firstly, however, a word of warning: No worthwhile guide to saltwater fishing in Tasmania would be complete unless it included a clear message about the inherent dangers of boating in this part of the world.

As I stressed last issue, Tassie’s weather is fickle, fast-changing and often foul. Conditions can and do shift very quickly indeed, and they can easily take the unwary by surprise — with potentially catastrophic results. The winds are strong, the waters cold, and currents often run hard. To compound these natural issues, many of the island state’s coastal waters have less in the way of channel and cardinal markers, beacons and other indications of navigational hazards than most mainland mariners might be expecting… Take care!

The boating rules may also be different to those that apply in your home waters, and ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law. For example, approved life jackets must be worn by all on board whenever underway in vessels under six metres in length. I usually take this a step further and simply leave my inflatable PFD on at all times when on the water in Tasmania. It’s no real hassle, and it negates the inconvenience of constantly putting one on and taking it off as you move about while fishing. You’ll find all the latest Tasmanian boating regulations by going to www.mast.tas.gov.au/safe-boating/

Clothing is also a serious consideration. Regardless of the conditions when you first set out, always pack extra dry clothes and a really efficient waterproof jacket, plus a pair of waterproof pants or overalls. I lost count of the number of times I had to reach for my Ridgeline Infinity jacket on our last visit to Tasmania, and that was in the height of summer! (You can read my review of this great piece of apparel here.)

None of this info’ about the weather and boating challenges is meant to scare you off, but simply to reinforce the message that Tasmania’s climate and conditions are a constant consideration when planning any form of fishing in that part of the world… Ignore them at your peril.

It’s hard to know where best to start any big-picture overview of saltwater fishing in Tasmania, but let’s begin in the brackish upper reaches of the estuaries, where the tides begin to dissipate. Here, the two dominant angling species are southern black bream and — a bit of a surprise to some visitors — brown trout! That’s right: Tasmania’s well-adapted and acclimatised brown trout are more than happy to regularly venture downstream, well into the salt. This happens most predictably during the annual “whitebait” runs — from about the end of August until November — but it’s not unheard of to encounter the odd “sea runner” in a Tasmanian estuary at any time of the year, especially in the state’s cooler southern and western waters.

One of the consequences of this regular presence of trout in tidal waters is the fact that you’ll actually need a current inland angling licence to fish upstream of certain designated points on many systems, and it isn’t always immediately obvious (nor even particularly logical) where these cut-off points are located. Some are very close to the mouth of the estuary, such as the A3 highway bridge over the Scamander River in the state’s north east, which is barely a long cast from the ocean! Best bet is to download the Inland Fisheries Service’s latest Infish App (it’s free) and use that to identify the cut offs… or simply buy a licence to be on the safe side if you have any doubts.

Of course, there are other species besides bream and trout to be found in Tasmania’s upper estuaries. Sand flathead are prolific (if mostly small) in many systems, as are juvenile Australian salmon and yellow-eye mullet. There’s also the chance of the odd tailor and trevally and, just to keep things interesting, escapee Atlantic salmon from state’s many sea cage fish farms often make their way up the coastal rivers as well. Expect the unexpected!

There are obviously lots of land-based fishing options in Tasmania’s saltwater, but having access to a kayak or boat will greatly expand your opportunities. For visitors from the mainland, this either means taking your own vessel across on the “Spirit of Tasmania” ferry, or sourcing one locally (typically by hiring it — see the fact box hereabouts).

Taking your own boat over on the ferry gives you enormous freedom. But be warned: it’s not cheap! Due to a ridiculous anomaly in TT Line’s current pricing structure, even a relatively small trailer boat attracts a significantly higher fare than a much larger caravan or camper. Apparently this is due to some sort of subsidy on anything towed behind a vehicle that contains a bed… in other words, visitors are actively subsidised and encouraged to bring their own accommodation to Tasmania with them, rather than supporting local businesses in the form of hotels, motels, campgrounds, bed and breakfast establishments and the like. This policy simply beggars belief, in my opinion, but there you go! No one ever said that common sense was especially common.

Tasmania is justifiably renowned as the home of some of Australia’s largest and most prolific black bream. When Kaj “Bushy” Busch, Chris “Slick” Wright and myself travelled there at the beginning of the millennium to promote the then-new Squidgies range of soft plastics, we were absolutely gobsmacked by the caliber of bream fishing we encountered — as well as by the fact that many local anglers were blissfully unaware of the bountiful breaming bonanza that lay right under their noses. It was like travelling back in a time machine to a much earlier era of huge, dumb bream!

The bottom line is this: if you’re going to bring your own boat, understand that you will get stung heavily. You’ll need to do the sums and decide if the figures make sense, which will be more likely if you plan to stay on the island for at least 10 days to two weeks… the longer your visit, the more sense it makes.

Much has changed across the intervening two decades. There are still big mobs of bream in many Tasmania’s estuaries — and some absolute bruisers among them — but they no longer swim under the radar, and they’ve had a lot of hardware thrown at them over those years! They’re no longer the willing push-overs we found in the early 2000s. Today, you can go to famous monster bream honey holes like Port Sorell on the state’s mid-north coast and spend a frustrating week hunting massive, blue-nosed ghosts in the shallows with very limited success. They’re still there, and you’ll see them, but they’re bloody hard to fool! That said, Tasmania would still win my vote (in a photo finish with the deep south of WA) as Australia’s premier black bream destination.

Georges Bay at St Helens offers a huge range of fishing options.

Hobart’s busy Derwent River itself remains one of Tasmania’s prime bream systems, but there are plenty of others, including the previously mentioned Scamander River, along with nearby Georges Bay (St Helens), Ansons Bay and Musselroe Bay (all in the north east), as well as Swansea, Little Swanport, the lower Huon and several others all the way down to the Lune and beyond, in the state’s deep south — plus a hundred tiny systems (many that are often closed to the sea for extended periods) dotted in between. They’re all worth exploring (on foot, from a kayak or in a suitable boat) and most contain bream… some of them in the “scary monster” size category!

Be warned, though: many of these smaller systems are shallow and studded with unmarked navigation hazards, especially at low tide, when open to the sea. Exercise extreme caution!

Hiring a boat or kayak is another option for anglers visiting Tasmania and fortunately there’s one very good operation that caters specifically for keen fishos. Clinton Howe’s Tassie Boat Hire is based in Ulverstone, on the state’s north coast, and offers turn-key fishing packages built around 4.2 m side-console Renegade boats fitted with 40 HP motors, bow-mounted electrics, sounders, plumbed live wells and all the necessary safety gear. Note that you will need a boating licence to operate these rigs.

Find out more by visiting the Tassie Boat Hire page on Facebook, or calling Clinton on 0429 475550, and be sure to tell him Starlo sent you!

You never know what will grab a soft plastic next in Tassie waters! Common contenders include (clockwise from above): jack mackerel (cowanyoung), Australian salmon, and the ever-present blue-throat wrasse.

Moving further downstream in Tasmania’s estuaries and out into its partially sheltered (but often rough!) bays and harbours, the list of target species quickly expands. Bream, trout, escapee Atlantic salmon, mullet and the ubiquitous sand flathead remain top contenders, but now they’re joined by silver trevally, Australian salmon, jack mackerel (cowanyoung), barracouta, blue-spot flathead, squid, growing numbers of King George whiting (more on them soon), snapper and the odd kingfish, along with gummy and school sharks, plus oddballs like elephant fish. Leatherjackets, gurnard perch and blue-throat wrasse are prolific, too, especially near reef or weed, and there are even some thumping luderick, along with schools of very big garfish at certain times. And for those keen to wade at night with a light and spear, there are lots and lots of lovely flounder to be found in the shallows.

You could literally spend a lifetime exploring Tasmania’s estuaries, bays, harbours and near-shore seas and still be constantly stunned by what turns up to harass your baits, lures and flies. The place is full of surprises!

As already mentioned, one of the more exciting developments on Tasmania’s saltwater scene across the past 20-odd years has been the exponential growth of the state’s snapper, kingfish and King George whiting fisheries.

You can argue until the cows come home whether these fish were always present, but simply never targeted correctly, or if they are relatively recent arrivals — pushed or carried south by strengthening currents of warm water from the north. My take is this: there have always been a few snapper, kings and whiting in Tassie waters, but due to a range of environmental factors, their numbers, sizes and ranges have expanded significantly, and people have learned how to specifically target them.

Whatever the exact story, the outcome is plain to see: Tasmania’s sea fishing fortunes — especially for this trio of species — are booming!

Northern Tasmania has emerged at the best King George whiting fishery on the planet. Believe it or not, monsters like this are far from uncommon!