b'FeatureFeeding birds with jumping tuna is a common sight when trolling off Whakatane.We had only been trolling for justWe had only been trollingIt was early December, but we over an hour when the lumo Zukernoted that water temperature was hit hard and line screamedfor just over an hour whengot up to 22.5 degrees and we from the reel.After quickly clearingthe lumo Zuker lure wasalmost ran over a huge manta ray the gear, I picked up the Okumasunning itself up on the surface.rod to push up the drag to strikehit hard and line screamedMost of the tuna have been caught and started to fight the fish.Itfrom the reel. After quicklyby trolling, which is still the most had taken a lot of line, and it wascommon way to catch and target tiring quickly after that big run. clearing the gear, I pickedyellowfin. However, talking to The fish went down with tell taleup the Okuma rod to pushmany fishing contacts and seeing signs of a tuna during the fight. a lot of social media posts, there After some dogged resistance,up the drag to strike andhave been a lot of reports of tuna the fish was soon up to the boatstarted to fight the fish. catches on top water lures (stick and Graeme gaffed a fat, stunningbaits) and jigging.I even know of looking 16-18kg yellowfin!We werea boat builder whose son tried to stoked to land one in the new boatcatch a skipjack on a softbait, but on our first trip game fishing andwhich simply melted in your mouth,a yellowfin grabbed it and after a in the first hour of trolling.Laterit sure was a fan favourite with thegood twenty-minute fight, the 20lb that night we enjoyed fresh sashimifamily over the next few nights. leader unfortunately parted ways.22FISHING IN GODZONE MAGAZINE'