Longtail Tuna
Pelagic / InshoreNorthern WA's signature inshore tuna — fast, hard-running, and accessible from beach, boat, and kayak. Schools chase baitfish along Eighty Mile Beach, the Pilbara coast, and through the Kimberley, often busting up within casting range of the shore. Small head, thick shoulders, and a sustained run that turns light gear inside out.
Overview
Longtail tuna are the inshore tuna of northern WA — they don't venture into deep blue water like yellowfin, instead patrolling the coast from Shark Bay north and through the Kimberley, often within a few hundred metres of the beach. Eighty Mile Beach, the Pilbara coast, and the bays around Broome are classic longtail country. They feed on hardyheads, garfish, and small mackerel by herding them to the surface, and the resulting bust-ups are obvious from a long way off — boiling water, terns wheeling overhead, and bait spraying. Once hooked they go on long, hard, low runs that can dump a small reel in seconds.
Identification
Longtail, northern bluefin tuna (older Australian usage), oriental bonito
Slim for a tuna, with a small head, thick shoulders and a body that tapers to an unusually skinny tail wrist — hence the name. Dark blue back, silver flanks, and colourless oval spots low on the belly that show up clearly on a fresh fish. The pectoral fins are short and do not reach past the front of the second dorsal, which separates them from yellowfin and bigeye. Mackerel tuna carry dark wavy markings on the back above the lateral line and a few dark spots between the pectoral and pelvic fins. Juvenile yellowfin are the other common mix-up; their longer pectorals give them away.
How to Catch
Live hardyheads, live garfish, whole pilchards (less reliable than a moving lure)
Chrome metal slugs (40–80g), stickbaits, slim minnows, small soft plastics on heavy jig heads
Spin outfit with 20–40lb braid and a 30–50lb fluorocarbon leader. A single inline hook on metals — trebles tend to pull or get destroyed. From the beach, long casts matter, so a 9–10ft rod and a 5000–8000-size reel. No wire — longtails don't have shearing teeth and wire kills the strike rate.
Spot the bust-up first. Birds working tight over boiling water is the giveaway. Position yourself ahead of the school's drift, cast a metal slug well past the activity, and retrieve fast and steady — longtails almost always hit a fast-moving lure over a slow one. From the shore on Eighty Mile Beach, walk and watch; from a boat, hold off the school and cast in rather than driving through it. Once hooked, set the drag heavy and walk along the beach with the fish if you have to — they'll spool a stationary angler.
Peak action runs April through October when the southerly trades push baitfish along the coast. Early morning and late afternoon are best for surface bust-ups. Calm, glassy mornings are easier for spotting feeding schools.
Up to 35kg, commonly 8–20kg
Year-round (peak Apr–Oct)
Size & Growth
Commonly 8–20kg on the northern coast, with 25kg-plus a big one and the largest running to around 35kg. They grow quickly and mature within a few years, which is what supports the numbers you see through the peak run. Fish from the beach at Eighty Mile tend to average smaller than boat-caught fish working the reef edges, though the beach turns up the odd surprise. Anything over about 15kg on a spin outfit will make you reconsider your drag settings, regardless of what the scales eventually say.
Diet & Habitat
Hardyheads, garfish, small mackerel, prawns and squid, herded to the surface and hit from below — which is what produces the boiling bust-ups and the wheeling terns. Longtails are an inshore tuna and stay that way: surf gutters, headlands, reef edges, bays and channel mouths, rarely venturing into deep blue water the way yellowfin do. That is exactly what makes them a land-based proposition. WA range runs from around Shark Bay north through the Pilbara, along Eighty Mile Beach and through the Kimberley, with Broome and the Pilbara coast the reliable boat-based grounds.
WA Size & Bag Limits
| Minimum size | No minimum size |
|---|---|
| Bag limit | 3 (no separate longtail sub-limit) |
| Counts toward | Counts within the large pelagic total mixed-species daily bag of 3 fish per fisher — the same shared limit covering Spanish mackerel, mahi mahi, the other tunas and wahoo. A Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence is required when fishing from a powered boat. |
Longtail tuna is a large pelagic finfish with no minimum legal size in WA. There is no individual bag limit for longtail — it counts within the large pelagic TOTAL mixed-species daily bag of 3 fish per fisher (the same shared limit that covers Spanish mackerel, mahi mahi, the other tunas and wahoo). A Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence (RFBL) is required when fishing from a powered boat.
Eating Quality
Good, with a caveat — this is dark red tuna flesh, and it is superb raw and mediocre cooked through. Bleed at the gills the second it is landed and put it straight into an ice slurry; nothing matters more with a tuna. Then either serve it as sashimi within a day or two, or sear thick loin pieces hard on the outside and leave the middle rare. Cook it past medium and it goes grey, dry and unpleasant, and no sauce rescues it. The strong-flavoured belly and tail sections are better suited to hot-smoking or a curry, both of which suit the oiliness. Longtail freezes poorly for sashimi purposes — the texture breaks down — but frozen portions are fine for smoking or cooking later. A bag limit of tuna is a lot of fish for one household; take what you will actually eat.
Perth Tips
Eighty Mile Beach is the classic land-based longtail destination — drive the beach at low tide and watch the wash. From a boat around Broome and the Pilbara, work the headlands and reef edges where bait gets pinned. Don't bother with light gear unless you enjoy long fights — 30lb braid is a sensible minimum.