Hobart teenager’s three-hour battle for monster bluefin tuna

A Hobart teenager has revealed how he landed a monster tuna while fishing with his family. See how much it weighed + where it was caught >>

A HOBART teenager will be the talk of the schoolyard this week after landing a 107kg monster while fishing with his family.

Jye Castle, 14, hooked the 178cm southern bluefin tuna while fishing at Maria Island on Monday.

It took the Year 9 The Friends’ School student a mammoth three hours and 15 minutes to get the biggest catch of his life into the boat.

“I caught the fish on a Halco king brown lure,” Jye said.

“This fish is my biggest by 70kg.”

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Orford teenager Jye Castle landed this 107kg monster of a southern blue fin tuna while fishing at Maria Island on Monday, June 22, 2020.

The teen was using a 15kg set-up and it wasn’t hard to put on a smile for obligatory trophy photo.

“When we got the fish in the boat everyone on the boat could not believe that we caught a fish this big,” Jye said.

The largest of the Tasmanian tunas, southern bluefin grow to up to two metres in length and 220kg.

The species are actively targeted by game fishers off Tasmania’s east and south coasts during autumn and into winter, according to the DPIPWE.

In recent years, the stocks of SBT have declined to the point where catch limits have been placed upon the fishery in an attempt to allow the stocks to recover.

For Jye’s monster catch, he said it didn’t go to waste, promptly filleted and shared among his family and friends.