Popping George's Tuna Cherry

We find ourselves in the fishing town of Portland on Victoria's west coast, this time chasing Bluefin tuna. Its Friday night the weather is perfect for the 3 days that we plan to fish, we setup up the boat do the final touches setting up lures for to make it all easy for an early morning start.
       We awake to the alarm, eat some breakfast before loading the boat and making our way to boat ramp. For anyone that has never launched from Portland there is 2 separate boat ramps both very good and accommodate for all sized boats. We launch the boat and make our way to where we think the tuna might be holding
       We decide to head west from Portland toward just Bridgewater, we get past the cape nelson lighthouse and begin to set the spread. We opt for 2 divers in close and 2 skirts out a bit further. We continue west along the 50m line when we see some bird activity out a bit deeper.
       Trolling over we see dolphins, seals and 4-5 different types of birds feeding on a bait ball. We get somewhat excited and hold our breath waiting for our lures to get eaten. We can see the tuna busting up around us but then are not interested in our lures. We are just about to do another pass when another boat comes past drives directly through the school and pushes them down and out of site. Just like that all the action just stops.
       From there we see a couple gannets landing on the water about 50m from where we were. We make our way toward them and as we approach zzzzzzzzzzzzzz goes 1 of our reels with a Rapala Xrap 30 on it. I offer the rod to George and he suggests i do the first for the trip.

   I tighten the drag and the fight begins. Getting it close to the boat and it takes off for another run. It does this 3 times before allowing us a good gaff shot. George missing the first Gaff attempt and nailing his second shot. A few high fives and celebrations for our first for the weekend and we are setting the spread again and back trying to get another. We get another hit maybe 30mins after the first fish it runs for 4-5 seconds but spits the hook.       After landing a fish on the first day we head straight toward the same spot the second day. And exactly the same spot we see the action again. Though this time we there is acres upon acres of Krill in the water. We put the lures out again and start fishing.
       Seeing fish again but they are very scattered. They come up to feed on the Krill then as soon as a boat gets near them they are straight down and are not to be seen again. So we separate from the other boats to try and find our own fish.
       About 1klm from where we caught yesterdays fish we hook up again. This time its George on the rod for his first attempt at a tuna. Fighting it for a good 5mins we get it close to the boat see some color and it goes for a run straight down pulling the hooks and winning its freedom. George dropping his tuna was shattering but we were straight back into it and ready for the next 1.
       Frustratingly we could see a couple fish here and there but they again seemed real finicky and weren't to interested in lures having bellies full of Krill. We persisted for another 3  hours with very little action before zzzzzzzzzzzzz another run.
       George on the rod again he began fighting the fish again. This time with a little more experience and not so eagerto get it to the boat. He showed great patience and before we new it we seen color. I grabbed the trace got it into gaff range and landed the gaff shot bring Georges first tuna into the boat.

       We were both pretty stoked with how the weekend panned out. We didn'tget a barrel or a copious amount of hookups but all the stuff you see on the water is pretty special and we are grateful to be able to enjoy another asset of this amazing country.