Just over a year ago the IGFA added a tuna royal slam to their recognition category list. I had already caught many skipjack, blackfin, and large and small yellowfin through the years. And I had caught a number of very large bigeye in Madeira and northern bluefin in North Carolina. On my trip to Raiatea French Polynesia in July 2006 I caught a small dogtooth tuna and in July 2007 during my second trip to Phuket, Thailand I finally captured some longtail tuna. Therefore to complete my IGFA tuna royal slam all I needed was a southern bluefin tuna. To accomplish that goal I organized a trip to Fowler’s Bay, South Australia in January. My close friend Ian McTurk agreed to make the long journey with me to better document the feat and to share in the adventure.

Ian and I arrived in Ceduna, Australia after about 41 hours of tiring travel. We had driven to Jacksonville, Florida from our hometown in South Georgia and then had flown to Dallas, LAX, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Ceduna with layovers in between. Owner Steve Wade and Captain Paul  Trevor (Skipper or “Skip”)picked us up, loaded our gear, and we headed out toward our final destination in their 4-wheel drive Land Rover. It was slightly over an hour’s drive to the tiny village of Fowler’s Bay which has only 15-16 permanent residents but swells to about 250-300 this time of year due to the good fishing and the fact that children are out of school for the summer. We were staying at Sam’s Far West Fishing Lodge in Fowler’s Bay. Sam had to retire due to a brain tumor and had sold the business to Steve Wade. Steve who is a very knowledgeable and articulate gentleman and a “retired” information technology teacher is ably helped by his oldest son Carl who does most of the cooking (hence the nickname “Cookie”), the cleanup, and assists with the logistics. Steve himself only occasionally goes out on the boat, usually being busy with the marketing, logistics, and organizational duties.

Fowler's Bay, South Australia	Fowler's Bay with Sand Dunes in Background	Sam's Wild West Fishing Lodge
Sam's Lodge	The boat "Osprey"	Rugged South Australian Coastline

The operation is a bit of a Spartan one with a concrete floor covering the roughly six room lodge. There are two bedrooms for the anglers with a double bed and a bunk bed in each. There is a large room that functions as a kitchen, a great room, and an eating area. And there is an outside room for “bullshitting.” There are also Steve’s quarters, Cookies’ quarters and two bathrooms. All the power is provided by a diesel generator and when it goes off at night light to get around and to find the bathrooms requires a flashlight. The setup is more than adequate however and the isolation and Spartan quality of the operation adds to the charm. Ian called it a safari to the outback on the beach.

Day one was upon us in no time. After only about four hours sleep in the last 2 days of travelling Ian and I slept like logs. As we got up we found that the wind was blowing about 25-30 knots out of the east and there was a 15-20 foot swell from the southeast. These conditions were a “no go” for the small and light 25-foot custom-made aluminum “Osprey” powered by twin 90-hp Johnson outboards even though it was Aussie-built. We therefore had a relaxing breakfast and then went out sight-seeing. We drove up to the pile of rocks and added several for good luck. We saw the Mexican Hat Beach, the sand dunes, and the remains of the initial sheep station that started the town 140 years earlier. We also saw three kangaroos during the trip. After a nice dinner we hit the sack and once again slept soundly.

Ian on His First Tuna	I Would Say He's Happy	Ian's First Southern Bluefin at the Boat
Terry's First Southern Bluefin Tuna	Ian and Terry with Their First Tunas	Terry's Second Fish

Tuesday morning we were delighted to find the wind to be fairly calm and with only a small southeast swell present. We left the lodge about 7 am and drug the “tender” behind the Land Rover down to the beach where it was launched into the small surf to carry us out to the fishing boat. Skipper Paul fired up the Johnsons and steered the “Osprey” south. We put our lines out only about 4 miles off the moorage. We chose to run only three rods due to the narrow beam of the boat, two off of the transom and a stinger from the rod holder on top of the steering enclosure. The rods were 50-pound Shimanos armed with Shimano Tyrinos-20 reels wrapped with 50-pound braid line. Our terminal tackle was composed of albacore feathers and single 7-0 J-hooks. We trolled for 3 hours before we had any action. The swells were building to about 3 meters but the wind and seas were minimal so it remained fishable. Then we had a blind triple strike at 11:00 a.m. The short bait on the 3^rd wave went off first and I grabbed it and set the hook. Then the right transom bait on the 5^th wave went off followed by the stinger bait on the 8^th wave. Skip grabbed the second rod and Ian the long stick. Paul’s fish broke the leader early and Ian’s fish was lost due to a broken leader on the gaff attempt. I fought mine to the boat and Paul gaffed and boated the 25# southern bluefin tuna. I had completed my tuna royal slam! After congratulations were passed all around it was time to get the lines back in the water. We had enough tuna for sashimi but we needed more if we were to have tuna steaks as well.

After another hour we had a single blind hit on the long transom stick and I boated a second 25# tuna after a short fight. It went quiet again and then another blind strike hit the tuna feather on the right short bait. Ian caught this fish in about 15 minutes. The wind then picked up and reached about 25-30 knots with about a 10-12 foot swell at a roughly 90-degree angle forcing us to go in early. It was a long slow and wet trip back to the beach. In addition to the tuna we had seen a number of dolphins and some Terns and Gannets which are frequently associated with tuna in this area.

Wednesday we awoke to the howling of the wind which had actually even picked up overnight. The seas were horrendous and impassable for a 25-foot boat so we took another “blow day.” The wind was coming from the south to southeast which made it even impossible to try surf casting the nearby and even the not so nearby beaches as the wind would simply blow our lines back in almost faster than we could cast them out. We watched some television since there was a Cricket test match between Australia and India going on in Perth and the Australian Open tennis tournament was in progress at Melbourne.  I quickly became board with both so I went back to my room and viewed some DVD movies I had brought.

Another Tuna for Terry	Coming Aboard	Oh Boy! More Sashimi
Ian on His Second Tuna	Go Get 'em Ian	Another Southern Bluefin at the Boat

Day four we again woke to howling wind and it unfortunately had not shifted very far to the east as we had hoped which at least would have allowed us to try surfcasting some of the more distant beaches. It was clearly too dangerous once again to take the boat out so we went up to see the “dingo fence.” This is the longest man made structure in the world extending nearly 1500 miles, going from the south Australian coast on the west all the way to Queensland on the east.  It was built to keep the dingos (a type of vicious wild dog) away from the large herds of sheep being raised to the south. After viewing the fence and several wild emu’s we gave surfcasting for mulloways a try despite the wind. Ian and I got bored with this fairly quickly and had no luck. Steve caught a flathead or lizard fish which is reported to be excellent table fare but other than that we caught nothing but weeds. Finally after about three plus hours we called it quits and trekked back to the lodge for some cricket test match TV time and dinner. Captain Paul’s close friend Todd and Paul’s wife had driven out from Port Lincoln and joined us for dinner. After dinner Ian got the opportunity to go out with Todd and Paul to shoot a kangaroo which is something he had hoped for before leaving home, being a keen hunter.

Our last chance at fishing was Friday morning and we dearly hoped the wind would lie down. Out of a possible 5 fishing days we had only been able to fish about half a day on Tuesday up to this point and sincerely hoped this last day would be “fishable.” When we embarked from bed it was sunny and warm but still with a slight wind at about 10 knots out of the south. We therefore were able to get out. After a quick breakfast we launched the tender from the beach and went out to the fishing boat. Today we were joined by Paul’s mate Todd.  Captain Trevor headed the boat out to the same area where we had caught the bluefin on Tuesday. Todd had just set out the last feather on the 7^th wave when it was hit by a tuna. Unfortunately he lost it at the boat on the gaff attempt. Less than half an hour later we had a hit on the long bait again. It was my turn on the rod and I was able to land the 22-pound bluefin fairly quickly. Just over another half-hour we had another blind strike on the middle bait and Ian landed a second similarly sized fish. After a one hour unsuccessful attempt at bouncing the bottom with dead bait for a yellowtail kingfish or Samson fish we gave up and started trolling again. As we pulled in the last bait a hammerhead shark came by and Paul threw a bait at it. The shark quickly swallowed the bait but just after Paul set the hook it bit through the monofilament leader.

Terry on another Bluefin	Captain Paul Trevor on the Gaff	There is No Question About The Royal Slam Now
Ian With Tuna at Boatside	Todd With His First Tuna on Rod & Reel	"Skip" With His First Tuna on Rod & Reel

We had been back to trolling for about an hour when we had a double strike on the two shorter baits. Todd and I grabbed the rods, set the hooks, and in about ten minutes we had caught two more southern bluefin tunas both about 25 pounds in weight. This was Todd’s first tuna he had ever caught on rod and reel. Just a few minutes later we were hooked up again and Todd successfully caught his second bluefin on rod and reel. I caught another 25-pounder shortly thereafter to make my third for the day and we finished with our captain catching his first tuna on rod and reel which we released since we had caught our limit of 2 fish per angler. We decided to go in even though it was only about 1:30 p.m. and the water had actually laid down somewhat despite the forcasted increase in wind up to 25-30 knots for the afternoon. We were already quite satisfied having experienced a great day with basically all 8 bluefin hooked up having reached the leader. It was time to enjoy a cold beer and celebrate our success. And Ian was eager to get back to watching cricket on the “tele.”

Another Tuna for Terry	"Osprey" on the Troll	Terry's Last Southern Bluefin

The next morning we had to arise early to make the trip back to Ceduna in time to catch the morning flight to Adelaide. We spent the day in Adelaide due to the lack of availability of international connections back to the United States by the time we reached the southern city. The next morning though we were off to Sydney, LAX, Dallas, and Jacksonville. Due to recrossing the international date line we actually arrived in LA much earlier than when we had left Sydney! We fortunately were able to catch an earlier flight out of LA to Dallas and just made the last connection to Jacksonville for the night. We therefore finally got back home almost 10 hours earlier than planned but we had still been travelling for 48 hours. Both Ian and I were exhausted as we drove back to Valdosta. It had been a bit of a grueling trip and we only were able to fish just over two half-days due to the weather after travelling halfway around the world but we were still satisfied. I had caught my southern bluefin tuna to complete my IGFA tuna royal slam and Ian had got to shoot a “roo.”
 

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