An 18-year-old fisherman has written himself into the record books after catching what may be the first bigeye tuna ever recorded in Tasmanian waters.
Jet Worsteling landed the massive 85kg fish while on an Easter long weekend expedition with family off St Helens on Tasmania’s east coast.
The teen, who co-hosts Channel 10’s popular fishing show IFISH with his dad Paul, was targeting swordfish in deep water when he hooked the unexpected catch on Friday.
“We certainly never expected this to happen. This fish is the biggest official and even possibly the first bigeye tuna ever caught in Tasmanian waters,” Worsteling said.
“Fishing for swords in over 500m of water, our bait rocketed off unlike most swordfish bites,” he said.
“We then came tight on this fish that began to surge to the surface like most swords so we thought nothing of it.”
He said they were originally “devastated” because they thought it was a bluefin that had stolen their sword bait.”
“But as the fish began to pinwheel to the surface we could see a distinct yellow down its body,” he explained.
The teen described the moment they realised what they had caught as special, particularly after discussing the rare species earlier that day.
“We sunk the gaffs in and instantly we all knew it was a bigeye with no questions asked. The first we’ve ever seen or heard of in the state.”
“What makes it even better is we were speaking about them on the way out and saying how we’d never seen one,” he said.
“That’s the beauty of dropping baits half a kilometer down, you just never know what you’re gonna catch.”
