SA: Record tuna provides a meal for south-east family

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2006
SA: Record tuna provides a meal for south-east family

By Tim Dornin

ADELAIDE, April 18 AAP - A record-breaking tuna caught off the South Australian coast
is destined for the dinner table with lucky angler Paul Carrison sharing the spoils of
his catch.

Mr Carrison was fishing off the Port MacDonnell coast, in SA's south-east, on Sunday
when he landed an Australian record 30 kilogram albacore tuna on just a 15kg line.

But while he's fairly serious about his sport and a regular participant in local angling
tournaments, he admits his weekend effort included an element of luck.

"It was just a one-off hit," he said.

"Before that we'd been fishing there for about four or five hours without much luck.

"And there were other boats around us, so it was just a one-off hit. I was just in
the right spot at the right time."

Mr Carrison said he knew straight away he had hooked something big.

"They run like crazy, you have a lot of trouble stopping them first up," he said.

"But he was a bit boring after that, he came straight back into the boat without putting
up much of a fight."

In fact it took the angler just 10 minutes to land his catch, helped by his father
Lionel, not the 30 minutes it can take with some fish much smaller in size.

The albacore actually tipped the scales at 29.6kg, a record for a 15kg line class and
also an outright record for that particular species of tuna which usually run to about
6kg.

But rather than have the record-breaking fish mounted, Mr Carrison has opted to eat
it, already filleting the fish and distributing the catch around various family members.

"We've got 15 plus kilos of flesh off him," he said.

"You could have six people eating for a week and you wouldn't get through it all."

For other anglers hoping to emulate his efforts, the record-breaker was caught using
just a simple $10 rubber lure in the shape of a squid.

AAP tjd/jt/nf

KEYWORD: TUNA

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