Melbourne brothers reel in 107-kilogram bluefin tuna off Apollo Bay

A 107.5-kilogram southern bluefin tuna turned a charter day off Apollo Bay into a two-hour wrestling match for three Melbourne brothers and their cousin, and even the skipper could hardly believe it. Peter, Michael and Andreas Salloum were fishing the Surf Coast waters when the fish finally came to the boat, a catch so large that Michael said the group was in “pure shock.”

The size was more than a bragging-rights moment. Peter Salloum said, “a hundred kilos is not something you catch every day,” and this one came from the stretch of water that keeps drawing bluefin crews into Apollo Bay when the season turns. Apollo Bay Fishing Charters runs its bluefin trips mainly from April to September and takes a maximum of six people, a tight setup that suits the sort of serious shot at fish like this.

That matters because southern bluefin are among the world’s most prized tuna, and the numbers attached to them can become eye-watering. 9News said the species can fetch up to $683 per kilogram, which puts a fish of this size in rarefied territory. In Japan, where the first tuna auction of the year is held on January 5 at Toyosu Market, the opening bids can soar even higher: a bluefin sold for ¥510 million, or $3.2 million, at the first 2026 auction, while the previous record was ¥333.6 million in 2019.

But Australian recreational anglers cannot sell their catch, and that shaped the end of this story just as much as the fight itself. The Salloums shared the tuna among family and friends, with some portions going into the freezer and some onto plates, turning what could have been a commercial-sized fish into a household one. Their charter captain was also said to be in disbelief at the result, a reminder that even on a coast known for bluefin, a fish this size still stops everyone in their tracks.

Apollo Bay has been producing the kind of signals tuna crews watch for, and this catch showed the current window clearly. When the water lines up and the April-to-September charter season is in play, the Surf Coast can still deliver the sort of bluefin that takes two hours, a full crew, and a whole lot of luck to land.