Spearing Yellowtail in Cape Town, South Africa

[miles]

Hiya

Yellowtail is the premier inshore game fish of the Cape diver. What normally happens is that a newbie spearo starts out hunting the reefs and sooner or later he gets invited to go shoot yellowtail. After shooting his fist 'tail, he'll be addicted to yellowtail hunting!!!

Realistically, they're the largest inshore specie that a spearo can regularly and effective target. Couple with the strong fighting ability and great tasting flesh, makes them a sought after quarry.

Here are some of the spots that we hunt them at and some techniques that we employ. Needless to say, every spearo has his own way of doing things, so these are simply MY OPNIONS!!

Gear: since our water is normally dirty, with viz. ranging from 3-10m, depending on the area, we tend to favour guns of 110-120cm's. My yellowtail gun is a 115cm Rabitech Carbon Apex with a 7mm ss spear and a Omer Pelagic reel. The reason we use reel guns is so that it allows 4divers to quickly jump off the boat as well as making for faster moving from spot to spot. No floatlines to tangle and no floatlines to incapacitate the boats motors!! I've lost count of how many times i've seen floatlines wrapped around the boats props!! One of the greatest dangers when diving with a reelgun is that the boat can VERY easily lose a spearo. At some places, the 'tail are found in great numbers in a 25knt wind coupled with a big swell. Looking for a lost diver with-out a float is almost impossible in such conditions!!

 

[miles]

Shore Diving propects:

With the increase in Great WHite shark activities, my shore-diving days have been seriously curtailed. The premier shore diving spot for yellowtail is UNDOUBTEDLY a place called ROOIKRANTZ in the CAPE POINT NATURE RESERVE. Here you park your car and climb down the mountain. Jumping in off the ledges, you have the option of either swimming towards Cape Point or drifting down to Buffelsbay towards the left. Here you simply drift by waiting for the schools of yellowtail to pass by. I shot my very first yellowtail here and also saw my first BIG 3m shark on the same day!! If you're 3-4 divers, take a flasher with, as they work quite well when attracting yellowtail.

The BIGGEST secret in spearing yellowtail is to FIND them!! Very few spearo's will tell you where the fish are, as they don't want their spot to be crowded!! Soooo, do what i did: the fisherman at Rooikranz are a select few who specialise in spinning for 'tail from the rocks. Befriend them. In season, take out a couple of crayfish for the guys. Shoot some galgoen for them. Dive out some spinners. You'll pretty soon become friends with them and you'll soon be getting phone-calls from your new friends when the fish are running!!

When-ever you dive there, always be very wary of where the fisherman fish. Don't spear right in front of the rocks. We have the whole sea to our disposal, so try not to interfere with their angling.

Rooikranz not only offers yellowtail, but also snoek, skipjack/bonitto's, small longfin/albacore tuna, as well as the occational yellowfin tuna!! I know of a 80kg YF tuna that was caught in Buffelsbay a short while ago!!

Buffelsbay is another good spot. Here you enter the water on the boat launching ramp and swim out behind the kelp beds, swimming to Rooikrantz on your right.

Slighly further up is BLACK ROCKS. Also INSIDE the CAPE POINT NATURE RESERVE. Also big rocks with deep water in front of you. Very easy access and easy exits. Once again, jump in and drift to the left, waiting for schools of yellowtail to pass.

On the OTHER side on the POINT, you can try and access SOUTH WEST REEFS. The sea is normally rough, so pick your days carefully. In betweem the kelp, you sometimes also find big class geelbek (a WSB type fish). Remember, you're only allowed 2 geelbek per person per day!!

There are some other spots in False Bay that do produce yellowtail from shore dives, but they're not as succesfull as the above places. Area's like just off the pool at Glencairn station, ROOI-ELS on the Gordons Bay side, specifically Blou-Steen and Koelbaai/Kogelbaai.

 

[deep thinker]

Howzit Miles once again a interesting post but what about boat dives and such.

 

[miles]

Some pic's:

First one is a map of Cape Point, showing the roads and names of the dive spots.

Second picture is of a flasher that works very well on our yellowtail.

Third is a picture of my 'tail guns.

 

[miles]

Boat Dives:

Have access to a boat is UNDOUBTEDLY THE best way to hunt 'tail!!! It simply opens up so many possibilities, as well as making diving safer in GWS area's.

Unfortunately, when you start hunting them from a boat, you need some fishing equipment. These are tools needed to LOCATE the fish, making it easier to spear them.

Firstly, you'll need some bungees. These are simply old 16mm bands tied with some cord in the middle. I used to use 1m by 10mm rubber, as you can purchase from Rabitech or Rob Allan, but often you'll get the small class yellowfin at Bellows, and they simply destroy your bungees!! Those 20-30kg YF's are still manage-able on a 16mm bungee. We've tried 20mm bungees, but they're too tight to effectively work on 'tail. The 20mm bungees is what we use for Yellowfin tuna, up to 60kg's, from my big boat.

Attached to the bungee, is 10 meters of 2.0mm mono, which terminates in a snap swivel with a ball bearing. Attached to the snap is a 1meter peice of 60kg mono to which a lure is attached. Check pictures for more clarity. The short 60kg peice of mono is in case a large shark or seal grabs your fish when you've hooked a fish. This will break, saving you your bungee.

I clip 4 bungees behind my boat. On most spearing boats, 2 bungees pulled at 4-6knts is ideal. Once a fish is hooked, the bungee stretches to maximum, the boat is stopped and the divers jump in IMMEDIATELY, whilst one guy on the boat brings the fish in, the rest of the school follows, allowing the spearo's to get a shot in. The 2.0mm mono is thick, so it allows the guy to pull the fish with-out cutting his hands.

When there are many boats working the same schools of fish, with bungees, you can simply speed up and not worry about bringing in the bungees. We ONLY use soft squid/feather type lures on the bungees. Rapala's, Halco's and other swimming type lures don't work well with bungees. When buying small plastic squids, YAMASHITA'S are THE BEST, but are VERY expensive and very difficult to find!! The cheaper plastic ones works well too!! Good colours are browns, both dark and light brown, greens and white. Use either single hooks or double hooks, STEER CLEAR of treble hooks!! They're very difficult to remove and semi-rigid boats HATE treble hooks!!

 

[miles]

Next you will need a spinning rod. This enables you to cast to a school of fish on the surface and pull them closer to the boat, once again allowing the spearo's to jump in and shoot fish from the school. Buy a 7' boat rod, something like a ELBE, which is cheap but still is of decent quality. If you're not proficient at casting with a multiplier type reel, buy a spinning reel (coffee grinder type reel, as they're affectionately known here!!) On your multiplier, spool up with at least 15kg line. The thicker line is easier to cast with and is stronger as well. Popular reels, which are very well priced are the Shimano TLD15/30star, Shimano TLD20/40star, Shimano Mark3, Shimano Mark 4, Daiwa sl30sh, Okuma CT25. If money isn't an issue, the Shimano Trinidad range is EXTREMELY good!!

For casting lures, buy some SNAKE spinners or ASHLEY READ No.2 spoons as well as a couple of chiselnose perspex plugs. If i was limited to ONE lure for 'tail, it will DEFINITELY be the SNAKE spoon!! All of these lures are cast towards the school of fish and retrieved as FAST as possible. Its impossible to retrieve a lure too fast!!

The above are all very basic fishing tackle that is quite reasonably priced. Since we're primarily spearo's, don't spend too much money on fancy fishing tackle!!

Next up, the different spots and HOW different tecniques are used.

 

[deep thinker]

Howzit Miles.
When Hunting from a boat we also use the bungee style lines trawled behind the boat, also 4 by the way. But if there is more than one boat in the area and the fish dont rise to the bungees we also use a rod and reel with a swimming spinner like a rapala to try and bring the fish closer. When diving from a boat and leaving spearos in the water to ambush a school I think you could use your reel gun with a shortened float line making it able to easily find your divers. We also add a flasher to this eqaution which the divers just watch closely ,similar to the shore dive one.

 

[marginatus]

Very nice tips although i don't know the places. keep'em comming...

 

[gert]

Going to give it a go down here in Port Elizabeth but the tail not arived yet properly we normal just anchor on the deep pinnacles and chum
its wear we find our tail or follow the small terns and jump in just ahead of wear they are diving

do you ever chum for tail in the cape?

 

[miles]

Hiya

Gert, we seldom use chum inshore. Simply too many great whites. I know of some guys who do use chum, but they're not specifically more effective than our normal tactics.

Regards
miles

 

[gert]

miles just a quik question why did you not dive nationals with T Botha
well you be diving next year when it is held in knysa area

 

[miles]

Boat Diving:

CAPE POINT

There are a couple of places to launch your boat. Millers Point slip, just pass Simons Town and Buffelsbay slip, inside Cape Point nature reserve. The Buffelsbay slip is a horrible slip and only suitable for vessels under 5m, and only in good weather conditions. I busted my props on numerous occations on this slip. Since its a very short run to the POINT, many spearo's like launching here.

Just be careful, as the area is regularly patrolled by the SAP waterwing, and you WILL get fined if you don't have your safety certificate and skippers ticket and fishing/spearing licence aboard. They also check your catchs and the catagory survey your boat has!! They have been clamping down on guys with D and E catagory boats operating out of their allowed boundries.

Ok,Cape Point is the most effective spot to hunt yellowtail. The fish average 2-5kg's with a 6-8kg being a big fish and anything over 10kg's is considered very large for this area. When the temperature is bewteen 15-20 degrees, the diving SHOULD be exellent!! That said, i've speared yellowtail here in 13.8degree water. Generally though, water temp. under 14 degrees is not good for spearing yellowtail. CAUTION: this whole area is frequented by commercial fisherman, recreational sports fisherman and tuna vessels coming and going to the deep. ALWAYS FLY YOUR ALPHA FLAG!!!!(divers in the water flag)

The first spot is South West reefs. This reef is just around the Point, to the right. Simply look for the fishing boats in the area and you'll find the place!! Here, the easiest way is to find a shallow pinnacle, maybe 6-12m coming up from deeper water. Yellowtail LOVE pinnacles and often you'll find them circling the shallower pinnacles. Otherwise, its a matter of chasing the TERNS (small white bird). These birds can't dive under the water, so they're forced to feed on the baitfish the yellowtail push to the surface. The easiest way here is to run up to a school of terns feeding, jump in as close as possible. The 'tail will come in and investigate, circling the diver!! EASY!! Just be careful, as the terns also often "work" on penguins and duikers (black diving birds), which are prevalent in large numbers in cold waters.

On the LEFT side of the point is ANVIL rock. Once again, simply look for the boats fishing in the area!! Same as SW reefs, find a shallow pinnacle and enjoy!! Also, following the birds or spinning with a rod and attarcting the school closer to the boat, allowing spearo's to jump in and spear them!!

BELLOWS rock is a short distance OUTSIDE the point. Here, you drift dive. Get the boat to drop you on the one side and drift pass the rock. Yellowtail will come in and circle the diver, once agian making diving easy.

CUATION: this are does hold a healthy population of Great White sharks. Put ALL fish shot in the boat, and i definitely recommend NOT chumming!! Fairly recently, we were diving at Anvil and there was PLENTY of fish. We shot our 40 yellowtail and when we left, we told the divers in front of us to move onto our pinnacle. 20minutes later, a large 4m GWS tried to bite that spearo!! My wife had been spearing there 30minutes earlier!!! So, BE CAREFUL!!

pic1 - Bellows Rock
pic2 - Shot at South West Reefs
pic3 - Shot at Bellows
pic4 - Cape Point

 

[miles]

DASSEN ISLAND!!!

A mere 80km or so from Cape Town, up on the west coast road. The harbour of YSTERFONTEIN is frequented by MANY commercial fishing boats, targetting snoek. So when the snoek are running, rather launch later, at say 8:00am, so that you avoid the que of 50-100 boats launching!!

The slipway at Ysterfontein is TREACHEROUS!!! I've PERSONALLY seen guys losing their vehicle to the sea on this slip!! With a big swell, the surge becomes vicious here.

A short run outside the harbour brings you to Dassen Island. Once again, 15-18 degrees water is prefered. Diving here is primarily chasing after birds working schools of baitfish. Unfortunately, these schools of 'tail are very spooky, making approaching them VERY difficult. Various tecniques that work: try getting schools in shallow dive-able water, like 6-12m deep. This way, the school can't swim under you. Try anticipating the schools movement and dropping divers in their path, then try chasing them TOWARDS the divers with the boat. Alternatively, pull bungees and once you get a strike, the divers jump in.......

The EASIEST way is to throw a spinner at the fish, and get the divers in the water, whilst one guy retrieves the spinner, attracting the schools of tail. Having a guy that can cast well is a GREAT asset!!

Normally its just yellowtail in the 2-6kg class, with the odd 8-9kg fish. How-ever, we often get Longfin tuna (albacore) and long-tail tuna with the yellowtail schools, so try and always use a reelgun or a floatline.

 

[miles]

STRUISBAAI

UNDOUBTEDLY the BEST area for yellowtail!!! 200km's away from Cape town, lies this stunning area. Great harbour, makes for easy launching, plenty of holiday houses for week-end accomadation. Water is almost always 16degrees plus. Much more reef fish, compared to the usual Cape Town spots and the yellowtail grow much larger, with 20kg+ fish being quite common.

First spot is the wreck of the pioneer. A short ride out of the harbour, in 6-13m water. The boiler of the wreck sticks out of the water at low tide. BE VERY CAREFUL if you don't know where it is, as its easy to drive over the wreck and damage your boat!! Here the current normally comes from East to West (from Arniston side, going towards Aghulas) The boat drops you anything from 100-600m away from the wreck. You then drift over the wreck. 20kg 'tail are quite common here, but are very difficult to land, as they often take you into the wreckage, cutting off your spearline or bending your spear and ripping off. VERY difficult to pull a 20kg yellowtail off the wreck in 6-8m water!! KEEP THE BOAT CLOSE BY AT THIS SPOT!! I've seen the most GREAT WHITE SHARKS here!! We had 3 in ONE day here!!! Sometimes you're lucky and get Red Stumps and White Musselcracker here. Galgoen, parrots, pens-en-derms(bronze bream) and skipjacks/bonnitos are fairly common here too. Sometimes you get very lucky and get some weird species here. I've seen Red Steenbras, BIG santers and even yellowbelly rockcods here. A good few years back, Tommy Botha shot a 48kg kob here!!!

Next spot is the WRECK of the SEPTER. Slightly to the West of the pioneer (towards Aghulas) in 4m of water. Once again, 20kg+ yellowtail are common here, but so are the large GWS!! Also popular species here are 'cracker and large leervis/garrick. Once agian, this is a drift dive.

The next spot is the GROWWE BANKE or 6 MILE BANK. Here we dive on the wreck of the WAFRA, which is in 10-12m water. The area just before the wreck is 10-16m deep, with it going down to a 20m+ dirty water depth behind the wreck. Sometimes the fish are very spooky here and often they need to be chased down. Diving down to 12-14m, then waiting, seeing school of fish, chase the school by swimming after them, anything from 5-20m, then getting a shot in!! Definitely a spot to bring your carbon fins along!! Once again, always have your dive flag up and try to work the banks after 10:00am, as by then, the commercials have left, and you have the banks all to yourself.

The following spot is 12 MILE BANK. This is 19nm from the harbour and is a far run in a small boat, as the sea CAN and DOES get ugly quite often. The shallowest point here is 25m deep. The yellowtail are normally deeper than 15m here, and drifting with a flashers works well. Sometimes the water is really warm and often tropical species like dorado(mahi-mahi/dolphin fish), wahoo, 'couta, rainbow runner, YF tuna and longfin tuna. BUT, best of all, each year a couple of striped marlin are caught here!!

There are many other spots, like De Mond, Saxon Reef at Arniston, Miles Barton reefs closer to De hoop reserve side.

All of these spots mentioned above are FREQUENTED by a healthy population Great White Sharks. Don't believe in all the hype, most of them will simply circle you and then dis-appear. Rather leave the water and move to another spot. The smaller 2-3m GWS are more curious, so watch the smaller ones CAREFULLY!! At certain times of the year, Dusky sharks become a problem on the Wafra area. They look similar to GWS but are slightly thinner and smaller. 2-2.5m duskies are VERY aggressive and show no fear in taking fish from your spear. ALWAYS dive in clean water, and always carry a powerhaed in these area's. Almost all spearo's who hunt in these waters have seen a GWS, and i haven't heard of one being bitten here. So don't stress TOO much about them!!

 

[deep thinker]

Hey there, it seems our hunting teckniques for the tail is very much similar although you guys seem to have luck on your side as youve got the pics to show for it, allthough Im counting on my luck to change soon maybe this weekend if im lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
Also I can second you on the GWS statement as Ive met my first one here on my first dive and yes the younger ones are more aggresive too :martial

 

[w3ac]

Well, well, some things never change. Miles is still the man and I'm just a wannabe. Blast from the past here if anyone is ancient enough to remember me. Just checking the old playgound and if anyone is interested drop me a line. Aloha for now.

Brad

 

[capetownguy]

lank interseting, just bumping up the thread for all us 'new' cape spearos to read...

 

[Johann]

What a thread !!!!!!!!!
Thanks Miles, and everyone that has put all this valuable info here.

I will definitely be trying out the shore entries !
I am lacking some of the pre-requizits for boat dives (kinda need a boat). But if its in the cape point nature reserve, are we allowed to take fish ?

 

[landshark sa]

But if its in the cape point nature reserve, are we allowed to take fish ?

Hi Johann,

Yes, you are allowed to take fish (and crayfish).
Just make sure you stick to size, bag and season limits as there is a good chance of being checked by inspectors.

 

[Johann]

thanks Landshark, will do !
Is it a "dodgey" area for a solo dive, or should it rather be done by a buddy team ?