YF Tuna, Cape Town, South Africa......fun with Tommy Botha's wooden guns!!!
Hiya
Well, after being blown off the sea last week, and due to work constraints (must be able to pay for all that spearing gear!!!), the weather gods smiled upon us again!!!!!
We took a bit of a hiding on the first 10nm part of the trip. VERY bumpy sea. Managed to break the stainless roll/ski bar on the back of the boat. Then the one motor refused to run. Managed to track the fault down to the fuel tanks breather not being open!!!!! (crew member is to blame) Then find petrol on the deck of the boat. Same crew member didn't connect the fuel lines properly after filling up fuel. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
None-the-less, the crew of intrepid tuna hunters set forth, overcoming all the obstacles that wanted to twart their trip!!!!
My girlfriend unfortunately had to work so i asked another spearo buddy to join us. He took a two hour flight, straight after his work, had no sleep, to go tuna spearing!!! NOW thats DEDICATION!!!!!
Out on the tuna grounds, the sea improved (as Bouyweather.com predicted) and the wind subsided, making it a stunning day. Myself and Tommy Botha jumped in first and about one and a half minutes later i see Tommy's float cartwheeling!!!!! 15minutes later theres a 60kg fish on board.
A little later, Tommy speared a BIG fish. I threw his kill gun to him, and 10 minutes later the fish was still swimming strong. I then passed another kill gun to him, which he uses to shoot the fish through the head. 5minutes later, fish is still swimming strong!!!!!!! He then grabs the spear on both sides and swims the tuna up. All HELL breaks loose and that tuna dragged and jumped and was beating the water to a froth, all with Tommy holding on!!!! WHAT A RIDE!!!!!! Probably rode that tuna for about 4-5 minutes. Noboby could get close as this fish was swimming in great big circles with Tommy keeping his head out of the water, so as to prevent him from swimming down.
After that, we all took a fish, with my buddy landing his first YF. I then also lost another one when the boat drove over my shooting line. Lost 2 spears too!!! Expensive day!! Also learnt that 10mm spears (3/8" ) also bends!!!! Not even gonna say much about the bent 7 and 8mm spears!!!
After about 4 hours on the tuna grounds we had to leave as there was no more place on the boat!!!!!!!! Looks like i'm gonna need a bigger boat soon!!!!!!!!!!!
Final tally:
Nikko 55kg's (estimated)
Miles 55 kg's (estimated)
Henni 55kg's (estimated)
Tommy 65kg's (estimated)
Tommy 85 kg's - weighed
Tommy 92kg's - weighed
Regards
miles