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Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter
- Thread startermiles
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Can a guy be this lucky??
You're killin' me, Miles!
Tuna, along with a gal that WANTS to go fishing... here have some more Karma. :head
You're killin' me, Miles!
Tuna, along with a gal that WANTS to go fishing... here have some more Karma. :head
Hiya
Element, the legal requirements are a spearfishing licence, which is purchased on a yearly basis for the princly sum of about $9 !! This allows you to spearfish and shoot your legal quota of fish. For tuna, both albacore (longfin) and Yellowfin, the legal limit is 10 fish per person per day. Same for yellowtail. So if you have 4 spearo's with licence's on board, you're leaglally allowed 40 fish, in any configuration,ie. 40YF or 30YF+10Albacore or 10Albacore+10yellowtail+20YF, etc
Season wise, we're only restricted by our weather. End of September to mid-December is THE best period. The fish are a bigger class, averaging 70kg's with many fish in the 80-90kg class. This is also the time when the 100kg+(220lb) fish make their appearance. After mid-December, the water warms up to about 24degrees celcuis (75F), then the YF dis-appear. We still get the odd fish, but not in any great numbers. They then stay away, or simply move out of the 40nm range of our boats until April. Then from April to June/July they're back, butr generally a smaller average size fish, about 40-50kg's with the odd fish going up to 80kg's.
Sometimes they stay a week or two longer or the season starts a week or two later, all very dependant on the prevailing weather patterns for the season.
Regards
miles
Element, the legal requirements are a spearfishing licence, which is purchased on a yearly basis for the princly sum of about $9 !! This allows you to spearfish and shoot your legal quota of fish. For tuna, both albacore (longfin) and Yellowfin, the legal limit is 10 fish per person per day. Same for yellowtail. So if you have 4 spearo's with licence's on board, you're leaglally allowed 40 fish, in any configuration,ie. 40YF or 30YF+10Albacore or 10Albacore+10yellowtail+20YF, etc
Season wise, we're only restricted by our weather. End of September to mid-December is THE best period. The fish are a bigger class, averaging 70kg's with many fish in the 80-90kg class. This is also the time when the 100kg+(220lb) fish make their appearance. After mid-December, the water warms up to about 24degrees celcuis (75F), then the YF dis-appear. We still get the odd fish, but not in any great numbers. They then stay away, or simply move out of the 40nm range of our boats until April. Then from April to June/July they're back, butr generally a smaller average size fish, about 40-50kg's with the odd fish going up to 80kg's.
Sometimes they stay a week or two longer or the season starts a week or two later, all very dependant on the prevailing weather patterns for the season.
Regards
miles
30 November 2005
One of my fishing bdddies from University days called me up and desperately wanted to go catch YF tuna. He's a ardent rock and surf fisherman and wanted to make his dream of catch a 50kg fish come true!! Like i needed any more encouragement to go to sea!!
The wife was working and has banned me from diving once again (for reasons which will be explained in the next week or two!!) Unbeknown to her, i still managed to sneak my diving gear out of the house!!
We had a nice flat sea inside the bay, but once we rounded the point, the water picked up a bit. Nothing major, small 1.5m (5-6')swell, with a bit of wind, maybe 10knts. Slightly bumpy ride. My friend was a bit apprehensive about the conditions, but the fact that the rest of the crew were blistfully sleeping, put his mind at ease!!
Unfortunately for him, the petrol fumes coupled with the smell of the chum didn't do wonders for his health!! Pretty soon the poor guy was suffering from a mild bout of mal-de-mer (sea-sickness). One of the crew members kept asking if he was of Irish decent, as he kept on leaning over the side of the boat, looking into the water, calling a friend......"O' Rouke....." rofl
Have a couple of new tuna anglers on board is always a recipe for disaster!! Having lost the first 3 YF's, i managed to get through to the guys. Pretty soon they got the hang of things and my friend boated 3 YF's for the day, ranging from 55-76kg's. He was stoked!!! Couldn't get the smile off his face!!! On the way back home, whilst chatting and bragging, he'd interupt the converstion, run outside the cabin, throws up........ returns SMILING .... and continue the conversation!!!
I managed to get wet, but unfortunately we were surrounded by HUNDREDS of small albacore tuna. All in the 4-8kg class. I've never seen so many albacore, which hopefully is a good sign for our commercial albacore guys, as they've possibly had one the worst years fishing. The water was CRYSTAL clear, at least 30m viz, with 19degrees. The YF's were pretty skittish, but no really big fish. Saw a few that looked to be in the 90kg class (200lb's), but they stayed well out of range. Only shot one fish of about 65kg's.
regards
miles
One of my fishing bdddies from University days called me up and desperately wanted to go catch YF tuna. He's a ardent rock and surf fisherman and wanted to make his dream of catch a 50kg fish come true!! Like i needed any more encouragement to go to sea!!
The wife was working and has banned me from diving once again (for reasons which will be explained in the next week or two!!) Unbeknown to her, i still managed to sneak my diving gear out of the house!!
We had a nice flat sea inside the bay, but once we rounded the point, the water picked up a bit. Nothing major, small 1.5m (5-6')swell, with a bit of wind, maybe 10knts. Slightly bumpy ride. My friend was a bit apprehensive about the conditions, but the fact that the rest of the crew were blistfully sleeping, put his mind at ease!!
Unfortunately for him, the petrol fumes coupled with the smell of the chum didn't do wonders for his health!! Pretty soon the poor guy was suffering from a mild bout of mal-de-mer (sea-sickness). One of the crew members kept asking if he was of Irish decent, as he kept on leaning over the side of the boat, looking into the water, calling a friend......"O' Rouke....." rofl
Have a couple of new tuna anglers on board is always a recipe for disaster!! Having lost the first 3 YF's, i managed to get through to the guys. Pretty soon they got the hang of things and my friend boated 3 YF's for the day, ranging from 55-76kg's. He was stoked!!! Couldn't get the smile off his face!!! On the way back home, whilst chatting and bragging, he'd interupt the converstion, run outside the cabin, throws up........ returns SMILING .... and continue the conversation!!!
I managed to get wet, but unfortunately we were surrounded by HUNDREDS of small albacore tuna. All in the 4-8kg class. I've never seen so many albacore, which hopefully is a good sign for our commercial albacore guys, as they've possibly had one the worst years fishing. The water was CRYSTAL clear, at least 30m viz, with 19degrees. The YF's were pretty skittish, but no really big fish. Saw a few that looked to be in the 90kg class (200lb's), but they stayed well out of range. Only shot one fish of about 65kg's.
regards
miles
Attachments
Yeah that's rough...a 65Kg only, you mean that's all. I'm also disappointed when I only shoot one 150lb YF :hmm Lucky @#$#*#$!!!
14 December 2005
During the week i bumped into a couple of old spearo friends. As per usual, the topic of YF Tuna was brought up. They were very keen to try their hand at blue water hunting. Roughly at the same time, a forum member (from DeeperBlue) had also just arrived in Cape Town and he also wanted to get into some YF tuna action. So off spearing we went!!!
Lets start off with the disasters for the day. My one fuel tank spilt and had a small leak. Luckily it was only on the top so we were able to continue. My VHF radio then conked in. Finally, i found a VERY good reason for not taking your snorkel out of your mouth when diving!!! I stuck my mouth peice back into my mouth with a blue-bottle (portugese-man-o-war) on it!!! ARGH!!! The pain!!!!
Mission for the day: to get all my divers into some YF tuna and to get some underwater pictures and movie clips of the YF and the fight!! (please bear with me, as this is my first attempt at underwater photo's and movie clips)
Let the FUN begin!!!
During the week i bumped into a couple of old spearo friends. As per usual, the topic of YF Tuna was brought up. They were very keen to try their hand at blue water hunting. Roughly at the same time, a forum member (from DeeperBlue) had also just arrived in Cape Town and he also wanted to get into some YF tuna action. So off spearing we went!!!
Lets start off with the disasters for the day. My one fuel tank spilt and had a small leak. Luckily it was only on the top so we were able to continue. My VHF radio then conked in. Finally, i found a VERY good reason for not taking your snorkel out of your mouth when diving!!! I stuck my mouth peice back into my mouth with a blue-bottle (portugese-man-o-war) on it!!! ARGH!!! The pain!!!!
Mission for the day: to get all my divers into some YF tuna and to get some underwater pictures and movie clips of the YF and the fight!! (please bear with me, as this is my first attempt at underwater photo's and movie clips)
Let the FUN begin!!!
