Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter

FIRST BLOOD!!!


The day started out on a very good note. When we rounded the point, we were greeted by shaols upon shoals of yellowtail feeding on small anchovy. VERY frustrating for anglers, as they simply refuse to take any lures, BUT heaven for spearo's!! After seeing the size of the fish, averaging 4kg's (10lb's), we decided not to bother them and continue on our way to the deep.

Turned out to be a good decision!!

8 Yellowfins, with two being in the 80-85kg class (180lb's) and the rested all bigger than 50kg's (110lb's)

What a way to start the new season!!

Hiya

Unfortunately, me guess-timation of the weights of those fish were woefully in-adequate!!

The biggest Yellowfin for the day weighed in at 96kg's!!! (211 lb's!!) VERY, VERY good sign to start off the season with a big fish like that!!

Regards
miles

15 October 2006

As told by Dr. Fish herself:

As i lay in my bed the night before our first tuna trip of the season with dr.fish, i found that i could not fall asleep. the excitement was overwhelming.
word had it that 'the tuna were back in town' and it was time that we went to see for our selves. The weather forcast was dismal ..20 knot south westerly with 3m swells...but despite this the lure of a hook up with a great yellowfin tuna won out and we put to sea.

As we made our way out of simons town harbour, it became apparent that the weather forcast was correct if not a little bit of an underestimate. However all was quiet on the boat, each crew memeber not voicing that the weather was horrible incase another would intimate that it was necessary to go home.bump , bump, bump and an hour later we reached Cape point and a sigh from the crew , finally almost a third of the way. As we went past the point the weather semmed better and excitement levels were rising. I couldnt wait to get to the tuna grounds. Eventually we noticed a hake trawler in the distance and decided to pursue the vessel.
On arrivel at trawler, frenzied activity was happening on Dr Fish, chumming , gearing up and lines in the water.....and now the wait............... 1 min of waiting and HOOk uP!! the fun and games beagan in ernest , with 14 yellowfin ranging btn 75 and 100 kilos caught, amidst lots of struggling,aches and pains, moans and groans.

Last season was but a distant memory of Man is superior to fish. Period. The distant memory was becoming more clear and distorted,....FiSh makes man cry ..everytime .

The above report as per my wife!! Ugly sea, with a horrible wind, and preseverance shows what can be achieved!! 3 Fish over the 90kg mark (200lb's+) on 80lb stand-up tackle, with the others all averaging 70-80kg's.

Seeing YF smashing your chum right next to your boat, having the odd swell splash over the side of the boat, refreshingly cooling you off with a shower of salt water ................, all whilst you're harnessed into a 90kg (200lb) YF tuna............... feels like its the ONLY place in the world where i am at my happiest!! (even more so, looking over my shoulder, watching my wife also hooked up to a similar sized fish and seeing her grinning from ear to ear!!)

22 October 2006

The tuna season has been PHENOMINAL so far!! Some pictures to whet the appetite:

pic1 - STUNNING albatros
pic2 - catch of the day
pic3 - 29kg albacore
pic4 - 85kg YF caught by my wife with a new penn 70 vs on 80lb stand-up gear

Trip Report Time!!

After such a good start to the tuna season, we were bitterly dis-appointed by the weather. THREE weeks of solid HOWLING winds!! Absolutely no chance of any-one getting out in that big seas. I was starting to wonder if the wind would stop blowing..........ever??

Fortunately, the wind did die down and we managed to put to sea.

Monday 20 November 2006
First fishable day after the bad weather. Checked all the weather sites and all showed very little wind and a small swell. Loaded up the boat with 1000kg's of ice (2000lb's) and off we went. We just rounded Cape Point when i see one of the commercial boats coming back from the deep. Probably engine trouble i mention to my crew. 10nm later we have now seen 6 other commercial boats also pass on going back home. Can't figure out why......sea is a bit lumpy, but otherwise OK. 15nm off-shore one of my mates in a MUCH larger boat raadios me and tells me to turn back as the sea is HORRENDOUS in the deep. He can't stop the boat to fish with bait, as the swells simply breaks INSIDE his boat. So, i turned around and headed back home. My FIRST trip in three years, where i have turned back........ Sadly, one of my friends boat sank about 7nm from shore. He has a 40'+ fibre-glass cat, which got holed and took on water. Luckily, everyone was rescued. The day before, i took him to his boat so that he could fuel up.

Then, back in the harbour, i see another boat sink!! A 30' monohull sank on its mooring!! Really not nice seeing a beautiful sportfisher go down.........

Tuesday 21 November 2006
My ANNIVERSIRY!!!! Needless to say, the wife INSISTED that we go to sea!! Luckily, the sea had settled down quite a bit and it was a very pleasant trip. The new crew that i'm training did mess up quite a bit, but we managed to get some good quality YF's with one going over 90kg's(200lb's)

Wednesday 22 November 2006
Days like these are what dreams are made of!!! FLAT seas, with viz. being over 40m (120')!! We had YF's smashing chum on the surface, with a few VERY VERY big fish jumping out of the water right next to the boat. By 3:00pm our boat was full and we headed home.

Thursday 23 November 2006
EXACTLY the same conditions as the day before!! Beautifully flat sea, with execptional viz. Saw a school of pilot whales and the sea with literally ALIVE with YF's jumping out of the water everywhere. By 2:00pm we were once again full and had to call it a day.

After 4 consecutive days of 100nm roundtrips, the body starts complaining, and thankfully, Friday 24th was a very good sea day, so a well deserved rest was had.

Sunday 26 November 2006
Sea is still to rough for a tuna trip, so off we went to spear some yellowtail. Viz. was a horrible 2-4m and the yellowtails were a bit skittish. Tommy's son did very well, spearing the most fish for the day!! We barely managed to get our alloted 10 yellowtail per person. Was visited by a MONSTOROUS sunfish (mola-mola). First time i've seen one that big. Actually scared the daylights out of us in that dirty water. Ever notice how the colour scheme on a sunfish is very similar to a great white?

Wednesday 06 December 2006
I've been promising my cousin a trip to the deep for a while now. Since its school holidays, he was finally able to come with us. Fairly lumpy sea, but the day turned out quite nice once the wind dropped. The water was a murky blue-green, with possibly less than 10m viz in places. The fish weren't biting well, but we still managed to fill the boat by 5:00pm. My 17year old cousin took his first YF on rod and reel and that fish went 73kg's (160lb's). Not many anglers can claim to catch a fish that weighs more than themselves!!

Here's some pic's of my cousin's fish and some other pic's of us messing around in Langebaan Lagoon.