Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter

10 January 2007

My brother-in-law has been bugging me to take him fishing. He's a ardent rock and surf angler, so i thought i'd teach him how to spin/plug for yellowtail from the rocks. There have been quite a few 40lb+ yellowtails coming from the ledges, so thats where we went.

After some good few hours of fruitless casting practice, into a HOWLING 25knt wind, we tackled the climb back up the mountain. Being situated in a national park, we had quite a few animals keep us company. Spent another GREAT day at the waters edge, even though the fish weren't co-operating.

Regards
miles

more pic's.....

last few...

12 January 2007

After my dismal fishing expedition off the rocks, i managed to take my brother-in-law and 17year old cousin out on the boat. We left the harbour at 5:00am and was greeted by a FLAT sea!! It's very RARE that our sea's are that calm, so i planned to make the most of the day. First on the agenda, caching some bait. Out comes some light tackle and some jigs and soon everyone was shown how to rig up and how to catch squid. Pretty soon the boat was covered in black ink and the guys were so happy, that they were content on ONLY catching squid for the day. How-ever, they were brought along to catch their first yellowtails, so off to find some fish.

After rounding the point, we were greeted by over 60 boats all catching yellowtail. Modus operandi was to wait until some-one lands a fish, then 20-30 boats will storm the boat and hopefully also catch some fish from the school. This type of boats charging all over the place is definitely not for the faint hearted!! The commercial guys have big boats with huge motors and have a very colourfull vocabulary, so recreational guys are normal very, very, very wary of them!! Thankfully, having a big boat is a advantage, as well as knowing most of the commercial guys personally!

Sadly, two of my crew suffered very bad bouts of sea-sickness, but once the fish started biting, they recovered VERY quickly.

Huge fun was had by all, and with a stunning day like that, life simply couldn't get better!!

Regards
miles

ps. brother-in-law has now decided he wants to start spearfishing!! This is going to be fun!!!

17 January 2007

Tuesday, 16 January 2007, 4:00pm. Phone rings......"a few tuna were caught in the Canyon area....don't have co-ordinates......"

After 4 weeks of no tuna, and this being the usual time when they dis-appear, this bit of news was interesting!! After a few calls, to my dismay, i couldn't get bait or ice!!! FINALLY tracked down a company that would sell me ice, but the downside was that i am to load and off-load the 2500lb's of ice myself!!

Some phone calls later, i can't get hold of ANY of my crew, so i did what had to be done. Armed with a plastic spade, 2hrs later, the boat was iced up and fueled up!! Ready for the first trip of the year.

By 10:00pm, i had 3 crew members confirmed plus my brother-in-law and myself, making up the 5 man crew.

Wednesday morning, 4:00am, at the boat, only one crew member and my brother-in-law shows up!!! The other two guys rather opted to go fish for yellowtail, with-out having the decency to inform me!! Needless to say, they'll never be invited again......

At the marina, i see a 4lb (2kg) flying fish flopping on the jetty!! First time in my life that i see these uncommon fish so close inshore. Surely a sign of very warm waters. Tackle is loaded and off we go.

Outside the harbour the sea is stunning!! FLAT with a very small swell, with NO WIND Closer to the POINT, the sea starts picking up with a 8-10' swell and a 15knt wind. Enough to make the trip just a bit uncomfortable. Luckily we push on, and the sea clams down again and about 5nm off-shore, the windless calm conditions prevail once again.

After a 15nm run, i come across a patch of water that simply looked "FISHY". No trawlers, no longliners, no baitfish..........just a couple of birds flying around. Picked up some albacore marks on the echo, but no YF. Moved slightly away until i found a small school of albacore on the echo, with what looked like YF beneath them.

Out went the chum and minutes later we were straining over 2 bent rods!! Fishing was quite challenging with only two experienced fisherman, and getting the fish bled and iced quickly. We how-ever managed and by 2:30pm, i ran out of ice!! Cursing myself for not bring more ice, and since the sun sets only at 8:00pm, we had to call it a day. Final tally, 1 albacore of 25lb's (12kg's) and 28 YF from 80-140lb's (40-65kg's). What a way to start off the season!!

Unfortunately, with only 3 of us on board, i wasn't able to take picture's. Oh well, next time.......

Regards
miles

ps. very sad day, as one of my friends 42' boat sank and the skipper and one crew member lost their lives. The remaining two survivors were found 8 hours after their boat went down.

Hiya

Trip report time again!!

I've been very busy with my commercial tuna fishing, which unfortunately, has led to my diving time being severly hampered!! Our tuna season started off with a bang and the fishing is quite unbelievable!!! Every week, it simply seems to get better and better. How-ever, seeing as this is a diving forum, i won't bore you with the details of line fishing......

Last week, i had two ardent spearo's from Finland come and visit. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so co-operative, so the obligatory sight-seeing was done!! Table-Mountain and Two Oceans Aquaruim were simply AMAZING!!!

Well, the weather did clear up and we had a spearable day. The morning didn't start well, with a thick fog bank for the first 30nm of the trip. Not fun if if you don't have a radar.....

Oh well, we reached the tuna grounds in one peice. Water was blue, warm, but not that clean. 10-15m viz at best. The day started off very slow, with only reports of the odd fish coming out. By 12:00, the spearo's hadn't even entered the water yet!! Not exactly what these spearo's, who had travelled half way across the world, wanted.

FINALLY, i give them the go-ahead and with-out much fuss, they jump in. Literally minutes later, i see Jukka's board sliding across the surface!! First shot with my 63" Tommy Botha mid-handle and he's ON!!! Half an hour later, he boats his FIRST tuna AND largest fish to date. 49kg's!!!

Mikko, who selflessly, assisted his dive buddy, by simply keeping an eye on all the procedings, jumped back in, to try and spear his tuna. A short while later, i see his board also being pulled across the surface!!! BRILLIANT!!! half an hour later, just as he is about to dive, to put a second shot in, the fish tears off!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!:vangry

Mikko was devasted!!! So close, yet so far. Unfortunately, the fish has now sounded and we resume looking for more fish. It's late afternoon and i spot a trawler. Run up behind him and start my chum trail. With-out much hope the spearo's jump in again. I manage to raise another school, and have YF smashing the chum on the surface!! Mikko, unfortunately, is have a terrible day!! He misses one fish, the clean water making the fish seem closer than what it is, then hitting a fish in the gill plate, which merely BENDS the spear!!! The dis-appointment on his face was dis-hearteming.....

Oh well, i pass him the 67" Tommy Botha gun, with a 10mm (3/8) spear. First shot with the gun and i hear screams of joy!!! FISH ON!!!!! 40 minutes later, he puts a second shot in. An hour later, he manages to despatch the fish and get it to the boat!! His FIRST Yellowfin too AND his biggest fish to date!!! 82kg's!!!! Absolutely BRILLIANT!!!

Just to put things into perspective, these divers spent less than 3 hours in the water and managed to spear and land two YF, on what i considered to be a BAD day!! Needless to say, plans are already put in place for their next visit in October, when there are PLENTY of the larger YF's around!!

It was really great to have such wonderful guests!! And it was even better, to supply them with a lifetime of memories from the Fairest Cape!!

Regards
miles

Been a bit busy harrassing the YF population. Fishing has been EXPLOSIVE, with FULL fish hatch's by early afternoon being the norm. Since most of you are probably bored of the usual 50-90kg (100-200lb) YF pic's, here's a couple of pic's worth mentioning:

Pic1, 2, 3 and 4 - DORADO, MAHI-MAHI, DOLPHIN FISH
A rare visitor to our waters. My crew posing with these tasty fish.

Pic5 and 6 - Albacore. Very common, but fish of this size would be considered to be largish for the species here in Cape Town. My wife with a 29.04kg (63.89lb's), taken on 16lb tackle, with a metal spoon.