Hi All
As promised, here is an update on what happened in the tuna grounds this week and last. As mentioned in my last e-mail, a few fish were found in the canyon area last Thursday.
Against the weather odds, (the forecast for the whole week was lousy) the competition that was hosted by Cape Boat and Ski-boat Club actually went off quite successfully. The initial weather reports showed that it was unlikely the anglers would get to sea at all. In addition to this, there had been no fish for some time. Nonetheless, Thursday came along and the boats put to sea in rather bumpy conditions. Upon reaching the tuna grounds, near the canyon, one or two boats began hooking yellowfin behind the trawlers and it was not long before most of the guys were fighting big yellowfin. 10Kg Tackle is however a bit on the light side for yellowfin tuna and most of the fish were lost after fights lasting up to four hours. One or two were landed, but the majority left the frustrated anglers with nothing more to show for their efforts than broken tackle.
Friday was very windy, but by then a few commercial boats were out there and one or two did quite well. (One boat had twelve yellowfin by
9am.) Then suddenly all went quiet and the rest of the day was not good at all. Saturday saw a number of boats in the deep, and again, not much to show. A few yellowfin were caught, but nothing to get excited about. The fish that were caught were big. 60kg plus. On Sunday it seemed the entire fleet was out there (including our boat "Tyler"). In the evening they returned with their tail tucked firmly between their legs. Most had "mombaks" (no fish, for the benefit of our overseas readers). Again, one or two really nice fish were landed, but they were few and far between. Our own boat, Tyler, also had nothing but frustration to show for the day. In hindsight, I am not surprised. The easterly wind was still puffing a bit in the deep and at this time of the year, too much easterly is not a good thing. It tends to make the water green and cools it down as well. Ideally one wants a few days of easterly, followed by a light westerly and a dropping barometer. Then the tuna go wild. Or so the books says.
Sometimes the fish do not read the books, but this is my theory and I am sticking to it.
By now I had been sitting ashore for three fishable days and the frustration of not being on the water was driving me to despair. It was a bit of a catch twenty two. Stay at home and get frustrated by not being on the water, or go to sea and get frustrated by not catching any fish. What to do?
The weather forecast for Monday showed light westerly (just what we wanted to warm up the water and get it blue). I decided to bite the bullet, load up the crew and go for a look. The trip out was pleasant, and the forecast was almost spot on. The 10knots westerly wind that was forecast was about 15knots, but it was still pleasantly fishable.
The water had definitely gone blue overnight and warmed a bit. I went in behind the first trawler we saw and to say I started of with a bang would be the understatement of the year. We dropped three bait lines in the trawler's wake and bang, bang, bang.........we had three fish on. We landed all three, one longfin of about 20kg and two yellowfin.
One of 45kg and another of 82kg. I thought we had hit the jackpot, but my excitement was short lived. For the next five hours we never saw a fish. Nonetheless, we had three fish IDB and the pressure was off. At 2pm we hooked another yellowfin, out of the blue, so to speak. We boated him also and he pulled the scale to 75kg. That was it for the day. As I said to a few guys on our return, four fish is a bit like kissing your sister. It's better than nothing, but not worth getting axcited about. We did better than most of the boats on the day and got a couple of classy fish, but it was a bit of a struggle and there was a solid dollop of luck thrown in.
Tuesday saw a few boats out there in really poor weather, The fishing was also poor, and once again, most got nothing. I did get reports from the longliners operating 130miles SW of Cape Point that the yellowfin are plentiful down there. Hopefully the weather this week will bring them closer. For now, we are looking at terrible weather for the next five days. Next week we will have a look again. We'll be out there and who knows, maybe the "dik" will arrive.
Till then, clean you reels, polish your rods and watch this space.
Regards
The SSS team
