Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter

[miles]

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!!!

[miles]

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.

[squirtis]

You are the/....... shit I can't even think of something to say

My wife and myself are going to South Africa next year hopefully. I may need to hire you A.) to catch fish, B.) Not to friggen kill me!!

[markalico]

your reports are some of my favorite reports to read on BD, stay alive and stay safe, you are living the deam..good luck

[squirtis]

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.


Very sorry for your loss. Be safe out there.....

[J_Livi]

More, more, more, please!

[ZZZZZ]

Holly shit. Thread of the year award. Awesome.

Who hid this thread from me, been going since November. Glad I found it Wow.

[Fishdude]

I just called in late to work, because I couldn't stop reading this thread.
INSANE!!!!!! Please keep it coming, and be safe.

[JBG]

Keep these reports coming. I'm in awe everytime I read your posts. I'm about to get emotional. You are the fucking man.

[miles]

Hiya

Sorry for the delay in Reports. Just been INCREDABLY busy!!!

20 January 2007

Wifes on leave!!! That spells DISASTER for me, as now i'll have no rest!!! Decided to teach her how to drive a 4x4 properly. Off to the local 4x4 offroad track. With a scorching 37 Degrees Celcuis (99 Degrees Farenheit), i dropped the tyre pressure to 0.8 Bar and off we went. Ten minutes later, the wife is grinning from ear to ear!! After THOROUGHLY briefing her on how important it is to keep your momentum when driving in thick sand, i decide to take some pic's. BIG MISTAKE!!! She promptly drives away from me!!! After running after the car for almost half a mile, she FINALLY stops!! When i finally catch up, sweat drenched and fuming, she sweetly replies, "YOU said to keep the momentum going by moving continously when in thich sand....." My retort, "but we're not in thick sand....." Her reply, "i know....... "

[miles]

22 January 2007

"Lets go catch GRUNTERS!!" Wife's FAVOURITE fish. These are a sort of bream specie which grows to about 20lb's. They're found in the sea, but more are caught in tidal rivers and estuaries. They're THE most infuriating fish the catch!! You normally see them "tailing", as they're blowing shrimps and prawns from the sand banks, REFUSING any bait offerings. They've been rated as more challenging to catch than bone-fish on fly, and considerabily stronger too!! Only a handfull of die-hard fly fishers have been able to succesfully target them.

So, we pack the wifes car, make some calls and off we go. Three and a half hours later, we arrive at the tidal river, quickly unpack and off to pump some prawns for the afternoon tide. Armed with a 6 weight fly-rod and 7lb braid with a short 7lb flouro-carbon leader and a small no 6 hook, we wade into the water, which is starting to covert the prawn banks. Standing waist deep in the water, flicking prawns to fish tailing a mere 2-3m away from you. Absolute bliss!!

The quite is shattered by a screaming reel. The wife's shouts of glee heralds the first grunters appearance. Just under 2lb's (1kg), he is promptly released, even though he was legal size. Wife simply can't bring herself to take one home for the pan, even though they taste DELICIOUS!! Her reasoning is flawless: " i want to teach our children, when we have kids, how to catch grunters, so ALL grunters are to be released....."

Day 3, 30 grunters later, we're standing waist deep in the water again, when we see a angler aboard a small boat fighting a large Kob (White Sea Bass type fish) BIG splash, and only a head come up!!! Large bull shark bit his fish off!! mmmmm......large shark......we standing waist deep in dirty brown water.......not a good idea.........

Needless to say, that was the end of our grunter fishing. We then rather opted for doing some spearfishing in the sea. Clean water, but only small fish to be found. The wife had a blast chasing the schools of mullet, in anticipation of large predators that might follow. But, it was not to be. None-the-less, she had a WONDERFUL time in the warm water with loads of small colourfull fish keeping her entertained. She's now instructed me to buy a chiller for one of our home aquaruims, as she's now seen the fish she wants to keep. Like we need another fish tank..........

Unfortunately, we had to cut the holiday short, due to my work....... the weather turned and it looked like a tuna day the next day......

[Smudge]

Wow.