Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter

[miles]

Trout fishing is one of the weaknesses of my fishing buddy here. Some days, they feed like crazy and some days they're just not interested in taking ANYTHING. Trying to get good catch's of trout consistantly was his biggest problem.

We've been experimenting with various baits, like Berkley Trout dough in an assortment of flavours and colours, much like our carp fishing back in SA, worms that you inject with air, so that they can float, mielies, to cheese, to marshmellows and even salmon egg's!! The results varied from full quota for tha day, to dismal results. Two nights ago, just as the sun was setting, i could see one particularly large fish chasing something on the surface. He rolled, jumped and was charging all over the place. Out of sheer desperation, i threw a tiny spoon at him and BANG!! FISH-ON!!

The next hour or so resulted in EXPLOSIVE action, when we all changed to tiny spoons.

Over the next 3 trips, we managed our full quota!! Not at all bad for 3 hour of fishing per day!

picture below: my buddy's eldest son, Dalton, fighting his first rainbow trout

[miles]

Trip Report time again!!

Just a short 150km's north of our town lies the Meadow Lake Park. Here are only two roads and literally, every 5km's or so, there is a fish-able body of water, ranging from small little ponds to MONSTROUS lakes!!

Saturday morning, at 4am, we left home and after a short drive, we were at the campsite, which is basically a hunters cabin in the bush. VERY desolate area, with no tar roads or even running tap water!! This is real wild country, where almost everyone drive's Ford F250 type 4x4's. We checked in, unpacked our gear and got the boat ready. a quick 15minute drive got us to FERN LAKE, which holds LARGE rainbow trout and SPLAKE, which is supposedly a cross between Lake Trout and Rainbow trout.

Our first hour proved FRUITLESS!! NOTHING was happening. We tried trolling, deep trolling, casting small spoons, bait-fishing and even some fly-fishing, but there was simply no fish to be found. The clean waters made finding weed-edges and drop-off's very easy, but even though there were lots of baitfish, NOTHING was happening.

We approached a drop-off, when my wife spotted a fish cruising the edge. She flicked her small spoon, on her 4lb tackle out and BANG!!! FISH on!! All i saw was a 15lb BRIGHT red, male rainbow, complete with hooked bottom jaw cartwheeling about 4' out of the water!! He continued to make 3 or 4 spectacular jumps, then tore off 40-50m of line from the reel. After a 6-7 minute fight, he was exhuasted and less than 2m away from the landing net, the hooks pulled!! ARGH!!!! My wife was DEVASTATED!!

The rest of the day was pretty dull, with us losing another 10lb rainbow and catching a couple of smaller ones.

[miles]

Day 2

We spent it exploring the various lakes.

First stop was "Rusty Lake". The target was jackfish/pike. A few minutes after launching, we stopped and started exploring the drop-off's, and were not dis-appointed!! Three hours later, we've landed and released well over 200 pike, all in the 1-15lb class range!! On 4lb line, every fish was a GREAT fight!!

The highlight of the day was feeding the injured small pike to the pelicans, only to see a BALD EAGLE swoop down and steal one from the pelicans, a mere few meters away from us!!

With an aching shoulder, i admitted defeat!! I had enough of pike fishing!! We then went to 3 other lakes, targetting perch and wall-eye, with-out much success, as the pike just seemed to be everywhere!!

The scenery of this area is simply BREATH-TAKING!! Fishing on a small lake, we had a beaver swimming around, an otter sliding off the bank, various species of deer all around the lake, bald eagles flying over-head, pelicans hunting and even a bear ambling along the banks!!

Some photo's:

[miles]

With my wife losing that large male rainbow trout, on our previous trip, we were on a mission to redeem ourselves!!

Unfortunately, work prohibited us from making a trip back up there, so we settled for a few trips after work, close to home!!

I added this "SAUGER" to my species list. A rather small specimen, but i did manage to catch 4 of them, amongst the 100+ other walleye/pickerel we caught that afternoon. Unfortunately, all of them were rather small and we released all the fish.

[miles]

Fortunately, my wife was off this weekend, so off to the Meadow Lake area we go, in search of the those big trout!! The weather prediction was cold, 13 degree's maximum with rain, but since its the first time we could get up there again, we went anyways!!

The day started off very slowly, with us nearly succumbing to hypothermia, with the 7 degree's outside temperature, with a nice wid blowing, with the odd occational rain shower!! Luckily, the fish started biting and all was forgotten!!

My wife really kicked our butts, with her taking 5 large rainbow's, whilst i and my buddy only managed 1 large rainbow each!! Final tally was some large Rainbow's, one Large Splake and a few smaller rainbows and splake.

[miles]

More pic's....

[tunarado]

Have not viewed your post is a while Miles, non-stop awesome. Keep living the life I enjoy watching!

[miles]

After being stuck in -40 degrees celcuis and waist deep snow, for three months, in Northern Canada, it is GREAT to be back home in South Africa!! With the reports of PHENOMINAL catches of tuna being made for the 2 weeks prior to our arrival, made the last few days in Canada become unbearably looooong

Landed on Sunday, after a 36 hour travel. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday saw me working on the boat to get her sea-ready.

Unfortunately, the fishing had slowed down completely, with very dismal reports for the two days prior to us landing in SA.

Thursday saw us put to sea, even with the dismal reports. Ran the 25nm offshore and was greeted by blue warm water. PERFECT conditions, but simply not much fish around. Most of the guys targetted albacore (longfin tuna), but seeing as they were rather small, i opted to go for broke and ONLY target yellowfin. The day ended poorly, with a few small albacore and one young yellowfin tuna.

Hordes of albatross's flocking around the trawler "African Queen", awaiting a free meal when they pull their nets.




Normally all this commotion would attract and hold the schools of yellowfin, but the echo-sounder was decidedly blank.....




The next few trips were just as dismal, with just a few large YF being put onto my boats decks......

Monday 27/04, we fished in a off-shore comp with my cousin on his boat. The conditions were lovely and the fishing had only marginally improved. The smaller class albacore had dis-appeared and we had some fun with a few very large albacore.

My wife on a 25.5kg (56lb's) Albacore on a Shimano Beast Master 85-200g jigging rod and a Stella 8000 with 50lb braid






The Culprit:




Double header!! My cousin and wife, both hooked up to 50lb+ albacores.




Iggi, with a MONSTER albacore, weighing in at 31.5kg (69.44lb), which was the largest albacore taken for the day. Taken on a chunk meant for a YF.




FINALLY a decent class YF. My cousin battling a nice YF off the bow.




A rapidly emptying Penn 50VSW.



Almost there.....




IDB (In Da Boat)!!!



At the scales, the fish weighed in at 74.85kg's (165lb's), which earned us 5th place for largest yellowfin. My buddy managed a 88kg (194lb) YF, which is the mark to beat for the next few days.




So, from the looks of it, my wife seems to be top lady angler, weighing in a small YF and a large Albacore, we have the largest albacore of the tournament so far and 5th place on the largest YF. Lets hope that we get a couple of 200lb'ers in the next few days.........

[miles]

The day started off rather poorly, with a unpredicted 20knt+ wind howling across the bay. Ran the 12nm to Cape Point at a sedate 14-16knts, which enabled my crew to at least get some sleep.....

Just outside the point, the sea flattened a bit, as the wind dropped a bit and i was able to run the 31nm to my marks in the west at a comfortable 20knts. We were just 4 on board, as i battled to find crew the day before. My buddy got terribly sea-sick just outside the point and was man down for the day

About 500meters from the first stern trawler, i let out the backlines, whilst preparing the bait rods and getting the boat ready for fishing. A few minutes later, the backlines went off and two small 4-5kg class longfin came aboard. Turned, switched on thye sprayer but they wouldn't come up to the poles. Started trolling again towards the trawler.

After 10 minutes, all the tackle and chum was sorted and we up-ed lines and ran for the trawler "STEVIA". Ran up to the trawler, saw no marks behind him, but still made a drift.

Not even 5 minutes had passed when my wife's bait rod went "VAS"!! As i was helping her put her harness on, Gamie's bait rod went "VAS". He also hadn't put his harness on yet. After a bit of chaos, both of them had their harness strapped up, when my rod went "VAS"!! Triple hook-up on YF with only the 3 of us ..........


After some fancy footwork, i gaffed my wife's YF, while still strapped to my fish. After gaffing her fish, i passed my rod to her and she started fighting my fish, whilst i bled and cleaned the fish. Pretty soon Gamie's fish was at the boat and the gaff went in. By now, the blue sharks had made an appearance and we stopped chumming. Boated my wifes second fish shortly afterwards.



After cleaning all the fish and making the slurry's, off we went to the trawler "STEVIA" again. Almost EVERY time we got behind her, we went "VAS" on the bait............






My wife "VAS" yet again......






Wifey "VAS" yet AGAIN!!






Late afternoon, my one motor started giving trouble. Seemed like an electrical problem and try as we might, we could not resolve it. This resulted in us limping home on one engine, which is a first for me!! Was actually a pleasant run back home, the 29nm to Cape Point taking us 2Hours and 30minutes at a sedate 10knts.......

Oh well, at least we had a pleasant day at sea and my wife's arms and legs are paining from pulling YF!!

Back at home, one small longfin was destined for the bbq!!

[miles]

Our tuna season has come to a early close. The water on the OUTSIDE is blue, clean and warm, but the Yellowfin and Albacore have left to go where-ever they go during the off-season.....

I've been occupying my time with maintainance, like servicing the motors and anti-fouling the hull, servicing reels, cleaning tackle, etc,etc.

Luckily for me, i had a small project going on the side, i was busy building my small inshore boat, a 4.8m semi-rigid. Fitted the console and a 50hp 4 stroke on the back and we were ready for some testing.

We have 2 main pelagic inshore species, yellowtail, which is the same as the ones found off the US coast and Australia/New Zealand and SNOEK, which is a voracious predator, very similar to barracuda. They're found in HUGE numbers, with the fish generally averaging 2-4kg's (5-10lb's). They're normally found in very cold waters, 8-14 degrees celcuis (46-57degrees farenheit). They need to have their necks broken as soon as they're captured, to stop the flesh from going soft. Smoked, grilled in the oven or on the bbq, they're exceptionally tasty!!

Needless to say, i opted to go SNOEK fishing on the maiden voyage. Unfortunately for me, my brother in law who works in MALAWI come home to visit and he was die-ing o go catch some feesh. My other buddies also heard about my plans and we were soon 5 anglers onboard my small little inflatable!!

My wife giving the guys a hiding!! Shimano Beastmaster 80-200gram jigging rod, with Stella 8000:

YouTube - MOV02020


My buddy with his first SNOEK :

YouTube - MOV02008


Some more action:

YouTube - MOV02007

[MountainM]

Are most of those Yellow Fin Tuna caught on chunks? You go out to a pinnacle and just chunk? My sister might be doing some of her PHD research in SA and if thats the case I might have to take a trip down.

[R'n R Bob]

Hiya Miles. Very good to have you back. Outstanding report/information/post and great fotos. Be well and be safe in your travels.
R'n R Bob