Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter

[miles]

Hiya

MountainM, we catch Yellowfin on both chunking and trolling techniques. The area we fish in is 15-35nm from land and is anything from 200 to 1000m+ (600-2000'+) deep. We have no pinnacles or shallow area's that we fish for tuna on.

Its pretty much locating fish in the open ocean or finding fish behind trawlers and longliners. For some odd reason, our fish also seldom feed on baitfish on the surface, like all other places around the world. So, there is no working birds to indicate fish.......

All in all, most tuna anglers are a helpfull bunch and its quite common to broadcast your position on the VHF radio if you find fish, so that others can join in the fun!!

Just GET down here and come fish with me!! Easy as that!!

[Ali]

Awesome. Good to see you back!

[MountainM]

That is an awesome offer and something I might really have to consider. What are the best months.. Looks like oct-maybe dec? Fly direct into CapeTown?

Cheers!

[boomboom213]

how much do you sell those tunas for?

do you let your friends keep all the fish even if they are caught with the bamboo poles?

By they way Im so jealous...

[dan1]

Miles, I think you make a lot of us feel very inadequate. Are you a full time commercial fisherman? How do you afford to travel and do all that fishing? Awesome pics.....and guts btw.

[miles]

Hiya

That is an awesome offer and something I might really have to consider. What are the best months.. Looks like oct-maybe dec? Fly direct into CapeTown?

Cheers!

Sorry for the slow response, been a bit busy FISHIN'!! Check the video clips below.

October through to December generally holds LARGER class Yellowfin. How-ever, October is NOTORIOUS for its bad weather!! 4 weeks of solid 25-40knts of wind each day is what we had for the last few Octobers. Not great if you want to fish.......

November is better. Its our summer and you'll be missing part of Canada's winter, which is a good thing

Send me your contact number and i'll give you a call. I'm leaving South Africa tommorow and will be in Alberta on Saturday......

do you let your friends keep all the fish even if they are caught with the bamboo poles?

boomboom123, any badly damaged fish we will clean and fillet and distribute amongst the crew. We get very poor prices for albacore under 10lb's, so those i normally just divide up amongst the crew. Because our YF average 100lb's+, we seldom take a fish for the pan. Simply too BIG!!

Are you a full time commercial fisherman?

dan1, i'm actually an accountant by trade. How-ever, it took me 3 years to get a commercial tuna fishing licence and when i got the licence, i quite my day job and became a full time commercial tuna angler. For me, its the ULTIMATE job!!

[miles]

Some video footage taken with my digital camera, showing a couple of snoek jumping!!

YouTube - MOV02103


Double header of yellowtail:

YouTube - MOV02105


Getting taxed by a seal!!

YouTube - MOV02059

[BassMagnet]

This is the greatest thread ...I just spent an hour going through the whole thing. AWESOME!!

[hunster]

MILES!!!!!! its good to see you and your wife up to your old tricks again whippin them longfins and yellowfins! as always, keep up the good work and stay safe in your endeavors

[Deno]

Originally Posted by BassMagnet

This is the greatest thread ...I just spent an hour going through the whole thing. AWESOME!!

X2 I still didn’t see that Bloodydeck sticker….

[Freedom1]

Hi Miles,
Great to see that you are sharing your experiences across the world. Well done and contnue making us proud in South Africa.

[miles]

Thanx guys!!

Some more updates:

Was browsing through some photo's and found these video clips, which i though i'd share:



Many of you will have read of yellowfin smashing the chum right next to the boat. Unfortunately, we're normally faaaaar too occupied to take photo's or make a video clip of this. The more experienced tuna anglers will have experienced this chum smashing on the surface feeding frenzy quite often. Here's a video clip of when i had the Spanish Spearo's with me. Check the Yellowfin taking the chum ON the surface, in the first minute or so of the video clip.

YouTube - MOV00791


The culprit:




This is a video clip of some longfin/albacore feeding. We had our quota of fish for the day and we simply free dived with a school of longies, whilst getting rid of the left over bait.

YouTube - MOV00666



This clip was taken off my old boat and it was one of THOSE days. This clip show's Gammie putting a bait into the water and getting picked up rather quickly. Its chaos on the boat, as we had PLENTY of fish around us. Ended up with well over 30 yellowfin for that day......

ps. thats a novice tuna angler on his first YF trip.....

YouTube - MOV00624



Very good friend landing his first YF tuna AND largest fish to date:

YouTube - MOV00324



Same buddy with his second fish for the day. Towards the end, one of my crew members put a bait line in the water and gets a pick-up, BUT, the line is wrapped around the reel handle. He now has to loosen the drag, so that he can untangle the line, BUT, loosens it too much and gets a overwind. I had to stop filming to go take the rod. Landed both fish!!

YouTube - MOV00330



Novice angler getting spooled on a Tiagra 50w......

YouTube - MOV00335