Thanx guys!! Now for a little more info. My names is MILES and my NEW boat is named "Dr. Fish", after my wife, who is a doctor, who is even crazier than me about spearing and catching fish!!!
Spring has finally arrived, only to bring some unseasonal (read crappy !!!!) weather. The week-end looked good for our first juant to the deep. After months of cold water, big seas, small yellowtail kingfish, a good dive was sorely lacking!!!! Re-check the weather on Friday and it looked like a good day on Sunday. Boat was packed, guns double checked, knots re-tied,etc,etc
Sunday morning, after pulling a 36hour shift (agian no sleep!! ) we left for the sea. At the slip, wing was HOWLING 24knots South East!!!! (that wing is affectionately known as THE CAPE DOCTOR!!, and only knows two strengths, no wind or PLENTY wind!!!) Not a good start. Kitted up anyways and had breakfast whilst waiting for the sun to rise so that we could see what the water was like.
Sun rise, wind had dropped to 19 knots and i made the call.....................its off to the deep we go!!!! Crew started to mumble something about their skipper being insane. (i'm used to that!!!!) Anycase, the 40nm trip started off rather bumpily!!! After about 10nm the sea flattened and the wind subsided enough to give a pleasant ride out. At this point, the water was a chilly 13degrees. About 2 hours later we finally find the warm, blue 18degrees water. Plenty of life, bait being chased, birds dive bombing, small albacore (longfin) and skipjack jumping out of the water!!!!!!!!!!!
We run a bit further and i pick up a school of fish on the echo, guys scambling to put their kit on whilst Girlfriend is handling the boat. She immediately throws some chum into the water.
I jump in and start to unwind my bungie from my float. Whilst busy a 90-100kg YF tuna swims around me eating the chum!!!!! Scores of BIG tuna are feeding just a bit lower down!!!!!!! AWESOME sight!!!!
So now i've got the 3x16's my 58" mid handled woodie loaded. Fish are extremely fast and i end up missing that 90-100kg fish!!!!!!!!!!!Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! Oh well, at least i saw them!!!! My buddy is using my 63" Mid handled wooden, and also finally manages to load the 4x16's. By now the fish has gone down...................We drift a little longer and again they rise to the chum!!!!! These brutes are so big that they aren't scared of a diver!! I aim......and let her rip!!!!!!!!! Slip tip deploys and the fish decides to try and bury its head in the sand 400m below us!!!!!!!!!! "FISH ON!!!!!" i screamed to the boat. GF now collects my gun and the fight can start. Fish takes all the bungie (25m) and stretchs it out to about 60-65m, then starts towing me around whilst a hang onto the boogie board!!!!!! AWESOME!!!!!!!
10 minutes of this pass, then 20minutes, then a half an hour!!!!! My arms are paining, back is complaning, hands are cramping and still no sight of the fish!!!!!! About 40 minutes later, i see him. Glowing silver, with those two HUGE sickle fins that are shining like gold!!!!!!!!! My buddy now passes me my 115cm Rabitech with omer pelagic reel. I load, dive down and place a second shot through the gills, out by the opposite gill plate. BIG MISTAKE...............fish now dives again and 20 minutes later i've got it next to the boat. Buddy gaffs the fish, whilst other buddy puts another gaff into the tail. I take my knife out........as i brain the fish, i give way, knowing that in its death throes, YF Tuna become very violent. Fish rips off both gaffs and HEAD BUTTS me twice in the face!!!!!! 5 minutes later i've got the fish back in control, still with my OMER flat hunt knife sticking out of its head!!! Two gaffs in again and into the boat she comes!!!!!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The rest of the day is a blurr of non-stop action and adrenaline. Bent spears, both 7mm and 8mm, are the only casualties of the day!!!!!!
Final tally:
Miles 74kg's and 55kg's
Maruis 72kg's
Henni 82Kg's
Once again the weather gods has decided to send stormy seas our ways for the weekend. Checking the weather forecast, a brief lull was shown, sort of calm before the storm!! Soooo, what do we do, we go spearing!!!!
After ANOTHER double shift, my manager arrives 1hour later than planned, so our trip starts off late. None-the-less, we arrive at the slip, only to find the sea enveloped in a THICK mist. We are two boats running out together, one a 25' Fibreglass cat with 2x130hp Honda the other my 21' Semi-Rigid with 2x50hp Yamahas 4strokes. We both launch and make the 10nm trip to the POINT.
Ok, now i take the lead and almost end up driving onto the rocks on the beach, i then decide to follow the bigger boat, only to have him almost ride into a HUGE rock!!!! Ok, so now we've proven to our respective crews that we're totally useless with out navigational equipment, we FINALLY USE our electronics to safely guide us to the POINT.
I some-how managed to lose Tommy and crew in that thick mist and when i got to the point, the mist had cleared and no boats are seen!!! Decided to run out the 30nm or so and get them on the tuna grounds.
As we leave the POINT, we're welcomed by 3 whales that seem to take immense pleasure in breaching, showering all with the spray when they come crashing down!!!! Simaltaneously a school of spinner dolphins were smashing bait fish on the surface, with the usual entourage of seal, terns and various other sea bird!!! What a start!!!
One and a half hours later, we're on the tuna grounds and Tommy catch's up with us. We find two boats fighting YF and run slightly away from them, using the echo, find some fish and start chumming them. I slip into the clean blue water, only to see plenty of small YF in the 30-40kg class. (more about this SMALL YF's later!!!). I aim, and MISS......................noooooooooooo. Load up, yes they're still around, aim, MISS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
The sad part is that this happened on about 8 shots, (this is with my 63" and my 57" and my 1.3m Rabitech Apex!!!!!) so feeling like a complete idiot i finally get onto the boat. Henni also gets in and is also complaining about missing the fish. Even Attie Louwrens, also a nationally selected spearo, complained about not being able to hit the fish!!!
Anycase, i FINALLY manage to feed a smallish looking tuna a chunk of 8mm steel. The boat comes over and asks if i want a second gun. I decline and tell them its a small fish and i'd have it in the boat in five minutes!!! 30minutes later, i BEG for a second gun!!!! One hour has passed, the fish now has two spears in it and still no sign of the end is near!!!! I load a third gun, and just about manage to get a lovely kill shot!!!!! Finally she is IDB!!!!!
The SMALL fish turns out to be a 71Kg !!!!! Lesson learnt, those big fish LOOK small in that clean water. Especially when they're far from you!!!!
Tommy them did quite well, with each diver taking a fish and Tommy taking 3!!!!! Well done!!!!!!!!
Well, after being blown off the sea last week, and due to work constraints (must be able to pay for all that spearing gear!!!), the weather gods smiled upon us again!!!!!
We took a bit of a hiding on the first 10nm part of the trip. VERY bumpy sea. Managed to break the stainless roll/ski bar on the back of the boat. Then the one motor refused to run. Managed to track the fault down to the fuel tanks breather not being open!!!!! (crew member is to blame) Then find petrol on the deck of the boat. Same crew member didn't connect the fuel lines properly after filling up fuel. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
None-the-less, the crew of intrepid tuna hunters set forth, overcoming all the obstacles that wanted to twart their trip!!!! My girlfriend unfortunately had to work so i asked another spearo buddy to join us. He took a two hour flight, straight after his work, had no sleep, to go tuna spearing!!! NOW thats DEDICATION!!!!!
Out on the tuna grounds, the sea improved (as Bouyweather.com predicted) and the wind subsided, making it a stunning day. Myself and Tommy Botha jumped in first and about one and a half minutes later i see Tommy's float cartwheeling!!!!! 15minutes later theres a 60kg fish on board.
A little later, Tommy speared a BIG fish. I threw his kill gun to him, and 10 minutes later the fish was still swimming strong. I then passed another kill gun to him, which he uses to shoot the fish through the head. 5minutes later, fish is still swimming strong!!!!!!! He then grabs the spear on both sides and swims the tuna up. All HELL breaks loose and that tuna dragged and jumped and was beating the water to a froth, all with Tommy holding on!!!! WHAT A RIDE!!!!!! Probably rode that tuna for about 4-5 minutes. Noboby could get close as this fish was swimming in great big circles with Tommy keeping his head out of the water, so as to prevent him from swimming down.
After that, we all took a fish, with my buddy landing his first YF. I then also lost another one when the boat drove over my shooting line. Lost 2 spears too!!! Expensive day!! Also learnt that 10mm spears (3/8" ) also bends!!!! Not even gonna say much about the bent 7 and 8mm spears!!!
After about 4 hours on the tuna grounds we had to leave as there was no more place on the boat!!!!!!!! Looks like i'm gonna need a bigger boat soon!!!!!!!!!!!
Final tally:
Nikko 55kg's (estimated)
Miles 55 kg's (estimated)
Henni 55kg's (estimated)
Tommy 65kg's (estimated)
Tommy 85 kg's - weighed
Tommy 92kg's - weighed
After a much anticipated wait, reports of fisherman catching small tuna finally arrived. Packed all the kit and went in search of them on Thursday. Went to our usual co-ordinates, but no fish were to be found. We saw a couple of 30-40kg fish jumping out of the water, but alas, we only saw one longfin(albacore) in the water. We ended the day with 8 YF ranging from 10-30kg's and 10 skipjack(Bonnito), all caught on rod and reel. There was fish around, but the schools were very very small and scattered over a large area.
So when the week-end arrived, we didn't have very high hopes. We were invited out by a good friend on his 25' Cat. Well, at least we'll catch a couple of fish. So i packed only my 1500 Carbon RA and a small 57" Mid handled woodie. Tommy also just brought a small 52" two banded woodie (for Albacore) and his 62" woodie. And of course all the fishing tackle. We were planning it to be a fishing trip more for my wife and Tommy's son.
With-in the first hour trolling, we had boated about 6 Albacore and the wife had landed a 40kg YF tuna on 30lb Stand-up tackle!!! Great start!!! So off we go to our "spot". Tommy kiited up, only to realise that he'd left his weight belt at home!! By the time i jumped in, Tommy had already shot and landed two Albacore tuna.
I battled tracking the fish with my 1500 Carbon RA. Those Albacores are extremely quick and don't have a regular swimming pattern, so shooting them is not quite so easy, especially with a LONG gun!!
Anycase, i then start seeing YF's!!!! He glides into the chum slick and...............BANG!!!!!!.........fish on!!!!!!!!! 20 minutes later he's in the boat!!! The first YF Tuna of the season!!! YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!! He wasn't a very big fish, weighing in at just over 100lbs (50kg's), but completely destroyed that 7.5mm RA spear.
We ended the day with about 20 Albacore between 8-15kg's, one Skipjack and 3 YF's. The two caught weighing 40 and 45kg's. We only speared the one YF and a couple of albacore tuna's.
Can't wait for the bigger fish to put in an appearance!!
As most of you already know, i'm ADDICTED to Blue Water Hunting!!! The months when you can't get out to the deep is littered with excursions to the local reefs and smaller pelagics, all just to satisfy the "NEED"!!!
Well, tuna season has FINALLY arrived and last week i managed to spear the first Yellowfin Tuna for the season. A nice 50kg fish. Not a bad start!!!
So, all preparations began in ernest. Saturday, 26 March 2005, saw me launch the boat at 6:00am. After some bad weather reports from other spearo's, i double check www.Bouyweather.com , which still showed good weather. So off we went. Two hours later, we arrive at the Tuna grounds, only to find a FLAT and WINDLESS sea!!!!!! Pure bliss!!!!
Since it was Easter weekend, all the longliners and trawlers were in the harbour, so locating tuna in 400m deep water, in the wide ocean, was quite challenging. Out comes the 30lb fishing tackle and the trolling lures. Pretty soon we're into a 45kg YF tuna. The fish is boated, but by the time i get into the water, the school had left. A while later, we run into some Albacore and after some chumming, i manage to raise the school next to the boat. I get my wife kitted up and we jump in. we've got a school of Albacore tuna of at least 50 fish milling around the boat. I'm using my meduim 63" mid-handled woodie, which is OVERKILL for Albacore, but am looking for YF tuna beneath them. After about 20minutes, with no sign of YF's, i fetch my new 120cm RA Carbon with reel. My wife is using my 115cm Carbon Apex with reel and floatline (just in case a YF swims by!!). She had loads of fun whacking those Albacore.
After about an hour in the water, and getting stung badly by blue bottles, i get back into the boat. We leave the school of Albacore and go searching for YF's. A couple of miles later, then echo sounder shows a good sign. I jump in.............finally.........YF TUNA!!!!!!!!!
I managed to take two fish from that school, both weighing in at 51 and 55kg's!!! Unfortunately, by now, there are more than 10 Blue Sharks around the boat. Smallish sharks up to about 2.5m, with a brilliant blue colour. Very pesky buggers, that are not detered by poking them with a spear or pushing them away with the gun. Generally when they appear, you tend to find another school as they'll just eat up all your chum. I spend some time just diving with them (they're relatively harmless) and then i spot a small Mako. Also about 2.5m long. Was amazing to see how the Blue sharks would keep well clear of the Mako. Another amazing sight was watch ALL the blue sharks come up and check out my motors stainless steel propellors!!! They were fascinated by it and would leave it alone!!!!
The day ended well, 21degrees water, 30-40m viz in places, no wind, quite a flat sea, 3 Yellowfin Tuna of 45-55kg's (two shot and one caught on rod and reel), 14 Albacore (longfin tuna) ranging from 8-16kg's and two bonitto.
Ran back home at almost 30knots with over 300kg's of fish on board as well as myself, my wife and another crew member(buggy boy). Not too shabby for a 6.5m Semi Rigid with 2x50hp 4strokes yamaha's!!!
Well, after a very windy week-end, the weather had settled down (as usual!!). So off to sea we went!!!
The day started off well with two small YF's and a Dorado (mahi-mahi) caught on the troll. PERFECT pan sized fish.
Then the diving started. Viz. wasn't that great, 10-15m at best but with quite a bit of particles in the water. The small blue sharks were also in attendance, gobbling up chum as soon as it hit the water. There were quite a bit of YF's around, but they were VERY shy and would only feed on the chum 10-15m deep. They simply would not come closer to the surface. Tommy how-ever showed why he is so legendary by taking 3 YF's which we guestimated to be around the 70kg mark!!! Thats 3 YF's shot and landed in under an hour!!!!
The high-light of the trip was the schools of Dorado (mahi-mahi) we got. VERY RARE visitor to our part of the ocean. We managed to take 14 Dorado's. Great fun!!!!!
Tony and myself weren't having such a good day. We both missed on the longer shots and i managed to give a solid shot on a 70kg class fish only to have the fish bend the spear and to have the slip tip not engage. Tony manged a great shot on a fish only to see the fish BREAK the 8mm spear in half!!!! With a thick fog approaching, we had to make a early run home. (no radar on my semi-rigid!!!)
One VERY funny incident: Just after Tony had his spear broken, i was alone in the water. Tommy and Tony were both on the boat. Tommy was chumming for me, when a blue shark appears. He starts eating the chum and i dive to chase him away. After a couple of attempts, i finally get close enough to jab him with my spearpoint. The blue shark now becomes peeved off at me and starts acting strangely. Starts swimming very erratically and starts circling me. Tommy's laughing and how this blue shark is giving me grief. It is about this time that i realise that its a bloody mako!!!!! Not too worried as i've got a four banded wooden gun, i slowly start swimming back to the boat. All the time will this peeved off 2m Mako is circling me. i get into the boat and my crew is laughing at me for trying to chase a mako!! (mako's are known to get VERY aggressive when provoked!!) Now, about 30m ahead of us is another boat with 3 spearo's in the water. Tommy shouts to the closest spearo, "watch out, there's a mako coming your way!!!" The spearo in the water just shakes his head. Now this peeved of mako is swimming on the surface straight to this diver. all three of us are now watching the shark. the spearo sees the shark and shouts: "there's a F##KING HUUUUUUGE MAKO here!!!!!!!!! Guys helpppppppp!!!!!!" (note shark was only 2m long!!) Had us doubled over with laughter!!
Week-end again!!! Unfortunately, very strong winds had made the tuna vanish, but since my wife hasn't been out last week-end, i was TOLD that we're going to sea!!!
Tommy was out on Friday and they managed to spear a 30kg YF and catch 5 others, in the same size, on rod and reel. Water was 18-19degrees cecuis and green. Not very good!!! Sooo, i invited a couple of fishing buddies to come catch some tuna, with the hope that the water would've cleaned up a bit to allow me to get wet!!
The day started badly. One of the crew members forgot to close the fuel tanks cap. Spilt at least 20ltrs feul on the deck!!!. Washed it off with a hose pipe at the slip. Then TWO crew member realised that they had brought two LEFT boots each!!!! Whats the odd's of it happening to TWO guys at the same time??? Then i put my wetsuit on, back to front!!!! Starting a day off like this, does not bode well!!!
Ran to the tuna grounds with 6 of us on my boat. Sea was a bit lumpy, but the weatherman predicted very little wind. Spent the WHOLE morning trolling, but was only rewarded with a couple of small skipjacks/bonito's.
By now, my crew were staring to get mutinous ideas. Wife was telling EVERYBODY how hopeless the skipper is!!! Enough i thought!!! Kitted up and jumped in. We chummed 2x5kg's of bait, but not a fish in sight!!! Looked like one of THOSE days.
I was a bit hungry and took a lunch break. The guys then put some baited hooks into the water and lo and behold.......HOOK-UP!!!!!!!! By now, i was really starting to look bad!!! Funny thing was that the fish was fighting alot different to a tuna, but i rather kept my mouth shut. After 30minutes, we finally have the leader in sight and i get ready with the gaff. ARGHHHHHHH!!!!! Bloody 3m Mako!!!!!
Wife reckons that she wants mako steaks and everybody now also says they'll take some as well!!! Skipper shakes his head and cuts the line..................(imagine the carnage that would ensue if you put a 3m mako on board a semi-rigid!!). Crew becomes even more mutinous............wife mentions that they could throw the skipper overboard........he can swim....and he has flippers on as well...........
Wind starts picking up and its blowing about 15knots and we're 20nm from land. We decide to run home. About 5 miles later, i notice the temp. of the water had increased and that there was lots of LIFE in the area. In go the trolling lures and immediately we're into fish!!!! YF TUNAAAAAA!!! (small one though!!) Four rods in the water and four fish on!!! During the next hour and a half, it was non-stop action. Lost 4 YF's due to tackle failure (thats the term used when the skipper makes crappy knots!!, in my defense, its not east tying a bimini twist on a small boat in a windy and lumpy sea!!)
Total tally, 6 YF's ranging from 15-30kg's and a couple of smaller fish. NO fish was shot!!
Oh yes, did i forget to mention that the skipper also forgot to put the bung plugs in the boat, so the hull filled up with water??
Oh well, all's back to normal and the skipper is man of the day!!!
After two weeks of not getting wet, we SIMPLY HAD to go to sea!!!! The weather report looked good, the fishing reports looked good, so off we went. Very pleasant trip out, with the NorthWester on our back, and warm water very close in. We ran to the 25mile mark form the point. After about 10miles to sea, the wind started picking up, and the ride became bumpier. Started looking like a BAD day at sea.
We quickly located the fish and started chumming. PLENTY of fish!!!! Those YF's would smash the chum on the surface, the yellow sickle fins slicing through the water exposing their backs!!!! AWESOME watching those 40-50kg fish smashing the chum right next to the boat!!!
Tommy jumps in. After a short while he shouts back that there's loads of small YF's, 40-50kg class fish, and that he's waiting for something bigger!!!! (I know, we're VERY spoilt down here in the Cape, when we start regarding 40kg YF's as small fish, and not wanting to shoot them!!)
Well, thats it. The wife says she's going to get in and shoot one!! She kits up and jumps in. Next thing i hear is screams of joy!!! FISH ON!!!!!!!!!!! 10 minutes later the fish is just under the boogie board, but unfortunately she couldn't load the second gun for the kill shot. (hell, even i have problems loading THAT particular kill gun, it has a VERY short 20mm rubber on it) So unfortunately no SA womens record, but she DOES have her first YF tuna taken on spear!! We've guestimated the fish at about 50kg's, but will weigh it later this morning for an accurate weight.
We ended up only taking 5 Yf's, all in the 40-50kg class. The water was a bit dirty and i bumped into two small mako's. Funnily enough, those mako's always seem to be grinning at me!!!! Impressive set of dentures!!! Since we didn't see any bigger fish, and the wind had started making it unpleasant, we decided to call it a day. So at 1pm, we left the tuna grounds for home.
I really think that we're getting spoilt pretty badly down here in CApe Town. When we left, those YF's were smashing the chum that we threw away, on the surface!!! But all on the boat agrees, the fish are too small!!! Rather leave them to grow a bit more!!!!
Oh well, next time we'll get that 220lb fish, thats been eluding us for so long!!!!!
Weekend again!!!!! Sadly though, my wife and myself have the flu. So NO diving!!!!
So we do what all normal people would do, go FISHING!!!!! The spearguns are exchanged for my Tiagra 50W (with a 30lb drag!!) and a Black Magic harness. We catch those tuna stand-up style.....fighting chairs are for girls(as my wife so aptly puts it!!) Went with friends 25' fibreglass cat...........oh the joys of not getting wet whole day!!!
Anycase, after being greeted by a stunning sunrise, we find the warm BLUE CLEAN water. An hour of fruitless trolling had me frustated!!! MUST find fish!!! The ususal Rapala's/Storm/Halco's/yamash-itas/etc failing to raise a strike. We KNOW the fish are here, as we can see them leaping out of the water, not swirling on the surface, but LEAPING like a dolphin!!
Ok, so now we stop the boat and start chumming. Three minutes later, we've got 3 fish on!!!!! Problem: these are BIG fish!!! A hour and a half later, the first fish is boated..............THEN the fun began...........we had a 2.5m mako chomp the rear end of a 70kg+ fish, we had LOADS of tuna smashing chum on the surface!!!! Oh, did i yearn for my speargun.........
The finally tally was 9 fish. 3 weighing between 78-80kg's and the rest between 50-70kg's.
Its been a while since i've been out. Bad weather, but more importantly, i don't have a boat anymore!!! My new boat is simply taking for-ever to get completed!!!
So, Monday morning i'm up at 4:00am, and off to the harbour to go on a commercial tuna fishing boat. Just before i leave, i double check Buoyweather.com and see that the prediction has changed to a 25knt NW'erly with a 15' swell.......argh!!!! Anycase, we go to the harbour only to be blown away!!!! (thought the weather report MIGHT be wrong!!)
Tuesday morning, BACK at the harbour. ALL the other boats are tied up. Oh well, lets go to sea anyways. We start off and about a hour later the wind gets us. 20knts of SE'erly and a 12'+swell. No problem, as we're on a 30' fibreglass cat.
About 35nm from the harbour, out goes the trollong lures. First hour, only two albacore and a couple of skipjacks. Then my 50w tiagra's rachet screams!!!!!!!!!! YELLOWFIN!!!!!!!!! Boat is stopped, chumming commenced. All the trolling rods are removed, and bait rods are put in. Its basically a Tiagra50w with 100m of 130lb line on top, with 80lb line filling the rest of the reel. Fighting stand-up style with 30lb drag is PLENTY of fun. 10min's later my 50kg fish is IDB. By now, both the other anglers are fighting fish and the school is feeding around the boat. As fast as you can get you line into the water, its FISH ON!!!!
Unfortunately we ran out of ice at about 12:00 so we had to leave!!! By now the wind was HOWLING about 25knts with a 15'+ swell. Made for a LOOOONG trip home!!
We ended to day with well over 20 YF's which would equate to maybe just under a ton of fish.
Unfortunately there wasn't time for photos, but just before we left, i did manage to take some vidoe clips of the sea and the YF's eating the chum just under the surface. Unfortunately the clip is too large to post, so if anybody wants to see it, just drop me a email at isonday@mweb.co.za and i'll mail it.
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