Anywhere Fishing Reports Thread, Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter in Fishing Reports; Hiya
A selection of some adventure's i've had with my buddy's, both fishing and spearing!!
A bit of background: we ...
A selection of some adventure's i've had with my buddy's, both fishing and spearing!!
A bit of background: we fish/dive in False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa. Thats the place where the documentary "Air JAwz" was made. One of the few places in the world where Great White Sharks breach!! Fishing and spearing, especially with the shark element, offers a different type of adrenaline rush!!
Anyways, here's some pic's:
Hiya
Bad viz. meant line fishing this week-end. Flat sea, almost no wind. Great conditions for line fishing. Was on anchor when suddendly the water erupts into a froth of white foam!!! Must be yellowtail (kingie)!!!! Up anchor and speed to them full throttle. Unfortunately it wasn't 'tail (kingies), but something much better...........a school of dolphins!!!! Absolutely stunning!!!! They spent about a half an hour playing with us, then departed.
Ps. this is about 1km from Seal Island, where the documentary "AIR JAWS" was made
Dassen Island, 12th June 2004. Cold water (13degrees), bad viz (1-2m at some places!!!), just recovered from the cold i've had for the past couple of days, got into a wet wetsuit (went diving on wednesday, came home sick, forgot to hang my wetsuit up to dry!! ). Had a great day though, some good fish and good company, what more could one ask for!!!!
June 16th is a public holiday and its best celibrated by going spearing. Lovely weather, 15-20m viz. (exceptional for my neck of the woods!!!), 16degrees water, small swell, loads of birds and seals feasting on baitfish about 2km's behind Bellows Rock.
Raced up to the action, killed the motors and drifted into the melee of birds, seals, anchovies. My buddy and i simultaneously jumped overboard, one on each side of the boat. As soon as we hit the water a 3.5m shark comes zooming up from the depths!!!! 2 seconds later we're back in the boat!!!! Can you believe it!!!!! Perfect conditions and less than 5seconds in the water and a GW chases us away!!!! Now thats REALLY NOT FUN. Anyways, we stayed in the area for a while and jumped into some baitfish balls, but no yellowtail in attendance.
We then moved to Bellows Rock where some other spearo's were having better luck. They managed about 1 fish each. Not much happening either and still a bit nervous from our earlier encounter, we decide to rather go hunt some nice reef fish. So off we go into False Bay. Just inside Cape Point i pick up a school of fish on the echo. We jump in and see its a school of small yellowtail 2-3kg's. Didn't shoot any, thought we'll just hang around and see if their bigger brothers would show up. Suddenly the boat pulls up next to us with buggy screaming SHARK!!!! Oh, no, not AGAIN!!! 2seconds later, we're back in the boat. Turns out to be a HUGE sunfish (mola-mola). We jumped in and swm with it for a while. Stunning!!!!! (was a bit too slow with the camera )
Anycase, ended up hunting the reefs and pinnacles in False Bay and managed a couple of tasty reefies of 1-2kg's.
What a decidedly nice way to spend a public holiday. And the best part is that the weekend is only 2 days away!!!!
Weekend again!!!! Decided to go to Dassen Island again. Had no weather reports as all they guys that went spearing on wednesday (public holiday), didn't do too well. 5:30 in the morning and the rain is pouring down!!!!! Ah well, not like we're afraid of getting wet Got to my buddies house at about 6 and just as i stopped, the boats trailer wheel fell out..........bearing had colapsed........arghhhhhhhh..........i just replaced it a month ago. Bugger, out comes the tools and spare bearings. A hour later we're back on the road.
We get to the harbour and is greeted by a flat sea and clean water. The rain has stopped and the sun is beginning to shine. Looks like its going to be a good day. Launched and started to run to the island. 5mnutes later we're in dirty, muddy brown/red water...........arggggghhhhhhhh...........0m viz!!!!! Water temp 13.5degrees. Saw a small school of dolphins, but they were very skittish and didn't want to play Ran past the island looking for clean water. Came across hordes of birds and penguins working on baitfish. Got my GF to throw out a spinning rod whilst we kitted up. the spinner just hit the water when the yellowtail hit the lure!!!! Now that she had the fish hooked, all she does is hold the fish, which in turn holds the school there. With all the scrambling on board i simply jumped in, no weightbelt, no wetsuit top, no gloves..........only wetsuit bottom, socks fins and mask and snorkel. As i hit the water a 6kg fish appears out of the murk. Let my 115cm Rabitech do its job!!!!! Great start to the day. Got back in the boat and kitted properly up. Alas, that was the only yellowtail action we saw!!!! Schools were very skittish in the dirty water.
Ended up catching some snoek for the pan. These pelagic fish, which is family of the barracuda, is only found in SA, well Cape Town area. They average 2-7kg's. Very, very tasty. Nobody spears them, as they have a nasty habit of simply attacking you!! Considering that their teeth is coated with a anti-coagulant substance, if you do get bitten, you bleed profusely A tip here is to cut the eyeball of the fish open and apply the fluid the seeps from the eye to the wound. Lessens the bleeding fairly quickly. Some of the bigger fish had roe in them..........a great delicacy!!!! Caught about 20 fish on spinning rods and handline, then proceeded to shoot some "hottie" (type of bream that lives in the kelp) for the smoker. Shot a couple in the shallows where we found 2-3m viz. Best was a 1.8kg fish. Swam into a small cow shark in the dirty water and almost mistook it for a yellowtail. (harmless shark, with a impressive set on dentures though!!!)
All in all, a great day, with some lovely fresh barbequed fish and fried fish roe as well as smoked fish (well actually, last weeks smoked fish!!!) for supper
Just another week-end report. After 2 weeks of HUGE seas and gale force winds, the weatherman finally predicted a calm sea with little wind. Left work at 4:00am, picked up crew, drove to Dassen Island (Yzterfontein), which is about 80km's away. Got there, and we couldn't even open the cars doors!!! Gale force winds.........arghhhhh...........one of these fine days i'm going to have a nice long chat to those weathermen!!!!!!
Anycase, a couple of phonecalls later, we're off to Cape Point, which is now about 140km's away. Got there, flat sea with a fresh wind.........well looks dive-able. Ran out to Bellows, past all the commercial fishing boats, which were all sitting very quitely. Hmmmmmm, not much action. At Bellows Rock, we found a school of yellowtail kingfish. Jumped in only to be greeted by 2m viz!!!! Needless to say, we stopped diving and rather went to shoot some reef fish in the quiter water of False Bay. Here the viz was 5-7m with 15degrees water. Not great, but good enough. Shot some nice Galgoen though. Realised that all this yellowtail hunting has made me lazy, so i need to brush up on my reef fish skills!!!
To brighten up our day, we had a whale come say hello!!!! Not to clued up as to what type, and by the time i got the digital camera out he had sounded already. Managed to get a bad picture of him. Just look below the birds and you can clearly see his tail as he is busy diving. Now if only i could have a bottom time like that whale.........................
Took my boat out to Dassen Island. Fairly calm sea with a little wind. Echo sounder was reading a coolllllddddd 12 degrees celcuis at the harbour. Just outside the harbour, water was a dirty brown colour. ZERO viz!!!! Anycase, 15minutes later we are at Dassen Island, greeted by a school of yellowtail kingfish smashing bait on the surface, with birds dive-bombing into this melee!!!! Two other boats were also spearing in the area, but they were occupied by other schools!!!! Jumped in, 15degrees water, about 8m viz, and plenty of fish!!!! Blessed a nice fish with the Rabitech steel, and then went looking for some more action!!! Alas, with such a great start, thing started getting worse. Schools were very skittish, you'd run past the working birds, noting the direction the schools were moving, then jump in ahead of them, swim into the action and spear!! HARD work, and the schools would change direction just before you got to them!!!! One tactic that worked was to have the boat drop us about 50m in front of the school, then if the school turns away, the boat goes around them, chasing them back towards us.
Ended up with a couple of fish, spent an hour or so diving with a baby whale, who seemed to follow the boat where-ever we went!!!!
Not bad for a winter spearing trip. Thankfully summer is around the corner and we should be able to shoot some decent Yellowtail Kingfish!!!
The weatherman predicted a 6-10m swell in the deep with 40knot winds and lots of rain. Water was a cold 11 degrees in False Bay and there was a HUGE swell running all down the coast.
Did what anybody else would do..........went fishing!!!!! Sea wasn't too bad, water was a warm 16degrees and dirty brown, from the sediment stirred up by the howling wind. Was raining AND had some hail as well!!!! OUCH!!!
After all that YF Tuna action, preperations were made for the week-end. Unfortunately a 28knot wind prohibited us from making the 40nm journey.....
Well, after leaving at 3:30 in the morning, we travelled the 80 odd km's to the slip, only to get blown away. Now, being very stressed out at work, i just HAD to get my weekly fix of spearing!! A couple of phone calls later, and off we go back home to get out Yellowtail Kingfish guns. Then the 70km trip to the OTHER slip started. Water was a decent 15 degrees with horrible 2-3m viz with most of the fish staying right on the bottom in 15-20m water. RABITECH'D them!!!!
We had a blast none-the-less, and one of my friends who'd been spearing for almost 10 years now, finally got his first Yellowtail Kingfish.
Feels good to be recharged and ready for another weeks stress!!!! Once again, can't wait for NEXT week-end!!!
Lastest adventures!!
Friday, 4th Feb 2005, Dassen Island AGAIN!!! No diving kit, as i'm recovering from a slight flu and Tommy is recovering from an ear infection. So out comes the fishing tackle. At certain times of the year, Longfin Tuna (albacore) come very close to Dassen Island, and are quite easily caught. They're generally small class fish, ranging from 3-10kg's. We heard via the grape-vine that the fish were in the area, so off we went. We spent the morning catching 15 Longfin Tuna. Good fun, but no camera, so no evidence!!
On saturday, 5th Feb , the wife MADE me take her fishing. Once again, no diving kit. We faired very badly, managing only 2 smallish longfins. To save the day, we went to look for some yellowtail. Low and behold, the 'tail were swimming on the surface, smashing baitfish in 20m+VIZ. As usual, they weren't interested in fishing tackle, so we managed only 3. All through the 'tail performance, Tommy and myself were cussing at not bringing our spearguns!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Oh well, you can't ALWAYS win!!
Monday, 7th Feb, back at Dassen. Fully kitted with 15 guns on board!!! RESULT: NO FISH!!!!!!!! Water was ice cold!!! And we took for-ever to navigate in the mist. (I really do need to get a plotter soon!!) Souveniers for the day is a spectacular photo of the lighthouse in the mist as well as the curious sunfish. Well, one of the MANY we saw!!!
Things have been pretty quite around my neck of the woods. Diving wise, its been a FAMINE!!, due to the bad viz., strong winds, big seas (feel free to add the USUAL lame excuses we spearo's use!! ),etc. I've been line fishing for the past couple of weeks, so my diving skills have started becoming a wee bit rusty.
Tommy calls on Wednesday night. STRUISBAAI is the place. They had just taken some big Yellowtail Kingfish of up to 22Kg's. (That HUGE for South African standards!!). So 4:00am on Thursday sees up driving the 200 odd km's to Struisbaai. Water is clean, 10-20m viz, but lateral viz. is down to less than 10m due to particles suspended in the water.
First spot supplies the first fish of the day. A small 6kg Yellowtail Kingie. The place is alive with skipjack, but we're told in no uncertain terms, that they are NOT to be speared. Reason: they're a dinner-bell for GW sharks.
Half-way through the day, Ferdie comes up to me, just AFTER i lost a 10kg Yellowtail kingie, and warns me of a big Raggie (ragged tooth shark). Generally a fish stealer, so i'm not worried. Five minutes later, i dive down in about 10m of water, over a wreck. I see movement at the bottom and angle down to see what it is. Halfway down i realise its a 3m shark. Probably the Raggie i guess. I slowly angle away, keen to still have a proper look, when all of a sudden i see the white blotches extending from the stomach area. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
I slowly start ascending, keeping my gun between me and the GW. Fortunately he only gave me the once over, and continued to where Tommy and Ferdie were. I surface, shout for the boat, but by then Tommy and Ferdie has also seen the shark. Powerheads on!!!! The shark dis-appears, only to re-appear 2-3minutes later. Angle up directly to Ferdie. Tommy and Ferdie manage to fend off the shark and jump into the boat. DAMNNNN!!! My first white for this year, and just when i started seeing 20kg class Yellowtail!!!
Oh well, we give the spot an hour to cool down, diving in another area about 2km's away. Back to the wreck, no sight of the GW, but the dive is spoiled. Every drop, you spend so much time looking behind you that it becomes frustrating!!!
At the end of the day we had 25 yellowtail Kingfish, ranging from 8kg's through to 16kg's. As well as a couple of reef fish. The best part is that YOURS TRULY, only managed to land ONE fish for the day!!!! Oh well, i'll give 'em hell next time!!!
Just for the record, thats been 4 Great Whites seen by Tommy and crew, in 3 Dives, in two weeks!!!!!!!!! Struisbaai is really getting to be DANGEROUS!!! My dive-buddy, was diving with Tommy last week, and he also got "pushed" by a large GW. I'm starting to wonder just EXCATLY how endangered these GW realy are!!!! 4 sharks in 3 dives in a 40km raduis area, those odds don't sound too good!!!
Some pic's of the fish and the new gun tommy is building. Small mid-handled woodie with a 7mm spear and 2x16's plus reel. Works very well, as can be seen from the pictures!!
Great day in the water, none-the-less!!! Can't wait for the week-end!! Struisbaai, here we come!!!! (this spearo was never noted for his sanity!!)
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