Blue Water Charters - Fishing Reports from Fat Girl

OFFSHORE FISHING REPORT - Durban - 12/03/2016
Fishing was tough this weekend with a strong reverse current and green water, we struggled to find clean warm water but eventually we managed to find some purple water at 27deg.C and picked up a really great Bull Dorado. We had a large Black Marlin on the outside rigger line he did a jump and threw the hook then he moved and hit the short corner and did a superb aerial display and threw the hook. We had a few on/offs and fish hitting the birds but it seems they biting short. Bottom fishing was not easy in the strong current but with big sinkers in shallow waters we managed some really nice slinger.
We came across a monster sized Manta Ray and is wing span was wider than Fat Girls 12ft beam. Amazing to see such a magnificent creature.

Great report. Thanks

That Dorado is stunning.

Its been a while since I posted a report, life gets so busy at times. For the last while bottom fishing has been good with some good size Singer and Englishmen around along with Copper Bream and Rockod being caught on most of our trips. On the trolling side we have been getting a lot of Bonnies and there have been a few Yellowfin Tuna around. This past Game Fish season was certainly the worst I have ever experienced and I don't know what to put this down to. The waters are still relatively warm and averaging 23deg.C. With a more than usual amount of rain the inshore waters have never really been clean the whole season and winter came early this year. The last few trips have had some nice seas for a change after a lot of really lousy weekends.

The guys have been moering the couta.. Pleant good reports around.

Offshore Fishing Report
This winter has been very cold, I dont remember going out dressed with so many layers for so many trips. Or maybe I am just getting older and can't take the cold like I used to. Either way it's been freezing early mornings and somedays freezing all day. Tuna fishing has not been what it should be, perhaps the Chinese trawlers have played a big part in this. None the less we have been getting some smaller Yellowfin Tuna in the 4 - 5Kg range. Bonnies, and Sarda - Sarda in the 1.5 - 2kg range have been full up and on some days we have caught so many we just had to stop. Shad have been very active early mornings and most have been just under and over size so many have had to be thrown back. The mackerel have been amazing and we have caught a lot of them that have been bigger than the Bonnies and Sarda - Sarda, real monster Mackerels. Bottom Fishing has been productive on most days except when the current is screaming with Copper Bream, Englishmen, Slinger and Soldier Bream making up the majority of the catch. Whales, Dolphins and turtles are now a common site on every trip.

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On those super mackies, what a blast dropping a sabiki and getting a whole string of them! Sheesh can they fight when you have 6 that are a KG+ each on the line.. Happened not long ago, one was 2-3kg at least maybe more, so I put it down alive for kicks to see what some geelbek thought of it and had 6 in a row chow the guy and fight me all the way up to the top and then let go as they were just holding him by the tail each time, too big to sluk it down..and they were empty belly and hungry and didn't want to let go until they were saw me. What a lag, was having a jol, quota was full already. Thanks for sharing the report..Looks like you have had the offshore east cape fish up by you proper. We've seen good sarda sarda and mackerel there the last two years, and when the tuna did come past ja they were those little guys..

OFFSHORE FISHING REPORT DURBAN 20-11-2016

After several months of bad health and then an accident busting up my leg and hand I fInally got out on the water again after almost 4 months. It was great to get my veins filled with Saltwater, even though the trip was tough on me I really enjoyed it and will be getting stronger and stronger each trip and hopefully soon I will be back at the helm as my leg heals. Felt strange to have someone else skip my boat whilst I managed the deck with my crew, but I suppose there is a first time for everything in life.

Water was clean and blue as we headed out around the ships, but the water was cold averaging 21.3deg.C today with a reverse current. The sea was relatively flat today with far spaced swells, conditions were overcast and a light SW wind.

I saw a bow wave from a fish heading directly into our spread at great speed and then BANG the starboard outside rigger elastic band popped, the rigger bounced and we had a rod bend followed by the reel making that buzzing sound that's gets all fisherman's adrenalin going, as the line was running I saw a Dorado jumping, we waited for the hook to set properly and then gave the rod to the client and a good fight ensued and Fat Girl opened her Dorado account for the season with a stunning Queen on deck.

Was great to be back on the water.

Well done Capt and nice fish, welcome back and so sorry to hear of your misfortunes. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

FF

So epic to hear that you are back at it already! Take it easy though but good news there, thanks for the update..

OFFSHORE FISHING REPORT DURBAN 22-11-2016

We got going just after 06h00, itbwas overcast and a moderate SW wind was blowing, the sea was better than I expected and water temps averaged 21.7deg.C, we decided to stay shallow and head up the coast. Just a short while out the harbour we had 2 lines go with some really decent fish, reels screaming rods bent, I suspect Tuna or Big Bonnies. Sadley both fish got taxed by a Shark, I think the same one, even my Williamson Speed pros got taken. Put some more on and we continued and after about an hour we had another 2 lines go and one got taxed again by a shark costing me another Speed pro and on the other line we landed a really good size Bonnie (Kawa Kawa) with my Speed Pro attached. We had 2 guys that did not feel so well and headed back to port and back on the dock before 10h00. These Williamson speed pros really troll well at high speed, will have to get me some more.

2016/2017 Holiday Fishing Report

Greetings to all and I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone for 2017.
We had loads of winds this season, blowing from every direction, currents have been strong and the water never got to the warm temperatures that we usually get this time of year we also had a lot of rain but with the water shortage I suppose I should not complain. We had to cancel several trips due to the weather, but we still had a busy season with many visitors to Durban this year. We had some good fishing days and some bad fishing days.
I don’t ever remember such a cold season as there were some days that were icy like Christmas day morning when I froze. We have not yet had the proper hot Durban weather.
We caught a fair amount of Dorado but we never got any big ones so far, we also did not get those bumper days and most daily catches were in the 1s, 2s and 3s for the day but we got Dorado on almost every trip.
The new Rapala X-Rap 40s running 12m deep did well for us on the Dorado even though we were running them for Tuna they got us Dorado and some decent size Bonnies.
The Tuna and Wahoo have evaded us this season and we have not caught any.
We got a really nice Black Marlin at the end of December which we released and dropped a monster of a Black Marlin.
Bottom fishing for most parts was actually very good and the Slinger were prolific, especially when the currents were stronger with some decent sizes. We caught a beautiful Picasso Trigger Fish off Durban whilst bottom fishing which was a first for Fat Girl ever, this fish was released.
We did some bay fishing and we caught a good amount of GT’s on Drop shot along with some Sea Pike, Salad Fish, Walla Walla and for the first time ever we got a really large mullet on Drop Shot. We had a young man that wanted to use his light tackle Bass set up in the bay and caught himself a nice little Hammer Head Shark, all the fish we caught in the bay were released.

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Game Fish Grand Slam and our first Billfish for 2017
We had a 6hr trip for today and decided to do it in the afternoon as the wind was blowing strong in the morning and so the boat launched at 11h00. 1hr into the trip the shotgun claimed a Wahoo and about an hour after that the same bullet on the shot gun claimed a Sailfish of around 50Kg which was released. After that 2 Dorado were also hooked up, so 3 species of Game Fish in one short trip.

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Fantastic. ! (ni(ce(fish)(