Good Catches

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Dr halibut hoffman

Moderator
False bay had quite a nice run of tuna. Seems the fishing improves when you stop the commercial fishing of young and spawning aggregations, no not the trekking, but the Somali pirates chasing the chinese fleet out offshore and away from the spawning grounds for our yellowfin stock. The stock is now 2 generational cycles since then and it keeps on getting better! First time in decades that a decent yellowfin been landed in the bay from the side. The trekkers even tried to have a go at them LOL..Ja nee trekkers don't get me started..

13 hooked properly over two days, 3 landed..someone even got spooled off the traintracks! Grinders and braid took a beating apparently, one out on grinder and 2 on mono and winches rest lost. A fish even chowed someones plug, bust them off, disn't realise it was hooked and went and chowed someone elses plug and bust them off, chaos..First pic is an unknown angler "from zululand" fish weight unknown but a very decent fish, that's Wally the second oldest local legend there giving the stink eye in the background. Second pic is Brian Pierce, the oldest local there ( or at least the one who has spent the most time there) who's been trying for one since he was 10 on those ledges, and flown halfway across the world to get one, well he got one now at his home spot and no one else has spent more time there trying so no one more deserving. That fish was weighed at 68.5kg I think. Third pic is Mike, the family posts here under a membership from time to time..His ma and sister would outfish most guys LOL they eat, sleep, breathe fishing, also well deserved, not his first tuna from the bricks but by far his biggest..That fish was also well over 60kg and chowed a wayne stanley "tuna special" needle nose.
Well done ouens...
 

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Houtarm

Moderator
Epic catches! Been having viskoors of previously unknown strength this week after seeing those tunas from the side!
 
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Dr halibut hoffman

Moderator
I asked some of those involved first if it was OK, I had mates of mates in UK sending back the pics frothing, gone full circle already..so it is not like they are all over the interwebs already. First pics were public on sunday already on facebook sites, with the place named which is not so cool IMO. That was my logic. LOL the cliffs gonna be a bit of a bunfight for the next while but its not like they aren't anyway. At least people might tackle up now and the dental floss that likes to cut everyone off can be packed away..and real gear come out.

Ja nee..The locals already already fishing other less crowded spots. And what about the other side of false bay that used to work back in the day, no one exploring those spots since the tail, katonkel and tuna stocks are returning slowly?

In addition speaking to another person deep in the game, who said that the people in the pics don't even realize that these are the pics that people will be looking at in afew decades time the way we now look at the pics in the old books of bluefin and yellowfin caught in the bay..History in the making. And also it is not like it is the only place tuna has come out from the side in the last year, or two or three..so there are still some secrets.. ;) I saw a 60kg plus sickle finned tunny surfing down a wave after mikes plug once a few years ago, trying to butt the footballs out the way..a day or two after he had caught more so..ja stuff still going on..
 
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Houtarm

Moderator
I agree Doc,

All these catches were posted on many social media groups, sometimes within hours of it the catch being made.

Can't see why posting it on Sealine would be any different, seeing it's already general knowledge.

History in the making for sure! Any places in the Southern Cape where I can try for a tuna from side? :walk
 
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Dr halibut hoffman

Moderator
If only stocks were in better shape and we and neighboring countries worked together to look after a golden goose common resource..pipe dreams for sure..but other pipe dreams of mine came true after a bit of nudging in the right direction so who knows..
The best spots in the old days were hermanus, mossel bay (was renowned for its couta/king mackerel in summer) and PE also was renowned for large couta from the side.. A jumbo tail got caught by a member here in blombos so ja..it is all up for exploration. The guys that got lucky, as far as I know most of them were waiting for it. To some it is an art and they are professionals. That is where respect and following the rules of the road and spending the time to learn the game and gear, come in for newcomers who otherwise just stumble in blindly pissing off everyone else envolved..when it is meant actually to be pursuit of fun. Some have dedicated their lives to it and sometimes it takes that, some just were at the right place at the right time and that was the luck of a lifetime, and "lucky" that they knew what to do with the fight and had heavy enough gear..others got unlucky and others got it handed to them..haha I've had it handed to me by katonkel before so am no one to judge..mini doggies, I love them, I dont think we realize how lucky we are to have the "waste" fish back after being gone for almost 3 decades I think I have heard..Marlin eat them so...LOL..Marlin been shot a hundred meters off the side before, off other spots where tuna and gamefish sometimes come out, in the southern cape..the legendary spearo got towed kilometers to the nearest beach in GW infested waters by a bleeding marlin, after being dropped off by a boat who gave a lift on the way out..balls of steel..In the old days the game from the cliffs all around the cape was, to not get your bait (mackerel caught right there beforehand) eaten by a tunny, hook a geelbek or yellowtail and pull that out before the resident 50kg red steenbrasse taxed you and stole your hook line and sinker..ja if only others bought into getting things back to how they should be..This all in published literature..would take international co-operation and all to bring back..ja pipe dreams.

Anyway, fish don't stay in one place unless resident reef fish and those mostly fished out in most places compared to days old, those fish in the bay this week are somewhere up the west coast already by now or 60 miles off the point, or back towards the southern ocean again, now to wait for another 40 yr cycle.. and for the planets to align ;) Don't chase yesterdays fish.
BTW read pasts post by Sparra, HT think he gives up some clues there. But when...ja that you have to spend time and research and figure out...and then you will be lucky once every few years, or once a lifetime..Oneday someone is going to hook a BF again from the side, they are out there number growing slowly more and more.. What happened to the atlantic blackfin? Will that ever return..The damage that netting has done to our fun..eish. and still does..Netting recruitment stock, breeding stock, nursery stock is bound to dramatically affect things. In days old entire year classes of recruitment BF would be purse seigned for ranching, in more stupid days past, a few years in a row, entire year classes, the whole bloody lot were netted, northern in mediterranean and southern in auz as well, for ranching which along with rampant netting of breeding stock and harvest everywhere else of any fish nearly wiped them out..ja we still try our best to hammer our tail recruitment and nursery stocks with nets..cr@p, I dont see much changing anytime soon, if it was not for the pirates none of this would have happened.
BF conservation is almost 20 years in now though and even though there is considerable pressure and harvest of the stock, it is slowly growing..and for the first time the longfin poleboats have a new issue to deal with..;) when the big boys pitch up the fish completely dissappear..
 
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Pylstert

Sealiner
don't discount changes in currents and sea conditions, what I have read of the great False Bay fishing days was that it started very suddenly, lasted for a few years and then stopped. Apparently the bay had different water conditions and a lot less kelp.
 
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