Hiya A selection of some adventure's i've had wi
- Thread starter miles
- Start date
Friday 21 October 2005
Since my last trip was done on the weekend, with waaaay to many boats out on the tuna grounds, which makes for very difficult diving, i decided to try my luck on a week day.
The day didn't start off well, with 2 of the crew members cancelling on the very last minute. I managed to get a couple of my old commercial fishing friends to come with, just so that i could have some crew. With only 4 of us on board, we left two hours later than planned.
During the trip, i managed to crack one of the cabins windows and the deck wash pump also packed up. About 5nm into the trip, we run smack into a 25knt SE wind. Makes for a VERY bumpy ride. Was looking to be one of THOSE days when i should've rather stayed in bed........................
The weatherman predicted beautiful weather in the deep, and luckily for us, this time he was right. No wind and a fairly small swell. With-in the first 20minutes, we have 3 fish on rod and reel. Forty minutes later, two fish were lost and i'm still fighting mine. Then...........a bird flies into my line!!!!
So, three fish lost!!! This whole process happened several times during the day. My crew are simply not experienced enough to handle these BIG fish. I managed to take 3 YF's weighing 64kg's, 76kg's and 82kg's on rod and reel.
We then decided to run slightly away from the other boats and try and get our own school of fish, so that i can get into the water. A short while later, i see birds working and YF tuna's smashing bait fish on the surface!!! (We very seldom see tuna working baitfish here!!) I run up to the feeding frenzy, and start chumming immediately. Before i could even put my wetsuit on, we had YF's all around the boat.
I jumped in, only to find the viz. is not so good. Maybe 12-15m, but with lots of particles in the water. The fish were everywhere, but they were VERY skittish, plus it looked like they were moving at MACH3!!!! Since the school of fish were feeding on the chum, i took my time and singled out ONE of the bigger looking fish. I had plenty of YF's in the 60-70kg class swim by, easily with-in range, but as luck would have it, the bigger fish stayed just out of range.
How-ever, THIS is where my 67" Mid-handled Tommy Botha wooden gun with 10mm(3/8")spear and 5x16mm (5/8") bands, really excels!!
I shot one of the bigger fish at probably full range. The slip tip engaged inside the fish!!
Twenty minutes later, the fish was brought along side the boat and my crew managed, with difficulty, to pull the fish on board. Inside that fish's mouth was a old rusted long line tuna hook plus a newish looking 9/0 gamagatsu hook with a short peice of flouro-carbon leader!!! Looks like its luck had run out!!
By now, i had drifted away from that school of fish and the not so clean water, and with me being the only diver in the water, i decided to call it a day.
Our final tally, 3 YF's on rod and reel and 1 speared. One or two of the tuna commercial boats (rod and reel) did quite well, with them boating up to 20YF's. During the course of the day, we also heard on the radio, a FEW times, of anglers being spooled by BIG YF tuna's. Thats Shimano Tiagra 50W with 80lb line!!!
My fish weighed in at 94kg's and from the other fish i saw in that school, it looks like we're going to break the 100kg with-in this MONTH still!!!
Regards
miles
Since my last trip was done on the weekend, with waaaay to many boats out on the tuna grounds, which makes for very difficult diving, i decided to try my luck on a week day.
The day didn't start off well, with 2 of the crew members cancelling on the very last minute. I managed to get a couple of my old commercial fishing friends to come with, just so that i could have some crew. With only 4 of us on board, we left two hours later than planned.
During the trip, i managed to crack one of the cabins windows and the deck wash pump also packed up. About 5nm into the trip, we run smack into a 25knt SE wind. Makes for a VERY bumpy ride. Was looking to be one of THOSE days when i should've rather stayed in bed........................
The weatherman predicted beautiful weather in the deep, and luckily for us, this time he was right. No wind and a fairly small swell. With-in the first 20minutes, we have 3 fish on rod and reel. Forty minutes later, two fish were lost and i'm still fighting mine. Then...........a bird flies into my line!!!!
We then decided to run slightly away from the other boats and try and get our own school of fish, so that i can get into the water. A short while later, i see birds working and YF tuna's smashing bait fish on the surface!!! (We very seldom see tuna working baitfish here!!) I run up to the feeding frenzy, and start chumming immediately. Before i could even put my wetsuit on, we had YF's all around the boat.
I jumped in, only to find the viz. is not so good. Maybe 12-15m, but with lots of particles in the water. The fish were everywhere, but they were VERY skittish, plus it looked like they were moving at MACH3!!!! Since the school of fish were feeding on the chum, i took my time and singled out ONE of the bigger looking fish. I had plenty of YF's in the 60-70kg class swim by, easily with-in range, but as luck would have it, the bigger fish stayed just out of range.
How-ever, THIS is where my 67" Mid-handled Tommy Botha wooden gun with 10mm(3/8")spear and 5x16mm (5/8") bands, really excels!!
Twenty minutes later, the fish was brought along side the boat and my crew managed, with difficulty, to pull the fish on board. Inside that fish's mouth was a old rusted long line tuna hook plus a newish looking 9/0 gamagatsu hook with a short peice of flouro-carbon leader!!! Looks like its luck had run out!!
By now, i had drifted away from that school of fish and the not so clean water, and with me being the only diver in the water, i decided to call it a day.
Our final tally, 3 YF's on rod and reel and 1 speared. One or two of the tuna commercial boats (rod and reel) did quite well, with them boating up to 20YF's. During the course of the day, we also heard on the radio, a FEW times, of anglers being spooled by BIG YF tuna's. Thats Shimano Tiagra 50W with 80lb line!!!
My fish weighed in at 94kg's and from the other fish i saw in that school, it looks like we're going to break the 100kg with-in this MONTH still!!!
Regards
miles
Attachments
16 November 2005
Trip Report: Revenge of the YF tuna's!!!
Tuesday afternoon, one of my mates called me to tell me that they had a good day tuna fishing. They boated 4 fish, with the biggest almost 80kg's. He told me about HUGE YF's swimming in their chum line, eating chum, but not taking the bait. Since i have a chest infection, the wife has BANNED me from diving until it clears up!!(She even put my dive bag in her cars boot, so that i can't sneak off and go shoot some fish...
)
Had a look at the weather, and it showed a nice calm window before a 30knt+ wind and 12' sea. Since it was looking like a small sea and only wind in the afternoon, i decided to take out some old fishing friends, whom i promised a long time ago.
5:00am. We leave the harbour. NO WIND!!! Dead flat sea. After a hour or so, we get a bit of wind, but nothing to worry about. About 10nm from "my spot", i see Yf's smashing bait on the surface!! Didn't even bother to stop, as generally you get the smaller 40-50kg sized Yf's in that area.
By 8:00am, we have our first fish on board. Was loads of fun watching anglers fight with a REAL fish for a change!!! Its even funnier when you give them the wrong harnesses, so that they can suffer even more!!! After some burn off's and many aching mussles, i showed the guys the PROPER tecnique pulling YF's stand-up style.
Now, we have 3 anglers fighting fish and i'm sitting on the trolling bar, throwing chum into the water, when three HUUUUGE YF's appear. They're swimming very slowly, and completely un-afraid of the boat. They circled the boat for more than 10 minutes........in crystal clean water!!! Did i wish i had my speargear with!!
Anyways, i just about had enough!!! I grabbed another Tiagra 50W and lobbed a peice of chum at them. BANG!!!!! Fish on!!! Less than a minute later, i'm busy staring at the last bits of line left on my reel!! I pushed the drag to sunset and thumbed the spool.................it works........the fish stops!!! Drop down the reel into low range.........and start the loooong fight. 40minutes later the first gaff goes in!!! Meanwhile, the other anglers are still very busy fighting their fish. Being too buggered to put another line in, we still had those HUGE fish swimming around the boat!!!!(for the record, its MUCH easier to spear those big fish than catch them!!) A new personal best for me 101kg's!!!
We ended the day with 15 YF tuna ranging from 50-101kg's. Then we took a hiding coming back home in that 30knt wind. Had a wave break OVER my CABIN!!!!! Not a fun trip home!!! But what a day!!!
Regards
miles
Trip Report: Revenge of the YF tuna's!!!
Tuesday afternoon, one of my mates called me to tell me that they had a good day tuna fishing. They boated 4 fish, with the biggest almost 80kg's. He told me about HUGE YF's swimming in their chum line, eating chum, but not taking the bait. Since i have a chest infection, the wife has BANNED me from diving until it clears up!!(She even put my dive bag in her cars boot, so that i can't sneak off and go shoot some fish...
Had a look at the weather, and it showed a nice calm window before a 30knt+ wind and 12' sea. Since it was looking like a small sea and only wind in the afternoon, i decided to take out some old fishing friends, whom i promised a long time ago.
5:00am. We leave the harbour. NO WIND!!! Dead flat sea. After a hour or so, we get a bit of wind, but nothing to worry about. About 10nm from "my spot", i see Yf's smashing bait on the surface!! Didn't even bother to stop, as generally you get the smaller 40-50kg sized Yf's in that area.
By 8:00am, we have our first fish on board. Was loads of fun watching anglers fight with a REAL fish for a change!!! Its even funnier when you give them the wrong harnesses, so that they can suffer even more!!! After some burn off's and many aching mussles, i showed the guys the PROPER tecnique pulling YF's stand-up style.
Now, we have 3 anglers fighting fish and i'm sitting on the trolling bar, throwing chum into the water, when three HUUUUGE YF's appear. They're swimming very slowly, and completely un-afraid of the boat. They circled the boat for more than 10 minutes........in crystal clean water!!! Did i wish i had my speargear with!!
Anyways, i just about had enough!!! I grabbed another Tiagra 50W and lobbed a peice of chum at them. BANG!!!!! Fish on!!! Less than a minute later, i'm busy staring at the last bits of line left on my reel!! I pushed the drag to sunset and thumbed the spool.................it works........the fish stops!!! Drop down the reel into low range.........and start the loooong fight. 40minutes later the first gaff goes in!!! Meanwhile, the other anglers are still very busy fighting their fish. Being too buggered to put another line in, we still had those HUGE fish swimming around the boat!!!!(for the record, its MUCH easier to spear those big fish than catch them!!) A new personal best for me 101kg's!!!
We ended the day with 15 YF tuna ranging from 50-101kg's. Then we took a hiding coming back home in that 30knt wind. Had a wave break OVER my CABIN!!!!! Not a fun trip home!!! But what a day!!!
Regards
miles
Attachments
20 November 2005
STUNNING weather!! The WIFE had DEMANDED that i take her to sea!! With my chest infection not yet cleared up, and me devloping a nasty cough, still NO DIVING for me
Ran the usual 10nm to the point and were greeted by hundreds of yellowtail feeding on baitfish on the surface. Took lots of will power to drive past all those fish and not throw a surface plug at them!!!
Ran another 15nm out to sea, still more than 10nm short from my usual "SPOT X", when i saw some birds working. Change course, just to have a look. Then saw a trawler a short distance away, with loads of birds behind it, which meant that it was either cleaning its catch, or it was busy pulling its nets, either way, a GOOD sign!!
Ran up to the trawler and picked up a HUGE block of fish on the echo sounder. Stopped the boat and chummed. Before we could even get a line in, we had YF's swimming around the boat smashing the chum on the surface!!! And in CRYSTAL CLEAR water too!!!
Three bait line is and INSTANTANOUES hook-ups!! That was the scenario that repeated itself for the rest of the day. The wife had het tiagra30lrs spooled by a nice fish and now wants a tiagra50w for her birthday present!!
Woke up this morning with lots of aching mussles, but the cough is gone and my chest is much better!!! Pretty sure i'll be back to normal in a day or two. Then those YF's are going to be punished for taunting me like that!!!!
Our season only lasts perhaps another 3 weeks, so i'll have to cram as much possible sea time in as i can. I've seen those 100kg (220lb) YF's in my chum trail again and simply MUST shoot one of them!!
Regards
miles
Picture1- Wife shows us how to pull a YF
STUNNING weather!! The WIFE had DEMANDED that i take her to sea!! With my chest infection not yet cleared up, and me devloping a nasty cough, still NO DIVING for me
Ran the usual 10nm to the point and were greeted by hundreds of yellowtail feeding on baitfish on the surface. Took lots of will power to drive past all those fish and not throw a surface plug at them!!!
Ran another 15nm out to sea, still more than 10nm short from my usual "SPOT X", when i saw some birds working. Change course, just to have a look. Then saw a trawler a short distance away, with loads of birds behind it, which meant that it was either cleaning its catch, or it was busy pulling its nets, either way, a GOOD sign!!
Ran up to the trawler and picked up a HUGE block of fish on the echo sounder. Stopped the boat and chummed. Before we could even get a line in, we had YF's swimming around the boat smashing the chum on the surface!!! And in CRYSTAL CLEAR water too!!!
Three bait line is and INSTANTANOUES hook-ups!! That was the scenario that repeated itself for the rest of the day. The wife had het tiagra30lrs spooled by a nice fish and now wants a tiagra50w for her birthday present!!
Woke up this morning with lots of aching mussles, but the cough is gone and my chest is much better!!! Pretty sure i'll be back to normal in a day or two. Then those YF's are going to be punished for taunting me like that!!!!
Our season only lasts perhaps another 3 weeks, so i'll have to cram as much possible sea time in as i can. I've seen those 100kg (220lb) YF's in my chum trail again and simply MUST shoot one of them!!
Regards
miles
Picture1- Wife shows us how to pull a YF
Attachments
30 November 2005
One of my fishing bdddies from University days called me up and desperately wanted to go catch YF tuna. He's a ardent rock and surf fisherman and wanted to make his dream of catch a 50kg fish come true!! Like i needed any more encouragement to go to sea!!
The wife was working and has banned me from diving once again (for reasons which will be explained in the next week or two!!) Unbeknown to her, i still managed to sneak my diving gear out of the house!!
We had a nice flat sea inside the bay, but once we rounded the point, the water picked up a bit. Nothing major, small 1.5m (5-6')swell, with a bit of wind, maybe 10knts. Slightly bumpy ride. My friend was a bit apprehensive about the conditions, but the fact that the rest of the crew were blistfully sleeping, put his mind at ease!!
Unfortunately for him, the petrol fumes coupled with the smell of the chum didn't do wonders for his health!! Pretty soon the poor guy was suffering from a mild bout of mal-de-mer (sea-sickness). One of the crew members kept asking if he was of Irish decent, as he kept on leaning over the side of the boat, looking into the water, calling a friend......"O' Rouke....."
Have a couple of new tuna anglers on board is always a recipe for disaster!! Having lost the first 3 YF's, i managed to get through to the guys. Pretty soon they got the hang of things and my friend boated 3 YF's for the day, ranging from 55-76kg's. He was stoked!!! Couldn't get the smile off his face!!! On the way back home, whilst chatting and bragging, he'd interupt the converstion, run outside the cabin, throws up........ returns SMILING .... and continue the conversation!!!
I managed to get wet, but unfortunately we were surrounded by HUNDREDS of small albacore tuna. All in the 4-8kg class. I've never seen so many albacore, which hopefully is a good sign for our commercial albacore guys, as they've possibly had one the worst years fishing. The water was CRYSTAL clear, at least 30m viz, with 19degrees. The YF's were pretty skittish, but no really big fish. Saw a few that looked to be in the 90kg class (200lb's), but they stayed well out of range. Only shot one fish of about 65kg's.
regards
miles
One of my fishing bdddies from University days called me up and desperately wanted to go catch YF tuna. He's a ardent rock and surf fisherman and wanted to make his dream of catch a 50kg fish come true!! Like i needed any more encouragement to go to sea!!
The wife was working and has banned me from diving once again (for reasons which will be explained in the next week or two!!) Unbeknown to her, i still managed to sneak my diving gear out of the house!!
We had a nice flat sea inside the bay, but once we rounded the point, the water picked up a bit. Nothing major, small 1.5m (5-6')swell, with a bit of wind, maybe 10knts. Slightly bumpy ride. My friend was a bit apprehensive about the conditions, but the fact that the rest of the crew were blistfully sleeping, put his mind at ease!!
Unfortunately for him, the petrol fumes coupled with the smell of the chum didn't do wonders for his health!! Pretty soon the poor guy was suffering from a mild bout of mal-de-mer (sea-sickness). One of the crew members kept asking if he was of Irish decent, as he kept on leaning over the side of the boat, looking into the water, calling a friend......"O' Rouke....."
Have a couple of new tuna anglers on board is always a recipe for disaster!! Having lost the first 3 YF's, i managed to get through to the guys. Pretty soon they got the hang of things and my friend boated 3 YF's for the day, ranging from 55-76kg's. He was stoked!!! Couldn't get the smile off his face!!! On the way back home, whilst chatting and bragging, he'd interupt the converstion, run outside the cabin, throws up........ returns SMILING .... and continue the conversation!!!
I managed to get wet, but unfortunately we were surrounded by HUNDREDS of small albacore tuna. All in the 4-8kg class. I've never seen so many albacore, which hopefully is a good sign for our commercial albacore guys, as they've possibly had one the worst years fishing. The water was CRYSTAL clear, at least 30m viz, with 19degrees. The YF's were pretty skittish, but no really big fish. Saw a few that looked to be in the 90kg class (200lb's), but they stayed well out of range. Only shot one fish of about 65kg's.
regards
miles
Attachments
14 December 2005
During the week i bumped into a couple of old spearo friends. As per usual, the topic of YF Tuna was brought up. They were very keen to try their hand at blue water hunting. Roughly at the same time, a forum member (from DeeperBlue) had also just arrived in Cape Town and he also wanted to get into some YF tuna action. So off spearing we went!!!
Lets start off with the disasters for the day. My one fuel tank spilt and had a small leak. Luckily it was only on the top so we were able to continue. My VHF radio then conked in. Finally, i found a VERY good reason for not taking your snorkel out of your mouth when diving!!! I stuck my mouth peice back into my mouth with a blue-bottle (portugese-man-o-war) on it!!! ARGH!!! The pain!!!!
Mission for the day: to get all my divers into some YF tuna and to get some underwater pictures and movie clips of the YF and the fight!! (please bear with me, as this is my first attempt at underwater photo's and movie clips)
Let the FUN begin!!!
Deon and his brother Nico whetting their appetites by fighting two YF's on stand-up tackle!! Spearo's finding out that its not THAT easy to fish with rod and reel!!!
During the week i bumped into a couple of old spearo friends. As per usual, the topic of YF Tuna was brought up. They were very keen to try their hand at blue water hunting. Roughly at the same time, a forum member (from DeeperBlue) had also just arrived in Cape Town and he also wanted to get into some YF tuna action. So off spearing we went!!!
Lets start off with the disasters for the day. My one fuel tank spilt and had a small leak. Luckily it was only on the top so we were able to continue. My VHF radio then conked in. Finally, i found a VERY good reason for not taking your snorkel out of your mouth when diving!!! I stuck my mouth peice back into my mouth with a blue-bottle (portugese-man-o-war) on it!!! ARGH!!! The pain!!!!
Mission for the day: to get all my divers into some YF tuna and to get some underwater pictures and movie clips of the YF and the fight!! (please bear with me, as this is my first attempt at underwater photo's and movie clips)
Let the FUN begin!!!
Deon and his brother Nico whetting their appetites by fighting two YF's on stand-up tackle!! Spearo's finding out that its not THAT easy to fish with rod and reel!!!
Attachments
25 January 2005
Since the tuna season ended at the end of December, i've been dying to get wet!! Hunting tuna is great fun, but so is shooting yellowtail in the off season. The one thing that i learnt on this trip was exactly HOW unfit i am!! This BWH stuff has made me lazy!!! Coupled with the fact that i haven't done ANY inshore diving since August 2005!! Enough excuses now.....
My manager came to work late, so i left work and went home, packed my stuff, made some food for the day and left to Tommy's place. (my wife's working night shift and already gave me loads of grief for going with-out her!!) At 3:15am i'm at his place and shortly afterwards the others arrive. By 4:00am we leave for Struisbaai. After a nice slow leisurely drive we get there just before 7:00am. Water looks stunning!! Kit up and we launch.
The first spot we go to is 19nm from the harbour. Pinnacle whose shallowest point is 26m. My first dive.........breathe-up....nice and relaxed.....duck-dive.........finning down........hey!! my lungs start screaming for air!!
I surface, check my D3........6m deep!!!
Ok, a couple of dives later, i'm hitting 12m deep!!
This is ridiculous!! I simply can't go any deeper!!! To worsten matters, the fish are all well below the 20m mark.
One of the guys shoots a fish and pulls the school upwards. I dive.......aim......fire.........nooooooooo......s hot too high...............fish peals off 30m of 3mm line on the reel and tears off!!
A short while later a school of smaller fish come in and i manage to redeem myself. Spent the better part of the morning spearing here, but we had more freediving practice than spearing practice!!
We move inshore, hoping for better luck. Water is much dirtier, with 3-4m viz. Not fun with all those GWS that reside in Struisbaai. We move even closer inshore, diving on some shallow wrecks. I did two drifts over the one wreck, before my nerves gave in!! That was the same wreck i saw my last GWS on, and the viz of 3-4m wasn't insipring!! I buggy'd the boat, letting the others spear.
Piere took a nice 14kg Yellowtail Kingfish here and Tommy took a 15kg one.
Pretty dismal trip, but at least i got wet!! AND got to realise how unfit i am!! Need to get some pool training in before my next dive!!
Regards
miles
Since the tuna season ended at the end of December, i've been dying to get wet!! Hunting tuna is great fun, but so is shooting yellowtail in the off season. The one thing that i learnt on this trip was exactly HOW unfit i am!! This BWH stuff has made me lazy!!! Coupled with the fact that i haven't done ANY inshore diving since August 2005!! Enough excuses now.....
My manager came to work late, so i left work and went home, packed my stuff, made some food for the day and left to Tommy's place. (my wife's working night shift and already gave me loads of grief for going with-out her!!) At 3:15am i'm at his place and shortly afterwards the others arrive. By 4:00am we leave for Struisbaai. After a nice slow leisurely drive we get there just before 7:00am. Water looks stunning!! Kit up and we launch.
The first spot we go to is 19nm from the harbour. Pinnacle whose shallowest point is 26m. My first dive.........breathe-up....nice and relaxed.....duck-dive.........finning down........hey!! my lungs start screaming for air!!
One of the guys shoots a fish and pulls the school upwards. I dive.......aim......fire.........nooooooooo......s hot too high...............fish peals off 30m of 3mm line on the reel and tears off!!
We move inshore, hoping for better luck. Water is much dirtier, with 3-4m viz. Not fun with all those GWS that reside in Struisbaai. We move even closer inshore, diving on some shallow wrecks. I did two drifts over the one wreck, before my nerves gave in!! That was the same wreck i saw my last GWS on, and the viz of 3-4m wasn't insipring!! I buggy'd the boat, letting the others spear.
Piere took a nice 14kg Yellowtail Kingfish here and Tommy took a 15kg one.
Pretty dismal trip, but at least i got wet!! AND got to realise how unfit i am!! Need to get some pool training in before my next dive!!
Regards
miles
