Saturday 27 October 2007

[Hammertime]

What a weird day at sea. It was at least semi-sane weather wise and for once we could settle in at 27 knots and cruise our way to the canyon.

Friday night saw me still hunting for bait. DONT panic said one, we will always get in Fish Hoek. Guess what - they didn't have. So out we went with 25kilos of carry over bait and at least 20kg's short.

The morning started off quiet. We found fish early in the form of long fin. Full house strikes and yours truly slipping on the deck and knocking the controls, turning us a little quicker than anticipated. Result two dropped, another soon after and two finally boated (both these fish wrapped each other, and after a few "words" with the crew and a bit of knitting all was back on track) besides it's not my fault I slipped!! One of my finer moments at sea.

Announcing our find to one of our good mates saw a few (ja right) boats appear from all directions. One boat even managed to trawl right through my chum line and strike two up within spitting distance. Thanks, cos after that we lost the shoal. May a thousand kelp maggots infest your cabin!!!

Turned on the radar to go hunt some long liners and stern trawlers and??? Gone!! Clouds all around, a nice rain clutter on the radar making ID even easier. I must have been a sight cos the crew were very quiet and looking busy every time I turned around to check the wake, spread.
We finally found a long liner in the south and soon happiness prevailed.
I managed to catch five sharks too, there were hundreds of the little guys out there. Managed to boat one bird, thankfully he got wrapped in the line not hooked and was sent off on his merry way after he crash landed on the deck, ate lunch on board in the form of a stray sardine on deck (my clean crew) and the buggered off into my chum slick.

I said the fish are big see for yourself, that's an STP 37kg, hows that for an arc? (Sore back today lad? The young gun never managed a Yellow this time round and to tell the truth the fish were not playing ball like they could have or have been for us.

Note the plank on the boat in the pics. After a 100 nautical miles (yep 185 km!!) of journey and you are nearly home with 8 miles left you boat a 20-25 foot plank and if it was't for a few birds working the bellows that I turned toward I WOULD have sosatied the boat. Took it out before someone wasn't so lucky.

Round up: Good yellowtail shoals in the deep 20-30 miles. A few Dorado. Longfin in the class as seen in the photo 10-17 kilo's by the boatload and some very very nice class YFT's.
Not sure what the point delivered at all.

My new reals never showed up on time, so guess I will have to go try them out this week as soon as the SE drops below force 9.

Hell, you gotta love skippering a boat and playing THIS game.

 

[Ajay]

Hey HT ---Great report and sounds like you guys had a blast.Stuff came up so I didnt get out to the point and looks like it was perfect... extra flat with nice light winds till late.Have to try again next week .Theres been no pilchards for about 3 weeks down in Fish Hoek Engen but they should get in again just before kreef season opens in a few weeks.Dont know if b grade kreefing ones are good enough for using for tunny??? V nice YFT and gotta love the grin on junior.Good stuff.

BTW what do you guys do about birds normally. Do you keep the heads and tails from your cut up chum pichards separate and then toss them out to the sides?

Very glad you guys didnt skewer yourselves on that timber. Would have been a nightmare.

 

[Hammertime]

Ajay, sorry you never made it out. The weather was nice closer in and in the deep. Didn't enjoy the rain out deep, I have a small tear in the t-top and I WAS going to sort it out and didn't. Simple patch on the canvas would do. Guess where it drips, right onto my Navs.

The birds are a funny subject. I learned from watching the gulls on the beach (the ones that fly) that if you throw one chip on the floor and one guy gets it, the whole lot want that chip and a huge braney erupts. You can leave the whole packet behind but they will stalk the oke with the one chip.

Same applies out there. Firstly I mince a mixture of fresh all sorts (minced hake is great it scents well) and then freeze them in 5l ice cream containers. I hang it in a bag on the leaward side of the boat, just on the surface so no danger to lines. All though we only fish one side of the boat, the windward.
I saw all my frozen pilchards for chum while on land, so heads and tails go in. But I have an advantage cos the bag creates the scent and the frozen chum blocks sink a bit quicker and tend to hang around just out of eyesight of the birds and in the eye line of the fish.
I use this to get the fish up when they are deap and the birds aren't a problem.

When I get the fish up so I can sight feed which fish I want, I do the following with the birds. The chunks are unfrozen so they can get chomped by birds. So I keep lots of small carcasses from yellowtail or small reefers. The chip theory works here. I toss the thawed out carcass out and they then fight over the thing for ages until a seal may move in. This buys us great chum time. Simple but effective.

 

[Ajay]

HT--Need to catch some fish first to have some carcasses LOL...Sounds like a good plan though. I normally put heads and spines on the kreefnets because they last a while there too.

As usual, very generous of you to share techniques with such detail.Shot-------Ajay

 

[Nepptune]

Hammer - Shot for the great report mate, looks and sounds like you had a good day out there, despite a cunch of bunts pulling through your chum line... baskets!
Great grin on Hammer Jnr's face.... Nice Longfin he's got there too!
Had a good chuckle at your slipping/knocking controls/cursing the crew tale.... I love those moments... nothing beats watching someone else go through a chinese firedrill when the drags are screamin!!! Too funny!

Glad you got out for some Vitamin Sea, hope I can join ya out there soon.

Respect to all aspect
Nepps

 

[Patrick]

Hey Hammer, here's your report for the Baan for when you go. We tried first behind Skaap island and it was quiet - only steentjies caught there. Plenty baitfish just on the eddies on the reef, but no elf or other game located.

Fished further up by the yacht mole and further towards die lyn but was really dead here apart from Nepps nailing the smoothies and me hooking one on a prawn of all baits. Andre ducked and i sat about 5m from Paaltjies and the stump were going off. It always seems like this, you row or drive for k's and its usually just where you launch or where you're staying that you find fish. Same thing happened to me when staying on the touws river in wilderness, drove to and launched in knysna and sedgefield only to blank, and finally catch fish right on my campsites doorstep in the river. Perhaps its just me??

So if you're taking the sprogs there, i'd say look around the paaltjies or navy pier in the late afternoon for the stump. But then judging by your reports of catching fish its more like you have plenty to advise me on...

Enjoy

 

[Hammertime]

Shot Bro

I welcome any info on any fishing, inland sea anything.
It's great to put to use for the kids and let me not use them as an excuse - Me too. Love ultra light tackle peaceful fishing.

One thing is for sure we ALL run over the fish. I did it in northern natal, durban south & North and here. Wish I knew why. You should have seen the showings on my finders about a mile out off the club on the way home. Ok it was snoek I am sure, hope I am because the yellowtail often run there and we all go to the point, the island because that's what we do. Crazy.

The same goes for the tuna, we run miles and I am convinced if we worked hard closer in we would come right.

Thanks for the report.

 

[Hammertime]

THANK THE GOOD LORD I AM NOT A WRITER.

CORRECTION CORRECTION TO THE BIRD TOPIC

Ok I got it the wrong way round when I read this and Matt - Hammer Jnr read this he Pi$$&d himself. We use the unfrozen sards first with the chum bag, cos they sink quicker. When we get the fish up I go to frozen pilchards as they sink slower and we can keep the fish up longer.

The rest stays as is.
SORRY SORRY!!!

Like James and Matt said last night when we were spooling those new Okumas and prepping for thursday, Skipper you just fiddle with all your gadgets and keep finding us fish, we will do the rest. Sounds like MUTINY, GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY REELS YOU SCURVY SWINE:op::

 

[Nepptune]

Hahahaha!! HT I noticed you saying you use frozen sards cause they sink quicker.... And thought "Hang on, frozen sards float" but wasn't about to grill you for it .... Glad your Jnr got in there first and gave you Sh*t about it! hahahahah!!
Too funny man, good stuff!

 

[Hammertime]

Ja, I think it's time I crewed again, too busy worrying about finding the fish. Must admit it's been a while since I cut bucket loads of chum. No wonder I'm getting so fat. It's the brain drain that's scaring me though. He really gave me flack hey. Little bugger even called me a "chop".

Deserve it though, should read the post before you just hit send!

 

[Ajay]

Taking abuse from the deckhands.Toss them each a scrubbing brush I say.........

 

[Hammertime]

Good idea.

Although junior doesn't let anyone wash HIS boat. That kid scrubs, oils everything to a point where if you see my boat for 3 years old next month it looks like it's never been used. Crazy.

There's another topic. We are fanatical about cleaning boat, motors, tackle, safety equipment etc. Some boats I have seen at the club are newer than mine and look like they need a little TLC. Vixen gets used every week sometimes 4 trips a week, can't understand how some guys ignore the platform they have all the fun on.

 

[Nepptune]

Hammer - Gotta agree with you mate, I'm anal to the max when it comes to care of boats and equipment... especially seeing as it costs fookin money, why some okes don't look after it, I dunno...
And with regards to boats, the safety aspect of keeping your gear in and boat and safety equipment in tip top shape is often over looked... I guess it comes from running boats for a living too.... I think alot of okes over look the fact that while you are offshore, the boat you are on is your world...your earth so to speak... you can't just step off if sh*t goes wrong... The better looked after she is, the less likely she is to give you hassles down the road...

You got any pics of Vixen you could post up to show us?

 

[Hammertime]

Funny thing, I don't. You can't take a snap in the garden cos she slides down the side of the house and when I pull out the drive part is behind the house, part hidden by the wall. I must take a snap of her in all her glory at the club one of these days.

Always keen to snap the fish.

 

[Nepptune]

Yeah I know how you feel, fish are pretty, but boats are things of beauty mate... Def try get a shot of her next time... Maybe with Jnr at the gunnel supporting a 80kilo plus YFT.... Should make for a great shot!! ;-)

 

[Hammertime]

Will do. So long as junior doesn't get that 100kg before me. I'll have to gaff the little bugger in the ear with a 10/0 he he.
Got to watch my posts now he's checking up on me, especially after my uitku@k he gave me about my sardines.

Your image is everything when you 14 hey!! How blind making an error on the web Dad.
Give me fish I am sure they listen more.

Just chatted to one of the commercials who told me the fish came out in good numbers further north of the canyon than where we all ended up on Saturday.
Think the fish may be moving away from the 34*47 to the 34*34 area. I have always been luckier further up.
Bought some really nice Mustad Hoodlems 8/0. Look like I can hide them in a chunk and fool a few fish, lets see on thursday.

Saturday looks like it will be a good one if the long range and sattelites are anything to go by.