Yfin Tuna and Sharks

P

peks@mweb.co.za

Senior Member
Miles/HT - this maybe a silly idea for our recreationals when fishing for Yfin - your comments please :

BLOOD attracks Sharks - we bleed the Yfin on the side of the boat = blood in the water. Lots of bood on the deck as well which also end up in the water. If we just stun the Yfin on the side of the boat, and the bleed it IN the fish box, it will keep blood out of the water, thus less/no sharks ? I'm asking this because in most cases when we start catching Yfin, there are no sharks. They only show up after catching/bleeding one or two fish. So my idea is to keep blood from the water as far as possible ?

Regards,

Pieter
 
B

BluFlu

Sealiner
What the guys do is bleed the biggers but block the scuppers till you are underway again. Bit messy but solves the problem. Also believe that urine attracts the buggers but hey - NO one is peeing on my boat:)
 
M

miles

Sealiner
Hiya

Many of the commercial deck boats will NOT dump the head and entrails whilst on the drift. The older portugese skippers believe that the blood and guts will scare the YF off.

On my previous boat, i had very little deck space. Same with many of the other smaller commercial ski-boats. I was forced to dump my fish's guts and entrails overboard. Never noticed a decrease in the amounts of fish we caught compared to the other boats!! Funny thing is that you'll often find gill rakers or other parts of fish that you've cleaned INSIDE another YF.

Sharks. Its VERY rare for a blue shark to take your fish. 99% of the time, they merely make a nuisance of themselves, by eating all your chum and taking the baited hooks. MAKO's on the other hand WILL go for your fish.

Certain times of the year, sharks become an absolute PEST!! Taking every single baited hook and losing 40+ hooks per day is quite common. Even if NO fish was landed, as soon as you stop, the blue sharks appear.

Its common for blue sharks to appear in your chum line. Just like you're trying to attract YF to your boat by chumming, so too, you're attracting blue sharks.

Even whilst spearing and having lots of blood in the water, i can't say that there is an increase in shark activity, due to the fish's blood.

I bleed my fish outside the boat AND process the fish onboard, dumping the insides as soon as the fish is cleaned.

The problem with cleaning the fish INSIDE the boat is that YF bleed PROFUSELY!! You also can't kill the fish, as a dead fish will not bleed properly. So, you'll have a YF flapping around on your deck, which will damage the meat (not really an issue for recreationals). Blood will be everywhere and its a pain to clean!! Simply easier to bleed the fish outside the boat.

When sharks become too much of a pest, use cheaper hooks!!

Regards

miles
 
T

tkei

Sealiner
Miles, with so many sharks around the boat like the blues, do you not have problems with them cutting you off by swimming into your lines. Suppose if the YF are loose the same could happen with other YF cutting you off.
Cheaper hooks will mean that a 100kg YF will pick you up on the cheapy and break the hook.
 
M

miles

Sealiner
Tkei, having a free swimming fish or shark swim into your line WHILE fighting a fish DOES happen, but its not common.

When i refered o cheaper hooks, i should have said less expensive hooks!! A 8-9/0 Owner hook costs anything from R25 to R40 each, depending on where you shop. At R40 a hook and you're losing 40 hooks per trip, its R1600 just in hooks lost for that trip!! Mustad, as well as a few other brands do offer a better value for money hook, coming in at around R10 a hook. HUGE savings when the sharks are around in large numbers, and you don't lose that many fish to these hooks either......
 
D

Decker

Senior Member
Hey HT, its 10:12am, and I have a feeling that you are busy into a BIG fish at the mo. Please dont delay your report, its the next best thing to actually been out there oneself!
 
H

Hammertime

Sealiner
Well...
Not a good day for us at all.
I have never taken the new boat too the deep so my biggest fear with the two 85's was fuel consumption. I have two very big tanks on the boat but guaging exactly how much fuel is in them is an art I have to still learn.

I ran to 35 & 05 only to find green water and 16 degree temp. I then ran 10 miles further out. Same thing...
I then like a banana headed south to the Canyon and the other guys ran about 10 miles to the west of me.
They found fish, I found sharks.

I had my daughter on board who had a huge headache and by 12 o clock when I realised I needed to head back toward the west, she was looking very very tearfull.
So I upped lines and brought her home. This IS my daughter we talking about here. If it was Matt he would have been slapped on the head and told to stick it out, that being said he just would have suffered in silence without telling me. But there's no way I'll let my little girl suffer out there. So home we came without a single fish.

BUT BUT BUT...

I used less fuel than I ever did on Vixen. The boat runs itself. The boat sits on the drift while chumming like a dream and it trolls a magnificent wake.

Sooooo, it's now just a case of taking myself, Matt and Gavin out there too go do the job properly. Oh ja and maybe take some Panado out there too for the Lady of the boat Jacqueline. Not to worry love, next time!
WHAT A BOAT!
 
P

peks@mweb.co.za

Senior Member
Now I'm feeling better ! HT, saw you on the water at the 35 05. I went to the 40 and 00, same thing. 16 degrees. Decide to go west - I think the 23 and 55., found 16.9 degree water, worked towards a stern trawler, caught 3 nice Lfins on the deep divers, chum chum chum - lost about 15 hooks to the sharks. Lost one decend Yfin on my home made squid behind the bird - the leader line broke - gone is the Yfin with the red bird and the brown squids !! If anyone caught a Yfin with this in her mouth, can u please return my rig ?^^..

Saw Miles on Dr Fish working the same area behind the stern trawler. Would love to know how it went. I know the fish came up at about 14h00, just when we - because of the sharks - decide to leave. Buggi with skipper Kobus Potgieter from ABC caught two, one on the bait weighing 84kg and a smaller one on the squid behind the bird - just one mile from us. AND they only saw ONE shark the whole day !

So after losing nearly R1000 worth of tackle, used 35kg of pilchards, catching between 15 and 20 sharks, we came back with only 3 Lfins. Just in time to see the last 30 min of the Bafana game !
 
O

orange

Senior Member
HT I have been waiting to call GhostRider on the radio for a while now... cool name sounds like I am flying a sortie in topgun or something.

Ya one of those days - fish in the deep west we had a very good view of lions head when we caught our fish. The fish were all very big, nice...

Never believed what HT and Miles have always told me, you don't need 18.5 degrees of water to catch YF.
 
P

peks@mweb.co.za

Senior Member
JAAAAA Iggie !! As dit die knoop was, het ek myself gebl&ksem ! Nie my leaderlyn nagegaan voordat ek die bird uitgesit het nie - het net mooi in die helfte afgebreek. Moes 'n swak plek gewees het. Sal double check volgende keer ! :fbash

NS : Dink jy die vis begin alreeds meer wes beweeg ?
 
M

miles

Sealiner
Saw Miles on Dr Fish working the same area behind the stern trawler. Would love to know how it went.
Click to expand...

 

Peks, we got some nice fish behind that trawler. Check the report: http://sealine.co.za/view_topic.php?id=38635&forum_id=45&jump_to=570865#p570865

 

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P

peks@mweb.co.za

Senior Member
Well done Miles ! - we tried and tried but the sharks would not let us !! Was later so gatvol van hoeke verloor dat ons om en by 14h00 terug na Hbaai is.

I saw you behind the trawler and told my crew - there is the master himself - We are in the right area !! And we did get good marks - but could not get past the sharks - then moved up again to the trawler, lines/chum in the water - same thing - only sharks. Now my question : What did Dr Fish do different to get those Yellows ? Did we leave to early ? Should we tried harder ?

Miskien is Dr Fish so 'n Yfin magneet dat ons naby aan haar geen vis kry nie ! Next time when I see you on the water - I'll move FAR away - then maybe there will be some YF left for me !!::S

Once again - very well done ! And thanx for keeping us informed.
 
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