Monday, March 14, 2011

South Sea Safaris - Update

WHAT'S HAPPENING ON THE LOCAL SCENE - Monday 14 March 2011



The last two months in Struisbaai have delivered some really good fishing for us and our clients. We have raised somewhere in the region of 30 marlin, had numerous hook-ups, released two very nice striped marlin and most recently, a black marlin of around 150kg . A few more big black marlin have also managed to "fall off" after fighting them for various periods of time. In addition to this we have had some classy red steenbras, up to 27kg, but the really big ones have still eluded us. Now, we are wrapping things up down there. We will be bringing Tyler back this week and it will then be back to tuna and whatever else we can find in this neck of the woods. The news from the tuna grounds is that things are starting to happen. Hopefully we will experience a better second half of the season than the dismal start we had in October and November. But, more of that later.

Shore Angling

In our last report and on the blog, we reported that Brian McFarlane, our good friend and sometimes client, caught a magnificent Kob of 38kg. This time he fished in the Five Species Tournament in Struisbaai and caught a whole bagful of various fish including belman and kob. For his efforts he came second and won a tuna fishing charter with South Sea Safaris. Sorry Brian, hope you get a better prize next time, but for this time you will just have to come and pull a few of those big yellowfins with us. Hopefully.

Further news is that the SA Shore Angling Nationals delivered tons of fish, well shark actually. Literally. I am not a shark angler and hope never to become one, but respect to those who do battle with them and pull the cartiliginous critters from the sea. At least they are all put back to fight again another day. I am not sure exactly how many were caught, but last I heard they had caught around eight tons of various flat fish and sharks. Mostly bronzies I should imagine. Natal managed to wrestle the most sharks from the sea, followed by Boland and then our very own Western Province boys. Well done to all the guys who took part. I should imagine there were a few stiff arms and sore backs around by the end of the week. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that they also probably had the best weather week we have had in months. As far as edible fish go, I am once again under correction, but I am told there were five Kob caught for the whole competition.

The SA Shore Angling B Nationals were also held recently in Struisbaai and according to those reports, the guys did equally well down there. Plenty of big ragged tooths, big flat fish (rays) and all sorts of other odds and ends. Whilst down there and on one of the breezy days that I could not go to sea, I went to "Die Walle" area and tagged 7 kob in a couple of hours. Sizes ranged from just undersize to about three kg's. As I mentioned before, I am not a shark angler so, for me to catch some nice kob was paradise.

Offshore


On the tuna side the news is that the fish seem to be getting better. We have done two trips in the last week and have caught a few longfin on both of them. Some of the boats did quite well, but we seemed to zig when the others zagged.  Last Tuesday one of the Hout Bay charter boats landed two bigeye tuna of 102 and 105kg respectively. I saw them boat the fish and they were enormous. They had a three up strike on their trolled lures and whilst one fish bent open the hooks, the other two stuck and they boated both. Yesterday saw a few yellowfin in the 50kg class being boated just NW of the canyon area and a number of longfin were also caught. Some of the longies were up to 20kg and this is always a good sign. It is the first time in a long while that I have seen the water really blue and looking like "tuna water".

At one point, whilst trolling in the area where a few yellowfin ahd been taken earlier, I noticed a sharp, sickle shaped fin slicing the water dead ahead of the boat. A second later it dawned on me that I was looking at the upper tail section of a big marlin cruising down the swell just ahead of us. I had a kona out back, but try as I might, I could not get the fish to get behind us amongst the lures. It insisted on somehow staying ahead of the boat and a while later it simply disappeared and we never saw it again. I have been fishing the tuna grounds for a very long time and it is my first confirmed sighting of a marlin out there. Everyone else seems to have seen them, but not me. Now I too have seen one. Pity we could not get it to bite. Maybe next time!

So, the news is that the right water is out there and we have a few yellowfin about. Since Nov it has been practically stone dead out there and moving into the autumn season, it is around now that the yellowfin can start showing up. In fact, they traditionally start showing up anytime in March and if the signs are anything to go by, maybe, just maybe, we will have some sort of normality with our yellowfin season in the next few months. The next few weeks will deliver the answers.

Cape Agulhas


This is where all the action has been in the last few weeks and we managed to get our fair share of it. Last week, we released another Striped marlin (caught by Patrick Christodoulou) and lost a big black marlin that spat the hooks after five minutes. We managed two days on the Alphards and although I was not fortunate enough to be out on the boat on those occasions, according to the crew there was more than enough excitement to keep everyone happy. On the first outing, they raised nine marlin and had two hook-ups, both of which fell off after short runs. On the second outing, they raised four fish and managed to release a striped marlin of 80kg or so. A big black marlin also attached himself to the kona for a while, but fell of after five minutes or so.

On Saturday Gareth took his dad out marlin fishing. (We could not manage to rustle up a charter after a few guys showed interest, but no-one came through.) The weather was great and rather than waste a day on land, Gareth took Doc out to try for the marlin that had, to date, eluded him. A while after arriving at the Twelve Mile bank, they caught a small yellowfin and rigged it on a circle hook as a live-bait. Half an hour passed with no action, then the ourigger clicked, a shadow appeared in the water behind the livey and a second later a fish was moving off at increasing speed with the yellowfin clamped tightly in it's jaws. Gareth tightened up the drag, the rod dipped heavily and Doc was on with his first marlin. Simple as that. An hour or so later they had the fish alongside. It turned out to be a black marlin of about 150kg. Well hooked in the corner of the mouth. The fish was tagged, a photo or two taken, the hook removed and set free to fight again another day. Doc had his marlin. He has fished all over the world to catch one and he finally did it right here, on our own doorstep. Chalk another one up to the marlin fishing of Struisbaai. One strike, one fish............and our first on a livebait!

I am acutely aware of the fact that we have a very poor strike to hook-up rate on these fish when using kona's. It has been the subject of many late night debates over many beers. I say "we" meaning all the boats that fish in that area. Some years ago, when we started catching these fish, I put it down to inexperience. None of us had a clue what we were doing and I ascribed the low hook-up rate to this fact. Since then we have caught enough marlin to move up from the rank of absolute novice to somewhere between amatuer and mildly experienced. Yet the damn hook-up rate stays at about 1 in 6. We are still debating the reasons and have since read many books on the subject. One day when I know, you will all be the first to share my knowledge. In the meanwhile, although we are having plenty of fun catching these things, it is still rather frustrating when one spends a day out there, gets five or six strikes and every one of them either fails to stick or falls off after a short time. We will get to the bottom of it, watch this space. To those of you who have already contributed to our "knowledge base" by sending articles and advice, thank you. Everything helps. Some confuses the hell out of us, but it all helps!


Lastly, the Struisbaai Yellowtail Derby and the Five Species (two separate competitions) were held on Saturday. We took a group of clients that had not fished with us for some years and managed to get the biggest Kob of the competition. Once again, I was not there, but judging by the reports, the guys had a ball. The yellowtail were really scarce, as they have been for the whole season and apparently there were only a few caught on the Twelve Mile Bank.  The latest news on the yellowtail is that yesterday they went bananas at the 12 Mile Bank. Some of the commercial boats had over two tons of fish for the morning. It is about time that they put in an appearance there. Hopefully they will be around for a while.  Thats my lot for now. For further details on our fishing trips and what is biting where, go to South Sea Safaris
Till next time
Tight lines, good fishing