Alan du Plessis
SOUTH SEA SAFARIS
www.southseasafaris.co.za
alan@southseasafaris.co.za

WHAT'S HAPPENING ON THE LOCAL SCENE - Monday 28 Nevember 2005

“LYNX” is now one year old and has done an impressive 9000 nautical miles in her first year of operation. To date, she has not missed a beat and all those who have fished on her have come back for more. We have been virtually fully booked since the middle of October and will remain so for the forseeable future. The weather has not been too unkind to us and we have managed about 15 trips to the tuna grounds since the season started in the second week of October. Almost one trip in every three days. Not bad for our notoriously fickle Cape waters. More about the fishing below

Offshore

The offshore scene burst into life on about 10 October. Not that there were no fish before that, but the catches were a bit sporadic and the fish bit well on the odd day. Since 10 October, however, the action has been fast and furious. As mentioned above, we have done about 15 trips and are averaging 7.3 fish per trip with an average weight of 63kg. To date, we have had fish of over 80kg on every trip and have had fish of over 90kg on three occasions. Our biggest this season is 95kg. The last three weeks in particular have been outstanding. The water is full of life and yellowfin tuna have been seen at rocky bank on a daily basis. Last year, the tuna disappeared in early Nov, but this year they have shown no signs of migrating to their breeding grounds. A good indication of when they are about to leave is the state of development of the ovaries. To date, all the fish we have gutted have had ovaries in very early stages of development. Hopefully this indicates they will still be around for the next few weeks.

We have done a couple of television shows for “Kyknet” and the first will be screened this coming Wednesday (30 Nov) at 9.30pm or next Wednesday (7 Dec). The program is called “Manjefiek” and the presenter, Dean Slater, managed to land a fish of just on 80kg. Gave him a pretty good workout too. If you have the time, tune in to see what a big yellowfin can do. The boys from “Hier gaan ons Alweer” were also here and their program will be screened sometime in late Dec or early Jan. Also on Wednesday. Hennie Papenfuss, the presenter, landed a fish of 85kg on his program. Hennie is a big strong lad and his fish also showed him a thing or two about how these fish fight.  We are still waiting for the magical 100kilo mark, but have not yet broken it. A few big 100 kilo fish have been taken this season, and I know of 5 confirmed 100 plus catches. Biggest I have heard of is 110kg.

A few weeks ago I was given a couple of the new Rapala X-Raps to try out. To date we have caught a number of yellowtail on this lure and even a 56kg yellowfin. The beauty of the X-Rap the fact that it swims deep and tracks perfectly straight. One can therefore troll is at 6 or so knots without it jumping all over the show and snagging the other lures. A big plus in my book.

Two weeks ago the water came right for the spearos and although we have only done two trips so far, we have landed four fish of over 80kg. Last week James Davison lost a big fish when it disappeared into the depths, taking gun, spears and everything else with it as well. We did manage to land three shot fish though, 90, 82, and 80kg.

 

The longfin have also made an appearance for the first time in a long while and these light tackle fish always give good sport.  Hopefully they will return in good numbers.

Cape Point and False Bay

We are so busy tuna fishing that although there have been good yellowtail at Cape Point, we have hardly had time to go out and look for them . The tail at the point are thick and on the days when we have gone in search of them, we have not been disappointed. Yellowfin tuna in the 40 to 60kg class have also been taken at the point and the odd katonkel has jumped the spoons as well. During the last week or so I have heard rumours of geelbek (cape salmon) at the point, but I cannot confirm or deny these yet. Personally I have not yet seen any this season, but it should not be long now. The yellowtail season at Seal Island has also started well and we have been getting fish there on every visit. As usual these fish are bigger than their Cape Point cousins the schools we have found there comprise of fish averaging about 8-9kg’s. A week ago or so, I got reefed by one particularly stubborn fish in 24meters of water! Hooking them in the shallows and on the blinder is hardly an option and one is almost guaranteed of losing the fish in the bricks. Hopefully the season will be better than last year when the fish had a proper case of lockjaw and we really battled to get them to take our offerings.

Currently the water at the Point is about 18 degC and the yellowtail are as keen as anything when you find them.

Struisbaai started happening last week and I have heard of some good catches of yellowtail. Even yellowfin tuna on the six and twelve mile banks. Water on the twelve mile is warm and clear and it gets one to thinking about the marlin we had there last year, it is still a bit early though. Speaking of marlin, an odd thing happened last week.  One of my demo X-Raps was grabbed by something out in the deep and whatever it was proceeded to run about 200 meters of line from a TLD50 and then popped the 120lb trace. Upon inspection the trace showed severe signs of “sandpapering” for about 50 or 60 cm above where the lure had been. No bite off, more like it was chafed through by something with a very rough mouth!??! Marlin? Who knows, but it got me bamboozled and we’ll never know for sure. That is the thrill of fishing, you never quite know what is going to happen next!

That is about it for this report. To all our clients and friends out there, have a joyous festive season and may your Xmas stocking be bulging with fishing goodies after Santa has made his nocturnal visit. If you want a big tuna for Xmas, bugger Santa, call me. Cheers

Till next time, tight lines and happy hunting!!

Kind regards

Alan