Battle for Bait

After a great day on Saturday, and copious amounts of Brandy and Coke, we were a bit slow on Sunday morning, 12 December. At woke me at 5:00am and after the morning ritual of coffee and rusks, we hitched the boat. At’s son in law, Hubert Beuken, and Justin Otto were joining At and myself for the day. We launched in near perfect conditions and after an extremely easy launch, we settled into the daily routine of catching small livies on the sabiki rigs. After we had a few baits, we headed for Oscar.

When we arrived at Oscar, there were already 6 boats there. We knew we were going to battle for bait as all the boats riding up and down the pinnacles pushes the bait down, making them almost impossible to catch – hence the need to be on the water as early as possible. Hubert and I put out the usual selection of lures and At worked the pinnacles looking for a bait. After an hour or more we finally caught a bonito of about 6kg. It went into the tube and we continued our search. Divan was fishing on the boat “Deep Burn” to the north of us and he called At to tell him that they had a skipjack tuna for us. At headed in their direction but decided not to pull lines in and run as the bonito would probably not make the trip. We increased the revs a bit and trolled towards “Deep Burn”. About half way, one of the halco’s was eaten and the reel took off at speed. I handed the rod to Hubert and turned to the closest rod – with the islander Saillure - to retrieve it. When I looked into the water, I saw a sailfish chasing the lure. I gave two or three winds and the sailfish grabbed the lure. I gave it a few quick strikes and the fish took off. After anout 20m the hooks unfortunately pulled, but luckily Hubert’s fish was still on. I had just cleared the last line when we saw a sailfish erupt out the water about 100m behind us, the reel was emptying . Only then did we realize that Hubert was also hooked into a sailfish. At turned the boat toward the fish to slow its run and to allow us to gain some line. After about 20 minutes, the sail was near the boat. I was ready with the tag stick and was about to take the leader when At saw that the halco was not in the mouth but in the flank of the fish, three quarters of the way to the tail. Before I could get the tag in, the sail sounded. There was nothing we could do but wait until it tired. After an hour, Hubert managed to get the fish back to the boat. Unfortunately the fish was stone dead by then and we were forced to load the fish. I checked the bonito in the tube and it had perished. I called Divan on the radio and as luck would have it, the skipjack they had had also just given up the ghost – Back to the drawing board, or in our case back to Oscar.

There were by that stage 9 boats on the pinnacles and all signs of activity were gone. At suggested that we look a bit shallower to see if there were bonito on the 20meter depth. I changed the japan lure to a small feather and rigged it on a 50Lbs fluorocarbon leader. In about 23m the feather was eaten. The reel took off at speed but next thing the line parted. There had been a nick in the line from a boat that had crossed our lines earlier that day. We all looked back and saw a dorado dumping with the lure in its mouth. It was a bitter sweet moment because it was not a bait that we lost, but it was a good eating fish that we missed. I stripped about 20 meters of line and rerigged another live glow feather. At worked the shallows with no more success so we headed north and deeper. On the 47m ledge off Vegetation (a mark about 12km north of the launch) the feather and a halco took off. I grabbed the rod with the feather and Hubert the other. The fish were taking a lot of line when mine came off. I retrieved the line to see that the fluorocarbon leader had been bitten off. Hubert brought his fish closer and we saw that it was a wahoo. Probably a pair. I gaffed the fish and after e few quick photos I put it into the hatch – it was Hubert’s first wahoo.
At handed the controls over to me at about 10:30 and lay on the deck. I made a deep turn and decided to go back to Oscar. There were only two boats there by then as most had moved to greener pastures. I made a pass over the pinnacle and the close halco got eaten I ran back and grabbed the rod. As I looked back, I saw a sailfish stick his bill out the water. It was on for a few seconds before the hooks pulled. At was now awake and took over the reins. Both of us were scanning the water for any sign of movement. About 100m in front of us there was a bit of a swirl. At made a B-line for the spot and we were rewarded with a screaming reel. I grabbed the rod and fought the fish gently. I didn’t want to bugger this one up! After most of the line was back on the reel, we looked into the water and saw that most beautiful site … a yellowfin tuna of about 6kg … Finally, a bait! I passed the rod to Hubert and grabbed the fish’s tail. It went into the tube, but only just fitted. At headed for deeper water while I trimmed the baits tail. When we catch big baits, they are almost too strong to swim, so what we do is trim the tail fin using a knife. I cut the fin from the fork of the tail to the tip, effectively halving the swimming power of the fish.

When we were at 70m At told me to rig the bait. I bridled it with a hat elastic attached to a 20/0 circle hook. The tuna was let out about 20m and attached to the rigger with a rubber band. I put about 15 meters of dropback into the water and settled down to wait. At turned the boat in 200m and headed shallower. I prefer the inward tack when marlin fishing because over the years we have noticed that most of our strikes come when we are going shallower. In 180m the rigger revved properly. Hubert and I looked back and saw a blue shape in the water. We thought it was a big dorado so I pulled the bait closer so that it would not get damaged. When I looked again, the flash was a lot bigger than a dorado – it was a marlin! I let the bait out again and as the rigger took tension, the rigger popped. I fed the fish and when it came time to tighten up, there was nothing. I retriever the line and found that the marlin had hit the bridle with it’s bill and it parted. Talk about bad luck! Well, that marlin has not had an easier meal in its life than that!

At that stage, we were almost off of the launch, so we decided to call it a day. We beached and weighed the wahoo and sailfish. The wahoo was 9.8kg and the sailfish was 27,6kg. And a good time was had by all!

Good Times

So it was Friday afternoon, 11 December, and Divan and I decided to go up to Cape Vidal for the weekend. Cape Vidal is about 150km north of Richards Bay and takes about an hour and a half to get there. Mates of mine, At van Tilburg and his family, were camping there on their annual holiday and invited me to join them. Divan also had friends that were staying in the log cabins, so he was going to fish with them. I would be fishing on At’s boat “AVANTI”, a 21ft Yeld Cat powered by two 115 Mercury Optimaxes. At’s daughter’s boyfriend, Johan Strauss, would complete the crew.

We arrived at Vidal at about 4pm and settled in. At and myself packed the boat for the next day then went down to the beach for a few sundowners. All the old faces that go to Vidal on their annual pilgrimage were there. Good friends, good weather … good times.

At 04:30 At woke me. After a quick cup of coffee, we hitched the boat and set off for the beach. The launch at Vidal is through the surf, but thanks to the reef that runs parallel to the coast from the right of the bay, the launch is relatively sheltered. This bay provides some protection while the boats wait for the right gap between the breakers. At is an excellent skipper and his calm and collected manner comes to the fore while in the surf … where you need it most! On this day, there was almost no surf, 1m at most. After an easy launch, we stopped behind the backline to look for some smaller livebait (maasbanker, mackerel or slender scads). Using sabiki rigs, we jigged up about 20 baits from showings on the Lowarnce sounder. After we had enough bait, it was north toward Oscar. Oscar is a cluster of pinnacles, about 7km north of the launch, that comes up from 42m to 30m. It is a great spot to look for general gamefish and small tuna that are used for marlin bait.

It was about 5:30 when we arrived at Oscar. I set out 5 lines with small halco’s and an islander saillure. At trolled these bait lures around the pinnacles looking for bonito, skipjack or small yellowfin tuna. After about 20 minutes we had a strike on one of the halco’s. I was closest to the rod so I pulled it in. It was a small bonito of about 2kg. I put it into the tuna tube and we continued trolling. A short while later we had a double strike. Johan and I ran to the back and brought the fish in. They were both small bonito of about 2kg… perfect bait. I rigged both baits on the spot with a 6 meter section of 2.5mm Momoi crimped onto a 20/0 mustad circle hook. The baits were bridled using a loop of hat elastic. The traces were clipped onto a sampo snap swivels attached to a 2m double line. We use 130Lbs line on Penn International reels with custom built bent butt rods. I am fortunate in that my Dad builds rods as a hobby so all the rods we use are custom built.

After rigging the baits, At turned the boat into the current and angler deeper. I kept the baits on a short line (holding the double in my hand) while we made our way deeper. The reason we do this is to prevent the reef sharks from taking the bait. As you can imagine, where there are gamefish on a pinnacle, there are plenty of sharks. When we were in about 70m, I let the first bait out about 20m and fixed a rubber band to the line. The band was inserted into the outrigger clip and hoisted to about shoulder height off the gunwale. I pulled more line off the reel and let it trail behind the boat as a dropback, with the reel set just above freespool. The second bait was trolled about 10m behind the boat on the port rigger.

We trolled deeper at about 4 knots (a good walking pace) and were in about 150m when the starboard bait started revving. The bait was eaten and the rubber band popped, releasing the line. I ran to the back and pulled line off the rod tip into the water just as the dropback came tight. I fed about 10 meters of line into the water and told At to increase the speed a bit. I pushed the drag to a third, then two-thirds and finally all the way to strike. The line came tight and ran off the reel at a good speed… Hookup! I quickly wound up the dropback of the port rigger to get it out the way.

At told me to get into the chair and fight the fish. Normally I would be the one who takes the trace or skippers the boat, so I don’t often get into the chair. Over the years I have gotten more satisfaction out of tracing fish and seeing other anglers catch their first billfish then actually catching it myself, but this fish was special. If it was a billfish, it would be the 100th one that I had been with and At knew that I would love to catch that milestone fish. As luck would have it, it turned out to be a bronze whaler shark of about 80kg. At least I could show Johan how to fight a fish in a fighting chair using a harness. I brought the shark to the boat and Johan assisted me to put the rod in the holder while I unclipped myself. I put on the gloves and traced the shark to the boat before cutting the trace near the mouth. We still had a spare bait in the tuna tube, so I rigged it and let it out on the starboard side and reset the dropbacks. At continued trolling and in 85m of water, the starboard rigger popped. I fed the fish and tightened up as we did the first fish. The line took tension but nothing to write home about. At and I assumed that it was a shark, so we put Johan in the chair. He fought the fish well and in about 5 minutes the small hammer head was next to the boat. I traced it and let it go. We had one bait left so I let it out to 20m and put it into the starboard rigger. We were heading toward a hole slightly north of Oscar when the rigger pulled sharply and then the line hung limp. At and I simultaneously said “Wahoo”. Wahoo are a problem when livebaiting for marlin. They munch a lot of our baits, with the hook right on the nose where they won’t get hooked, and there is nothing you can do about it.

We had no more bait and so rode toward Oscar to look for another. The first pass over the pinnacles produced a small yellowfin tuna of about 4kg. I put it into the tuna tube and we continued trolling. About 15 minutes later we caught another small bonito. I rigged it immediately and kept it on a short line until we were deep enough to put it out. There were two other boats fishing for marlin and one, “Bacchus” - skippered by Allen Beukes – was trolling alongside us. I noticed there was some action at the back of the boat and next thing a black marlin came rocketing out of the water about 70 meters behind them. What a sight! There were only two people on the boat so they had their hands full. Slowly “Bacchus” disappeared out of sight as they pulled the fish shallower and we headed deeper. In about 160m the bait started revving. I could not see what it was, but something was harassing it. Finally the rigger popped and I fed a bit. But nothing happened. I brought the bait back to find that a dorado has mauled the bait and killed it. I rigged the yellowfin and put it out on the rigger. We now had an open spot on the port side where we could put out a bait for a bycatch. At had a 50Lbs vertical jigging rod paired with a Diawa BG60 spinning reel. He has it loaded with 50Lbs braid and a 3m section of 50Lb fluorocarbon. I took this rig and tied a 6/0 mustad Kendal round (straight out the box – not sharpened) directly onto the fluorocarbon leader and off set it with the pliers. I then hooked a live slender scad through the nose and let the line out about 7m behind the boat. In about 120m I happened to look back and saw a large wahoo clear the water close to the boat. I thought it had taken the yellowfin, but when I looked it was fine. I then noticed that the scad had come off the hook. I thought nothing of it and brought in the bare hook. I noticed that there was a slight nick in the leader. Only then did I realize that the wahoo had taken the scad. I was busy hooking another scad when something caught my eye not 3m from the transom. There in the bubbles of the propwash was the wahoo! It was just cruising with us. I was now shaking and nothing could happen fast enough. I flicked the bait into the water on the wahoo’s nose and it chowed it straight away. I struck immediately as I knew there was no wire. The hook came flying past my ear as I missed the fish. I thought I had blown it! But then I saw the fish was still just sitting there. I flicked it another livie and Bang, it was eaten. I struck again, and again I missed it. By now At and Johan were chirping from behind, making me even more nervous that I already was. I hooked another bait and flicked it about 5m to the starboard side of the wake. The wahoo streaked for the bait and munched it down. I fed it for a few seconds then jammed it. Holy Sh!t. The fish took off for China under the rigger and stopped about 50 meters away. I thought that that was the end of it’s first run and that it would be a quick fight. Little did I know that the fish was actually thinking … “Should I take 200m to the left or to the right”. Without warning the wahoo came flying straight to the boat and under it and kept going for probably 150m. There was some fancy footwork to keep the braid from getting into the motors. All the time I was expecting the fish to bite the leader off. Eventually the fish calmed down and I could gain some line. There were a few good runs in between, but I managed to get the fish to about 20 meters under the boat. We were still trolling the yellowfin, so the wahoo was cruising with merrily at a speed that suited him to the ground, making my life hell! At then suggested that we bring in the yellowfin and put it into the tube so that we could go into neutral. Excellent idea! Once the boat was in the tube and we were in neutral, the fight began to make progress. Ten minutes later I had colour about 10m under the boat. I thought the fish was about 15kg when I first saw it eat the bait, but when At looked over the side and asked if he should use the bigger gaff, I knew it must be a lot bigger than that. After a few circles, the wahoo came out from under the boat and At gaffed it in the head. I was over the moon! The hook was sitting just in the lip of the top jaw where it could not be bitten off. Talk about lucky. At and I lifted the fish over the gunwale and we both said it was about 25kg. A beautiful fish! We battled to get the fish into the hatch and finally had to bend the fish quite a bit to get it to fit. What a bycatch!

Back to marlin fishing. We put the yellowfin out and continued trolling. At turned at 60m and headed deeper. In 75m the rigger popped and a big hammer head shark ate the bait. We hooked it but as we were getting Johan into the chair, it bit through the 550Lbs trace. We found ourselves without bait again so we headed for Oscar again. It was 13:30 and we all knew that the chance that we would get bait again was slim. At pulled the bait lures for 30 minutes when one of the rods took off. Johan brought in a yellowfin of about 3kg. What a bait! I put it in the tube and At took us to 70m. I rigged it and we continued trolling deeper.

The weather was beautiful so we decided to make it a long day. At about 14:30 At and Johan had a snooze and left me to man the controls. At about 3pm I was in 50m and going shallower, heading for home, when I decided to make one more deep turn. At and Johan would not even realize it since they were sleeping. In 65m the rigger was pulled flat and the rubber band popped. I shouted “there it is” and ran to the back to feed. At and Johan almost got carpet burns they jumped up so fast! While I was feeding, at saw the fish jumping out the back. This is an indication that the fish has felt the hook and is trying to get rid of the hook. I pushed toe drag to strike and started winding. The rod bent but then suddenly came back. The fish was off. I retrieved the line to see what had happened, but I could feel the weight of the bait. I told At to put the motor in neutral as I free spooled the bait back. After about a minute, with the bait probably 25m down, I felt the line taking tension. I fed some slack into the water then told At to increase the speed. I pushed the drag up and to all our surprise, the line came tight. The fish was taking line off the reel relatively slowly, and it stayed near the surface. At one stage I saw a splash at the back, but was not convinced it was a marlin. If it was, it was a small fish. I told Johan to get into the chair and fight the fish. He did a great job and had the leader on the tip in about 10mins. I took the trace and pulled the fish closer to see what it was. When I finally got a good look at it, I saw that it was in fact a marlin. The circle hook was in the corner of the mouth, but one of the gill rakers had been snagged as the hook pulled out of the stomach and the fish was bleeding profusely. We decided to load the marlin and readied the deck. Once I had the trace, Johan got out the chair and put on a pair of gloves. I brought the marlin closer and Johan grabbed the bill and put on the bill rope. After the fish thrashed around and we were sprayed with white water, Johan and I loaded the fish. I was stoked with this fish because it was Johan’s first and my 100th.

We beached at about 3:45pm and went to weigh the fish. The black marlin weighed in at 74,6kg. Then it was time for the wahoo to be weighed. It pulled the needle down to 27,1kg! My biggest Wahoo by far … and on a spinning reel with fluorocarbon trace … guess it had my name on it.

We found out that “Bacchus” had loaded their marlin and weighed 156kg. Well done to them on a great achievement. Its not easy with only two people onboard!

That night after the fish had been filleted and everyone was settled, we relived the day looking at the video clips and had a good laugh. I feel privileged to have been a part of it.