On Saturday the 2nd Divan and I went to visit At van Tilburg at his camp at Vidal. We needed a place to crash for the evening because our previous night’s accommodation was being used by friends who had packed up camp and were leaving early the next morning. At said that we were more than welcome to stay and that we should fish with him the next day. We were grateful for the hospitality and moved all our gear to At’s camp. That night after supper, a few of us stayed up playing the drinking game “Moose”. It took a toll on all of us and at about 3am we managed to get to sleep.
The next morning at 4:30am At woke us. To say I felt terrible was putting it mildly! Desiree du Toit, Schalk Exley, Divan, At and I hitched the boat and headed for the beach. We had an easy launch and ambled through the surf. We were marlin fishing today so we headed to Oscar to look for bait. There were already 4 boats there when we arrived, all trolling lures for bait. We managed a quick skipjack as we arrived and put it in the tube and continued trolling. After 15 minutes the bait died and we were back at square one. The skipjack were boiling everywhere at that stage, but none of the usual tricks were working. I had one bump on a small spoon that I cast into the shoal but unfortunately it pulled hook after a short run. About an hour later, At’s nephew who was fishing on another boat called us to give us a +-4kg bonito that they had caught but didn’t want to use for bait. We accepted with open arms and put it into the tube. At immediately headed north for deeper water. We were traveling at a good trolling pace so I put out 3 halco’s and a bucktail jig – just for incase. Not ten minutes later one of the halcos was eaten. Schalk brought the fish to the boat where we saw that it was not a bait but a wahoo of about 8kg … something for the pot. In 70m At slowed down and I rigged the bonito on a 20/0 circle hook and put it out about 20 meters behind the boat. After I had put the line in the rigger and set the dropback, we all settled down to wait.
There was a beautiful current line at about 160 meters with a few birds and a pod of dolphins feeding on some baitfish. This looked like the depth to work. When we reached 200m At turned shallower. At 158m the bait started revving wildly. The rigger popped and I fed the fish. The line didn’t pick up while I was feeding the fish so I held onto the line to feel what was happening. All I could feel was the weight of the bait. I pulled the line in for a bit then decided to feed it out again. While I was doing this, the line picked up and started pulling off the reel. I fed the fish for a while then At increased the speed and I increased the drag. The rod bent and the reel ran as the line took tension … Hookup! Des was nominated to take the first strike – because she looked the least hung-over out of the rest of us - so she jumped into the chair and put on the harness. Schalk and I transferred the rod and clipped Des in. The fish had taken a lot of line but had not jumped, but the way that it had taken the bait had us convinced that it was a marlin. After coaching Des on how to use the harness and chair properly, she pulled the fish to the boat fairly quickly. I took the trace and brought the fish closer. The sun was at a bad angle so we battled to get a look at the fish. Finally we got a look at it and saw that it was a nice marlin. The fish was still very green and I didn’t want to hurt myself or the fish by having it thrash next to the boat so I let go of the leader and slacked the drag for Des. At increased the speed and we put some line in the water. The fish now decided that it wanted to fight and took to the air. We got some good photos of the fish in the air while it was performing. It was only then that we could see that it was a blue marlin. The hook was solid in the jaw so we knew the hook would not pull if we had slack line.
The next morning at 4:30am At woke us. To say I felt terrible was putting it mildly! Desiree du Toit, Schalk Exley, Divan, At and I hitched the boat and headed for the beach. We had an easy launch and ambled through the surf. We were marlin fishing today so we headed to Oscar to look for bait. There were already 4 boats there when we arrived, all trolling lures for bait. We managed a quick skipjack as we arrived and put it in the tube and continued trolling. After 15 minutes the bait died and we were back at square one. The skipjack were boiling everywhere at that stage, but none of the usual tricks were working. I had one bump on a small spoon that I cast into the shoal but unfortunately it pulled hook after a short run. About an hour later, At’s nephew who was fishing on another boat called us to give us a +-4kg bonito that they had caught but didn’t want to use for bait. We accepted with open arms and put it into the tube. At immediately headed north for deeper water. We were traveling at a good trolling pace so I put out 3 halco’s and a bucktail jig – just for incase. Not ten minutes later one of the halcos was eaten. Schalk brought the fish to the boat where we saw that it was not a bait but a wahoo of about 8kg … something for the pot. In 70m At slowed down and I rigged the bonito on a 20/0 circle hook and put it out about 20 meters behind the boat. After I had put the line in the rigger and set the dropback, we all settled down to wait.
There was a beautiful current line at about 160 meters with a few birds and a pod of dolphins feeding on some baitfish. This looked like the depth to work. When we reached 200m At turned shallower. At 158m the bait started revving wildly. The rigger popped and I fed the fish. The line didn’t pick up while I was feeding the fish so I held onto the line to feel what was happening. All I could feel was the weight of the bait. I pulled the line in for a bit then decided to feed it out again. While I was doing this, the line picked up and started pulling off the reel. I fed the fish for a while then At increased the speed and I increased the drag. The rod bent and the reel ran as the line took tension … Hookup! Des was nominated to take the first strike – because she looked the least hung-over out of the rest of us - so she jumped into the chair and put on the harness. Schalk and I transferred the rod and clipped Des in. The fish had taken a lot of line but had not jumped, but the way that it had taken the bait had us convinced that it was a marlin. After coaching Des on how to use the harness and chair properly, she pulled the fish to the boat fairly quickly. I took the trace and brought the fish closer. The sun was at a bad angle so we battled to get a look at the fish. Finally we got a look at it and saw that it was a nice marlin. The fish was still very green and I didn’t want to hurt myself or the fish by having it thrash next to the boat so I let go of the leader and slacked the drag for Des. At increased the speed and we put some line in the water. The fish now decided that it wanted to fight and took to the air. We got some good photos of the fish in the air while it was performing. It was only then that we could see that it was a blue marlin. The hook was solid in the jaw so we knew the hook would not pull if we had slack line.
Schalk decided that he wanted some underwater shots of the fish on the trace so we tied a rope to the boat and once I had a good grip of the trace and the fish was under control we sent Schalk overboard. After the photo’s were taken and Schalk was safely in the boat, we brought the fish closer. Schalk asked to load the fish as he needed the meat so At gave him the billrope and I pulled the fish within reach. Schalk grabbed the bill and put the rope on. The fish was tired by now and didn’t give us much hassle. Divan, Schalk and I pulled the fish over the gunwale and the hugs and handshakes … and a kiss or two … were handed out.
Now we were out of bait and Oscar was buzzing with boats. We decided that there was no chance of getting bait there so we decided to go and vertical jigg on the 100m mark of vegetation. Schalk and Des are machines when it comes to jigging. Their tackle is perfect and they both have the stamina to work 500gram jigs in 100 meters for hours on end. On the first drift Schalk caught a Sarda orientalis (striped bonito). We put it into the tube and continued jigging. The current was just too strong and after an hour of battling we decided to swim the sarda. I rigged it on a 20/0 circle hook and set it behind the boat. At trolled deeper and a about 130m the bait started revving. Just as the rubber band was about to pop, we saw a big hammerhead grab the bait. I pulled the bait away but it was too late and only got the head back. Again we were left with no bait. The sea was getting a bit rough and by now most of the boats were back on the beach. We made our way to Oscar to find it all to ourselves. We pulled for about 10 minutes when two rods went off. We managed two nice bonito which were immediately rigged. There baits were exceptionally strong and at about 3pm, after pulling them for a few hours without a rev, we cut them loose and hit the beach.
We took Des’ marlin to the gantry where it weighed in at 127kg. Not bad for your first blue marlin.
We took Des’ marlin to the gantry where it weighed in at 127kg. Not bad for your first blue marlin.
No comments:
Post a Comment