With the Junior Nationals being hosted at Shelly Beach this year, Michael Duvenage and I offered to take the Zululand U/16 team fishing to show them the style of fishing used on the Protea Banks. On the 16th of May we launched Hannes Duvenage’s boat “Lihann”. Dale, Christo and Stephan were very keen to learn how to catch tuna “Shelly Beach Style”.
Michael first took us to the bait spot between the ships where we tried for some livies. The water was a dirty green and the bait was nowhere to be found. We did manage to get 4 tiny bonito on the jigs – perfect cuda bait! But we were focussing on tuna for the day so cuda were not on the menu for the day. After spending about half an hour looking for bait, we headed to small high point.
When we arrived, I suggested we pull some halcos and a surface lure just to find the shoal and then we would drift and chunk for them. We put out 4 halco’s and a small daisy chain and as Michael crossed over the pinnacle, all 5 rods went away - Chaos! One of the fish pulled hook and so Michael picked up the rod to retrieve the line. He gave a few turns on the reel when the rod was almost pulled out of his hands. A wahoo had taken the halco and smoked off with it. In the process, another line was burnt off and then the wahoo bit through the fluorocarbon that was tied directly to the lure. In the mean time, Christo and Stephan had their fish near the boat. Dale took the remaining rod which had the surface lure on it and pulled on that fish. We managed to boat two yellowfins of about 4kg. Dale’s fish then took off and continued running. We put the drag to strike but it made no difference – it had obviously been converted to a shark. About 10mins later, the nylon trace was bitten off. With 2 lures left intact, we pulled over the same spot again and went on with another yellowfin which pulled hook at the boat.
With the shoal located, we converted to bait. I cut up a few sardines and rigged the tail section on the 6/0 hook tied to 60Lbs fluorocarbon. I then mixed anchovy oil, glitter, sand and the remaining sardine pieces in a bucket and began to throw small amounts of the chum overboard. The hooked chunk then joined the free drifting pieces as line was fed out to let the hooked bait drift with the chum slick. Michael said that we were almost on the spot and a few seconds later, the line was ripped out of my hands as something took the chunk. I picked up the rod and counted to 5 then put the drag to strike. The rod buckled and the fish took off. I handed the rod to Christo how fought a 3kg bonito to the boat. Now that they knew what to do, We rode up for a second drift. The chum line was started and 3 chunks went overboard. Stephan was the next person to get a fish to eat the bait and after hooking up, he managed a 6kg bonito. On the next drift, I threaded a sosati stick into a whole sardine and pinned it with a single 8/0 hook between the head and dorsal. This was flicked out to drift on the surface while the chunk baits were fed down the chum line. As we drifted over the spot, the whole sardine was taken and the fish was promptly hooked. Christo also went tight on a chunk bait. The two fish had the guys dancing around the boat trying to keep the lines separated. Christo landed a 5kg bonito and unfortunately Dale dropped his fish next to the boat.
After 6 or 7 drifts, the team had caught about 14 bonito using chunks and whole sardines. We needed to have Stephan back early to catch a bus to Vryheid so we decided to up lines and pull lures over the pinnacle for 15 mins then head for home. On the second turn, 2 rods went off and two more bonito were boated after which we upped lines and headed for home.
From what I saw on the boat, the Zululand U/16 team will be able to hold their own in the competition and I’m sure they will manage to get a few good size fish. Let’s hope the sharks leave them alone!
My thanks go to Hannes and Michael Duvenage for offering their boat to take the juniors out. It is much appreciated.
