Vidal Slam

On 9^th December 2004, Hendry Steinberg, Haaie and I launched “Selfish” off Cape Vidal. There was a 15knot SW wind blowing which picked up the sea. Marlin fishing was out, so we opted to look for gamefish. The water was blue and there was a warm north to south current running. Perfect for gamefish.

After launching, we stopped straight off the launch site in 18m and went down with sabiki rigs to catch livies. There were a lot of mackerel and maasbankers ad we quickly caught enough bait for the day. I rigged up 4 rods, 2 on surface, 1 mid way and 1 deep. Slowly I trolled deeper and then tacked shallower, heading south into the wind. A few boats had found some Dorado off the light house so I made my way there. Haaie had not fished for gamefish before so he was keen to see some action.

In about 22m off the beacon, the mid water bait was eaten and the reel absolutely smoked off! Haaie took the rod and Hendry cleared the lines. I turned to follow the fish and Haaie gained line. After a strong fight, the fish was next to the boat where Hendry gaffed it. It was a beautiful cuda of 22kg! A trophy fish for Vidal. We were over the moon and Haaie even more so.

I rerigged the baits and continued trolling. In about 35m over the slides, I turned to tack shallower. On the turn, one of the surface baits was eaten. The reel screamed and a nice Dorado cleared the water behind the boat. Haaie took the rod and had a great fight with the fish putting up a great show before going deep. Probably half an hour later, I gaffed a 14kg Dorado. Another great fish. Haaie was on a roll.

I worked the area for a bit longer but had no luck so I suggested we up lines and ride back to the point. We trolled lures back but again had no luck. We arrived at the point and set the lines. After about an hour, I checked the surface baits. As I was letting out the second line, I felt something take the bait. I fed the fish for a bit then asked Hendry to gun the motor while I tightened up. The rod doubled over and the fish shook its head violently. Seconds later, the water erupted with a good size sailfish trying to rid itself of the hook. I passed Haaie the rod and cleared the other lines before taking over the controls. The sailfish jumped about 30 times, then settled into a slow, strong fight. It came to the boat several times but would then take off again. I managed to stay close to it and after an hour long tussle, Hendry managed to get a gaff into it and bring it aboard. Great! This was not only Haaie’s first sailfish, but it was a part of his “Vidal slam” ... a cuda, Dorado and a sailfish in one day. What a bumper day! We trolled all the way to the lighthouse without another pull before packing up and heading home. The sailfish pulled the scale to 40kg on the nose. Another great fish.