On 5th November at 6:30am, Ray, Andrew and I launched “Selfish” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to find one of the elusive marlin that had been seen over the last few weeks. We stopped at the pipeline to look for bait but could only find one lost shad so I headed north to the ledge where we managed to find some mackerel and maasbankers. We then headed to the castle where we put out 3 bait rods and 2 big marlin lures. The water was a clean green and 23 degrees.
After trolling for about half an hour, we had a double strike on the bait lures. I cleared the other rods while Ray and Andrew fought the fish. Andrew had his fish next to the boat first. It was a 4kg yellowfin. Unfortunately it was hooked deep so we bled it for sushi. Ray brought his fish in and I grabbed it by the tail, lifting it into the boat.
I rigged the yellowfin on a 20/0 circle hook and 400Lbs trace before letting it out behind the boat. We headed deeper and the water colour and temp improved. There were a number of flying fish around and things looked good. In 200m, the water was blue and the temp over 24 degrees when Andrew shouted “There is something!”. I looked back to see the rigger clip pulling far back. There was a huge splash out the back of the boat as something tried to eat the yellowfin. Next thing there was just slack line, before the rigger could even open. I could not understand what was going on. There was another big splash out the back and from the foam, the yellowfin came torpedoing out the water, probably 3m in the air. As it landed, there was another ball of white water. This carried on for probably a minute with the yellowfin clearing the water about 10 times to get away from whatever was trying to eat it. The line would pull tight then go slack as the pursuit went on for what seemed like forever. We were not sure who to back in the chase, the petrified yellowfin fleeing for its life ... or the as yet unknown predator trying its damndest to catch something to eat. I was standing on the back hatch to try and get a glimpse of what it was when I saw an electric blue shape pass through the foam and spray, followed by a dorsal and tailfin of a big Make shark. We decided to let the mako catch the bait so that we could try catch it. Unfortunately, seconds later, in a final chase, the mako picked up the leader, biting us off before the line could take tension. A bitter sweet of note!
We looked for another bait for close on 2 hours without success so opted to fish for gamefish with the live mackerel. These were drifted in 150m on the colour change, hoping for a dorado. Unfortunately, this was not to be and the day ended without any more action.
After trolling for about half an hour, we had a double strike on the bait lures. I cleared the other rods while Ray and Andrew fought the fish. Andrew had his fish next to the boat first. It was a 4kg yellowfin. Unfortunately it was hooked deep so we bled it for sushi. Ray brought his fish in and I grabbed it by the tail, lifting it into the boat.
I rigged the yellowfin on a 20/0 circle hook and 400Lbs trace before letting it out behind the boat. We headed deeper and the water colour and temp improved. There were a number of flying fish around and things looked good. In 200m, the water was blue and the temp over 24 degrees when Andrew shouted “There is something!”. I looked back to see the rigger clip pulling far back. There was a huge splash out the back of the boat as something tried to eat the yellowfin. Next thing there was just slack line, before the rigger could even open. I could not understand what was going on. There was another big splash out the back and from the foam, the yellowfin came torpedoing out the water, probably 3m in the air. As it landed, there was another ball of white water. This carried on for probably a minute with the yellowfin clearing the water about 10 times to get away from whatever was trying to eat it. The line would pull tight then go slack as the pursuit went on for what seemed like forever. We were not sure who to back in the chase, the petrified yellowfin fleeing for its life ... or the as yet unknown predator trying its damndest to catch something to eat. I was standing on the back hatch to try and get a glimpse of what it was when I saw an electric blue shape pass through the foam and spray, followed by a dorsal and tailfin of a big Make shark. We decided to let the mako catch the bait so that we could try catch it. Unfortunately, seconds later, in a final chase, the mako picked up the leader, biting us off before the line could take tension. A bitter sweet of note!
We looked for another bait for close on 2 hours without success so opted to fish for gamefish with the live mackerel. These were drifted in 150m on the colour change, hoping for a dorado. Unfortunately, this was not to be and the day ended without any more action.
