At 6:45am on Saturday 23rd
February, Dean Ellens and I launched “ABF” off Cape Vidal. We were there for a
friend’s bachelors party and needed to stay away from land to recuperate from
the previous night’s arrival aggression! This was also the first time the boat
had surf launched so it was exciting.
There were close on 30 boats that
launched and the beach was a bit chaotic. After waiting for a gap, we launched
the boat and ducked through the surf without a problem. The first action item
for the day was to catch some live bait. There were already about 12 boats
looking for bait but everyone was scratching. After over an hour, we managed to
catch enough bait for the day and headed up north to “Greens”. The water was a
bit green in the shallows but from 27m there was a nice current line with a lot
of activity. We rigged up 5 live baits and slow trolled between 25m and 35m.
The current was quite strong and pushed us back at a fare pace. All the time
there were small yellowfin tuna and bonito splashing along the line. After
about 45minutes, the surface livie started revving and the rod slowly bent. I
picked up the rod, pointed it to the water and as the line came tight, I
tightened up. Almost immediately a sailfish launched itself out the water and
tailwalked toward us. I handed the rod to Dean and then opened the throttle to
get the line tight. The sail changed direction and headed off for the blue
yonder. Dean kept the fish under control and I cleared the other 4 lines before
turning the boat to chase the fish. It stayed on surface so it was easy to pull
in alongside it. The fish made a few manoeuvres under and around the boat with
a few jumps thrown in before I took the leader and billed the fish. After the
hooks were removed, and a few quick photos were taken, the fish was revived and
released! Great stuff.
We had drifted quite a way so I
ran back up to where we started and reset the lines. Things were quiet for
quite a while but then the surface rod buckled and the reel ran for a bit. The line
went straight down and we both Dean and I said it was a tuna. I left the other
lines in and jockeyed the boat to allow Dean to gain line but also keep the other
lines under control. After a bit of a struggle, the small yellowfin tuna came
to the surface tail first, almost dead. I bled it and put it in the hatch.
By now it was 11am and it was
pretty obvious that there were no cuda in the shallows so I headed deeper to
the 50m ledge. In 45m, the deep bait went away. Again Dean fought a fish that
stayed down and took little line. After a quick fight, he had another 5kg yellowfin
on the boat.
By the time I had the lines reset,
we were on the ledge. I tacked over it into the current and found a few good
showings off the bottom. I pulled the motor into neutral for a few seconds to
let the bait sink and as I put the motor into gear, the medium depth rod keeled
over and absolutely smoked off! I took the strike and Dean cleared the other
lines. I turned the boat towards the fish to slow the run but it still stripped
close on 150m. As Dean cleared the lines, we notice that the surface bait had
been mouthed by a fish and the deep bait had been chopped. There were obviously
a few fish around. I fought the fish for a while before we saw it down below.
It was a really nice cuda. After a few turns, Dean gaffed it and brought it
onboard, it was a good 16kg fish... not bad for Vidal.
We rerigged for one last drift.
As I trolled over the showing, the deep bait went on with a fish that fought
very slowly but shook its head quite a bit. About half way up, the rod bumped
and the line went slack. On closer inspection, we found the 60lbs leader had
parted. That ended our day and we headed back to the beach for a well deserved
drink.
