On Friday 22nd November at 5am, Robin Vermaak, Hein Kohrs and I launched Robin’s “Piromero” off Sodwana. We were representing the Zululand team in the Heavy Tackle Billfish Nationals. We had only fished for 1 day and 4 hours in the week, so we were hoping that there would be some good weather to give us a shot at a billfish.
We headed straight off the point and put lines out at 400m. The water was not great, but the fish had been in this area the past few days. As we headed deeper, near 1000m, the water temperature increased from 24 degrees to 25 and the colour went to deep blue. There were a few flying fish and the odd bird in the area, so we worked the area through the tide change but had no luck. On the radio there were several boats that had billfish strikes so we headed shallower towards “Diepgat”. I worked the canyon walls for about an hour, but the water conditions were not favourable. I headed north along the 450 to 550m contour. The water temp increased again over a short distance and we started to notice flotsam on a current line. I worked the area for a bit and found a patch of cleaner water with a few flying fish. At 11:10, the right short rigger popped and the reel took off. Almost immediately, the water erupted as an angry marlin tore up the surface. It took alot of line on the surface before settling down. It was Hein’s turn in the chair, so he settled into the harness as Robin and I cleared the deck. Robin took over the controls while I got the glove and camera ready. Hein brought the fish in relatively quickly and soon I had the leader in hand. The fish was still very green and made several jumps on the leader. At one stage I thought it was going to end up in the boat! Eventually it was under control and the required photos were taken before removing the hooks and turning it loose. Finally, points on the board.
The lines went in again while I turned back to the area that produced the fish. We had just settled when the left short rigger popped. The reel ran a bit, but slowed down very quickly. The line came to the surface and a dorado popped its head out. Hein gaffed it moments later and put it into the hatch. Again we set lines and worked the area, but unfortunately there was no more action and finished out the tournament with 1 black marlin release.
