The Ladies do the Tuna Tango

At 5:45 on Wednesday 7^th May, At and Kathy van Tilburg, Tammy and I launched ”Avanti” out of Richards Bay. We were on a social fishing day hoping to catch a few fish. Our first stop was on the pipe where we quickly caught a hatch full of live bait before heading north towards groenkop. I set out 5 lines and At worked the area for a bit.

Tammy with her first Snoek

It was dead so we upped lines and ran a bit further north. There were a few patches of bait and the odd shoal of bonnies around. At headed towards a few birds working the bait shoal while I put out the lines. I was busy with the 3^rd line when the surface redeye was eaten Kathy took the rod and fought the fish. I picked up the other surface rod and slowly worked the bait closer. I felt a few bumps on the line then the rod loaded up and I was on! A double … nice! I passed the rod to Tammy and cleared the deck. It did not take long before Tammy had her first snoek next to the boat where At gaffed it. Next was Kathy’s turn with a similar size fish. By then, all the other boats were on top of us so we moved out of the area. By 9am we had not had another pull so we upped lines and headed to the ledge.

Tammy with her first YFT

When we arrived, I rigged up 5 lines and trolled south into the reverse current. There were very few showings on the echo, so I continued south hoping to find signs of life. After an hour and a half, we had not had a pull and I was giving up hope. Kathy then said that she thought she heard a reel tick over a few times. I looked back and scanned the rods but there was nothing. As I turned back to the steering, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the close surface rod bend a bit. I walked toward it to check the bait, but then the rod keeled over and the TLD15 screamed off. I took the rod out the holder and passed the rod to Tammy. Next thing, another reel smoked off. I turned around to see the other surface rod bending. Kathy took the rod as the fish went on its first run. At took over on the controls while I cleared the downrigger and other 3 lines. Both fish were giving the ladies a hard time but slowly the fish came closer. Tammy had her fish at the boat first. Both lines were very close together at that point, so after some tense moments, I managed to get the gaff into a nice yellowfin, Tammy’s first.

Kathy with half a tuna

Now the focus shifted to Kathy’s fish which had taken a second long fast run. She worked the fish back and had it 15m from the boat where I was ready to gaff it. Suddenly it made another fast run followed by a few big nods on the rod. From then there was just a heavy weight that came to the surface. It had been eaten off just behind the sickle fins by a shark. I gaffed the head section and let it bleed out before bringing it on board. It too was a nice fish, but was just not to be. After a few photos, we packed up and headed home. The snoek were around 4kg. The whole yellowfin weighed 14,4kg and the mutilated fish weighed 13,8kg.