A quick weekend at Vidal

On Saturday 6^th December, we launched AVANTI at Cape Vidal. On the boat was At van Tilburg, Tammy, my Dad and Uncle Glen. The SE was blowing so we opted to fish for some Gamefish off the point. Tammy and Glen had never surf launched before so they were pretty excited to experience it.

Once on the backline, At sounded around for bait showings. After scratching around for a while, he found a proper showing and we filled the livewell with mackerel and maasbanker. I rigged up a few baits and At trolled out to 35m then tacked back. There was a good current line at 30m so we focussed our efforts around it. With the strong N-S current and southerly wind, we drifted along the line and slowly moved south. Things were relatively quiet apart from 2 small sharks that ate the deep bait.

Off the beacon, the far surface bait went away. As I tightened up, a dorado cleared the surface.  Passed the rod to Glen and turned to clear some other rods when all 3 other rods went away as well! We had a full house on dorado… Unfortunately one of the fish kinked off a wire but the other 3 were still connected. My dad had his fish at the boat relatively quickly and there were 2 followers. I pitched a live bait to the fish but they wanted nothing to do with it. When the dust had settled, Tammy, Glen and my Dad each had a dorado in the hatch. Finally, some fresh fish to eat!

We continued drifting past the lighthouse but didn’t have another pull. I suggested we change tactics and fast troll some baits back to the point along the line so that we could cover more area. I rigged up 4 dead baits and At tacked up the current line moving north. It did not take long to get a pull and after feeding the fish, the circle hook was set in the corner of a nice yellowfin’s mouth. My Dad fought the fish to the boat while we cleared a few lines. The baits were just hanging in the water when a dorado came flying in to grab one. Unfortunately it too turned off at the last second.  The tuna was then gaffed, bled  and put on ice. I did a quick bait check and noticed that one of the baits had been chopped behind the head by something with teeth. I rigged up a few more baits and put out a 4 rod spread. Shortly after, the close bait went away with a dorado that missed the hook. It turned to the next bait and hooked up. Glen took the strike and brought in our biggest dorado of the day… Nicely done. By now we were near the point so we upped lines and beached.

On Sunday 7^th December, Tammy, At and I launched “Avanti” at 5:30am. There was no surf to speak of and we were soon on the backline. The plan was to fish for marlin but with a straight Easterly wind blowing, we knew we would battle to get bait so we caught about ten maasbanker before heading to Oscar. The current was ripping at over 4 knots and the upwelling was unreal. I put out 5 small lures while At trolled around the pinnacles. After an hour, we had not had a pull so I rigged up a dead maasbanker and swapped it out for one of the close lures. We passed over a mid-water showing and as luck would have it, the maasbanker was eaten. Tammy took the strike while I cleared the other lines. A short while later, we had a 6kg yellowfin in the livebait tube. We had drifted nearly a kilometre while fighting the bait so we trolled lures north and deeper before I rigged up the bait on a 20/0 circle hook. Trolling into the current, we were moving backwards at 5km per hour. We were about off the point when the bait revved heavily. I grabbed the line out the rigger and felt slack line. I quickly pulled in the line and when it came tight, the yellowfin came flying out the water with a big swirl behind it. Being overcast, we could not see what was chasing it and so when I felt the bait get eaten, I fed whatever it was. When it came time to tighten up, there was nothing… I wound in the line and found that the 500Lbs leader had been bitten through… obviously a big old hammerhead.

We did not want to have a late day, so I put out the bait lures again and At trolled towards the beach. As we passed over the current line in 40m of water, the dead maasbanker went away again. Tammy took the strike and brought in another 6kg yellowfin which we bled and put on ice. With a fish in the hatch, we upped lines and hit the beach.