Vidal Holiday

Recently I spent  few days fishing off Cape Vidal with good friend At van Tilburg on his boat “AVANTI”. The game fishing was really good and we had a few great days on the water.

A nice Sailie ready for release

On the first day, Saturday 5^th December, we launched early and caught live bait. Shortly after rigging the bait, we started getting a few pulls from dorado. The action was thick and fast and by 8am we had 8 fish on the boat. It was ridiculous fishing so we decided to try something different. I rigged up 4 small surface lures and headed north along a current line. It was not long when there was a bump on the one rod. I kept watching it and saw another bump. I took the rod and held the tip backwards. When I felt some weight, I flicked the rod forward allowing the lure to sink back then tightened up. Tight! The fish ran quite a bit before settling. A short while later, there were a few big head nods and the fish took off for the surface. A nice size sailfish cleared the water giving a great show. Shortly after, At’s boat-boy John, billed the fish before releasing it. Nice!

John fighting his first Sailfish

The lines were reset and about 15 minutes later, the spinning rod with the close lure went away. John took the rod and was treated to another sailfish dancing across the surface. This fish took a lot of line but after following it, John got it all back in a short fight. I leadered the fish and took a quick photo before releasing his first sailfish. Nice!

At one stage later that morning, we had a shoal of dorado around the boat. I had a 1kg outfit on board and fired out a live mackerel at them. Almost instantly it was swallowed by a hungry fish. When I tightened up, it went ballistic jumping all over the place. With the other lines cleared, At chased after it as I tried to stay connected. The fish settled and went deep. It took for ever to finally turn it's head and come to the surface, but would not come closer than 15m from the surface. The fish was clearly visible under the boat. It managed to get it's head down again and sounded. An hour and twenty minutes into the fight, there was a strange head shake and the pressure released. I retrieved the line to only to find that the hook had pulled! What a pity!

In the next hour, we caught a few more dorado and beached at 11am with 12 dorado and 2 sailfish. What a great day.

On Sunday 6^th, At and I launched and headed north. We were keen to fish for marlin. We battled to find live bait and were plagued by dorado. We caught 6 dorado and intentionally lost 4 before we finally caught a 3kg bonito. Unfortunately it was gill hooked and died, but a short while later we managed a 6kg yellowfin which was rigged. It was a few hours before the next prime so I rigged up a swimbait on a 30Lb rod and put it on the port rigger. It actually swam pretty well.

Finally the prim started and an hour in, the yellowfin began revving and went deep. While we were watching the rigger, the 30Lbs rod took off as something ate the swim bait! After some chaos, we were hooked up and settled. The fish had a lot of line out but after following it a bit, I had it quite close. I looked into the water and noticed a brown shape just beneath the boat. It was a big 200kg plus Zambezi shark that had come up to have a look what was going on. About 25minutes later, my fish came to the surface and showed itself to be another shark of about 130kg. At cut the leader off short and we headed home.

On Tuesday 8^th, we had a full crew on board. At, Wim, Brent, Jurie and I launched early and caught a few livies. The water was a bit green after the lightning storm the previous night and things were a bit slow. It took a while to get the first pull but eventually managed to get a small dorado on the boat. Just past the lighthouse, we trolled through an oily patch of water. Moments later, the medium bait went away. The fish was under control, so I left most of the other lines in. I did clear the deep line so that it didn’t tangle. I held this bait in the water and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a dorado coming in. I flicked the bait at it and went on. I passed the rod to Brent and watched the show. While this was going on, the far surface bait went away. Jurie took the rod and joined the fray. Wim brought in a nice 10kg cuda and Brent got his dorado. A while later, Jurie also landed a similar size cuda. 

25,8kg cuda

There was only one bait still rigged so Wim put it out about 10m behind the boat, just while we sorted out the deck. When things were settled, I reached over to let some more line out. I was not paying much attention at the time. I felt that there was not much line on the reel and that the spool was slowly turning. I assumed the drag had been left very loose and that the bait had slowly pulled off line while we were busy. I nonchalantly put the drag up a bit… holy Shit! The reel absolutely smoked off. I looked at the rod which was now keeled over, but it was bending to the nose of the boat, past the skipper! There was a fish on… and it had been for a while already! I took the rod while At chased after the fish. As we were getting close, a dolphin came flying past the boat after the fish… just our luck… I freespooled the reel and hoped that the fish would get away. After a smoking run of 100m, I went to max drag and At chased after it again. This went on a few times when finally the fish was close. At one point we remarked that the fish was probably too big for the small dolphin to eat, that’s why it had not been chowed yet. The fish finally neared the boat and came within gaffing range. At gaffed the cuda and battled to haul it on board. It was a beautiful fish and one of the biggest I had ever caught at Vidal. Things went quiet after that with only a few big sharks and dolphin eating the bait, so we headed home. The cuda weighed 25,8kg.

Filleting dorado... waste not, want not!

On Wednesday 9^th, we were on the water by 5am. The SW chop made it difficult to see the shoals on the surface, but after searching for a while we managed to find some. While Jurie was lifting a bait into the boat, a dorado came flying in and snatched the mackerel off the sabiki jig. At threw a rigged livie at it and went on immediately. Henk took the rod and quickly had our first fish of the day. With enough livies, At traveled south towards the lighthouse. I put out 3 small high speed lures and it was not long before we were on with another dorado which Henk also caught. Nearing the lighthouse, the far lure was eaten by a nice dorado that Jurie caught. While the fish was on, there were 2 followers and At flicked a livie at them and went tight. Both fish made it into the hatch. There were a few big baitballs in the area so we trolled around them. It was not long when 3 rods went away. Jurie and Henk each caught a dorado and I got a nice yellowfin tuna which was bled for sushi. The wind dropped and the bite slowed down. Jurie took the spinning rod and threw a stick bait just to pass the time. Just as he was losing interest, out of nowhere, a dorado smashed the surface lure and Jurie went on! Classic! After a short fight, it was in the boat. At the same time, one of the other rods went away with another dorado. It was crazy fishing! At made a shallower turn and two rods went away with dorado. One pulled hook and the other made it to the boat. It was getting ridiculous, so we decided to take out the bait and troll lures to the point and then beach. About half way to the point, we got another dorado before calling it a day at 11am.

On Friday 11^th, At, Tammy and I launched at 5:30 and were treated to a flat calm sea with no surf at all. We quickly caught bait which was thick everywhere. As per the previous trip, we trolled lures south and soon went tight with a fish. It turned out to be a yellowfin. Nice for a change. Just south of the Lighthouse, we got another yellowfin, but the dorado were a bit scarce. There were a few shoals of tuna smashing on the surface and I managed to get a skipjack on a spinning rod and a small spoon. Things went quiet and after a few hours without a pull, I cleaned the lines and rerigged fresh baits. A short while later, we had a pull on the deep bait. It was a dorado that came flying out the water vertically for about 3m then threw the hooks. I worked the area without success and headed south. On one of the current lines, we had another dorado pull, but it also missed the hooks.

The wind turned direct East and everything went dead, even the bait disappeared off the surface. It was a sign to pack up and head home. This was out last day’s fishing at Vidal and we left on the Saturday morning with a coolbox full of fish for the festive season.