On Saturday 19th May,
At and I launched “ABF” off Vidal. The Cape Vidal Ski Boat Club was hosting
their annual junior competition so there were quite a few boats that had
launched. We were lucky to be able to use their tractor, so launching was a breeze.
The SW wind was blowing a bit,
and there was the odd raincloud that dampened the party, but other than that,
the sea was not bad. We sounded around a bit and managed to get a few nice
livies in the well. We still didn’t have much of a game plan so we put on a few
lures and trolled around. It didn’t take long to get a pull and soon we had a
yellowfin bled and on ice. Trolling commenced and in the next hour we had a few
more pulls and released 2 kawakawas and 2 more yellowfin.
We were still off the point so
decided to switch over to bait and see if there were a few other species
around. I had one line out and was busy with the second when I saw a big splash
behind us. The rod in the holder next to me keeled over the reel smoked off. At
took the strike and fought the strong fish. It gave him a run for his money and
finally had a 14kg yellowfin in the hatch. There were a few bait shoals on the
surface in 30 to 35m so we made a few turns through them. We missed a fish on
the midwater bait and a few minutes later had a pull on the surface bait which
stuck. I wound the line tight until the fish started taking line, then passed
the rod to At. The fish surfaced and jumped a few times. It was a bit strange
to get a dorado this late in the season. We loaded the fish and were excited at
the idea of having freshly caught dorado fillets for supper.
We slowly tacked south and
whenever we intercepted a bait shoal, we would get a pull. Unfortunately, none
were cuda, but it was fun to get pulls from a skippy and a few more yellowfins,
the majority of which were released. By 1pm, we decided to call it a day and went
in to beach with a tally of 1 dorado, 1 skipjack, 2 bonito and 6 yellowfin.
