On Saturday 30th June,
At and I launched “ABF” off Cape Vidal. The beach was hectic after the spring
high tide as a 1-meter berm had formed along the whole beach in the bay. All
the sand that had washed into the see made the bay very shallow, so we had to
box smart to keep the boat floating. Eventually we made it into deep water and
through the surf. The idea was to pull some lure around until about 9am then look
for some livies and maybe a cuda.
I had 3 lures out and At trolled
around the lighthouse area but we only managed a small yellowfin tuna. There
were a lot of small bonnies around, so we caught one and rigged it. It took a
surprisingly long time for it to be eaten, and when it was, it ended up being a
shark. With no fireworks, we headed back to the point and looked for some
livies. There were rugby field size shoals of bait on the surface, but they
were almost impossible to catch. After almost an hour, we had a few livies in
the well so headed up north, pulling lures as we went. Other than a small
yellowfin, we didn’t have much luck so we stopped at vegetation and rigged up 3
baits. After an hour, we had a pull on the mid water bait. The fish swam to the
boat and gave about four massive head shakes before coming to the surface. It
was a sailfish, but unfortunately it was bill wrapped and the hooks slid off
the bill quite quickly. We tacked south and worked the bait shoals. I saw the big
spearo rubberduck heading our way and the skipper drove straight over my far
line, then almost road into us trying to fix his cockup. We were getting pretty
frustrated so wound in the lines and put some distance between us and them.
I put out 3 lines on Oscar and while I was
making the last few adjustments, the surface bait went off. At took the rod but
as he started fighting it, the line parted. It must have been a nick where the
boat road over it. While this was going on, the deep bait was eaten but the
hooks pulled quite quickly. We regrouped and put out fresh lines and baits. I
lined up a small pinnacle and as we approached, the showing came through. We missed
a fish on the whip spoon, then the deep line went away on a relatively fast
run. At took the strike and I followed it. Just then the surface rod went away
with what I could feel was a tuna, so I slacked the drag and left the rod in
the holder while At fought his fish. Eventually the fish came up where I gaffed
a really nice 12kg cuda followed by an 8kg yellowfin. It was getting late and I
didn’t want to battle on the beach so we headed home.
