On Friday 25th October, Okkie Theunissen
and I launched “Hannock” off St Lucia. We were going to check out the
conditions before the 12x12 species comp. Our first stop was to get livies
which didn’t take too long. We then headed north in the backline checking out
some likely spots as we went. We found a good rip and pulled a few livies around
without a strike. I started casting lures and had a few strikes but didn’t
manage to convert. At 8:30, we headed to the ledge to look for a tuna. Within a
few minutes, we went on with 3 tuna, two of which were released. As we trolled
down the ledge, we had a number of strikes and caught several tuna. By 10am, we
were ready to beach and spend some time working on some tackle for the next 2
days.
That night, a cold front came through, bringing
with it rain, lightening and wind. This caused a big change in the water and we
knew things were going to be a bit tough.
The next morning, Okkie, Frank, Zander and I launched
at 5:15 and quickly caught some livebait. Again, we headed up north and fished
the backline area. We managed to quickly release 2 kingfish and missed a snoek.
At 9am we headed out to the ledge and managed to get 2 skipjack tuna. Things
were looking good as we tried for our 3rd species.
This took longer
than usual but eventually we managed to get a yellowfin tuna. There were a few
reports of sailfish in the shallows so we headed in that direction, puling all
the standard sailfish paraphernalia. Unfortunately, we could not raise one and
made a switch to live bait, hoping to get a dorado, cuda or sailfish. The lines
had just gone out when the far livie went away. The fish was at the boat fairly
quickly and I managed to gaff a small wahoo. Things went quiet after that and
we ended with just the 4 species. At the weighin we found out that the skippies
were just under the minimum weight so we had to settle for a 6th
position.
Day 2 was another early morning and we were on
the backline by 5:30. There had been a number of snoek the precious day so that
was our first target species. It was almost too easy as within 15 minutes, we
had a nice snoek in the hatch. After another few turns, we managed to get a
small kingfish on a lure, but it was below the minimum weight. The next stop
was to get some bait and within 10 minutes, the livewell was full of beautiful
mackerel. The ledge was our next stop and soon after putting out lines, we
caught 2 bonnies. These were also too small so we continued the search. The
wind had now dropped and the sea was very flat. All the boats were battling for
fish, including us. Apart from 2 sharks, we never had another pull and ended up
with just one species for the day.
Unfortunately, this year’s comp was not ours to
do very well in. We did manage to get the biggest wahoo of the comp, so it was
not a total washout. Thanks to Okkie and the team for a great weekend.
