12:1 Sailfish

We were on the Vidal beach at 6am on Sunday the 8^th November 2020. After a bit of celebrations, the night before, we were a bit sluggish to say the least. Luckily the launch was as easy as the day before and we were through the surf in no time.

The live bait catching session was a carbon copy of the day before and we struggled to get 15 baits. Eventually we had enough to start fishing and it didn’t take long to get a few pulls. Unfortunately, we could not do anything right and pulled hooks on 4 cuda in a row. This was getting a bit out of hand and after a bumper day the previous day, we were having a tough time.

36.75kg Sailfish on 3kg line

I had put my 3kg outfit a short distance behind the flasher, rigged with a maasbanker on a circle hook, hoping for a sailfish. Unfortunately, the previous day only resulted in dorries and this day, I only had a cuda chop. At around 9:30, on the inward tack, Terence noticed the maasie revving on rod tip. He sounded the alarm and I rushed to the rod just in case. Just then, the reel started running so I freespooled a bit then tightened up. There was some heavy weight and a few head nods. I had a pretty good idea of what it was and sure enough, the line angled towards the surface and a good size sailie went mental on the top. I slacked the drag and ran to the controls, rod in hand, while Andre and Terry ran to the back and cleared lines. I got the boat going after the fish which was not about to stop jumping. By the time it slowed down, Terry was on the controls and Andre had the gaff at the ready. With the fish on the top and a full compliment of crew, we closed the gap on the fish, hoping that it would stay on top. All of a sudden, the double line came out the water followed by the leader. I tipped the fish which then ducked under the boat. I put the rod down deep under the motors and moved to the starboard side where Terry could now see what was happening. He chased the fish in very tight circles without any line coming off the reel. We inched closer and I managed to get the leader on the rod. I wrapped it around my hand between the reel and first eye, then heaved the fish closer. Andre made the gaff of the century and stuck the fish perfectly in the head. We all grabbed the fish and lifted it aboard. The fight took a whole 7 minutes! The result was a 36.75kg sailfish on 3kg tackle! What a great fish. Awesome job to the crew!

The lines went back in and I had just straightened out on the inward tack when the far line went away. At the same time, a nice big sailie cleared the water but when it landed, the reel went quiet. The hooks had pulled! Unlucky. Andre had just reset the far line when the rod keeled over and he was on. The fish fought very strangely but came to the boat easily. Only then did we see that it was a small cuda hooked in the tail.

By now it was 11am and we knew there was a lot of cleaning work to do so we headed home to weigh the fish and do all the required admin work. Thanks for a great weekend guys!