On Tuesday evening, 4th February
2020, Herman Olivier and I arrived at Cape Vidal. The Marlin Comp was on and I
was going to fish the last 3 days onboard Wayne Ritchie’s “Galavant”. The
weather forecast didn’t look great and on Wednesday morning, the weather
committee called a blowout.
We were not about to stay in camp the whole day
so we launched at 7am to fish for some gamefish. There was a lot of bait around
and after filling the tank, we headed north to Oscar. Herman and I put out a
few small halcos and rapalas while Wayne trolled over the pinnacles. It didn’t
take long to get a pull and Herman ripped in a small yellowfin tuna.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have and big rods on the boat, otherwise we would have
swam it for a marlin. The sea was very fishable for marlin if were pulling live
bait.
We continued trolling and soon went on with a
better sized fish. Wayne took the rod and had a tough fight with a strong
yellowfin which we eventually boated. It was around 15kg, a contender for the
bycatch Calcutta if only the comp was called on.
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| Live baiting |
After an hour or two of trolling, we didn’t
have any more pulls so we headed into the shallows and rigged 4 livies and
drifted towards the point. On the bait spots, we had a pull and Herman caught
his first cuda for the year. He was lucky to get it in because there was a big
Zambezi shark chasing it when we gaffed it. Our drift continued for a while and
south of the lighthouse, as we were packing up, I managed to hook and land a
nice natal snoek of about 5kg. I was just as lucky as Herman as another big
Zambie was after it at the boat.
On Thursday morning, the comp was called on,
but only just. The forecast did show that the wind would settle so all the
boats launched. After catching a few livies we headed back to Oscar and pulled
lures around. It didn’t take long to get two 3kg bonnies. With the bait in the
tubes, we headed north to the marlin hole off Vegetation. The current was
ripping and the temp was 28 degrees. Not exactly ideal live bait conditions,
but we rigged to baits and trolled them through the hole. The prime time came
and went without any action and soon the baits both succumbed to the hot water.
Despite looking for more bait, we didn’t get any bites. The wind turned
easterly and at 1pm we beached to beat the rush.
After a long night, we were on the beach at
6:30am. There was a queue of boats waiting to launch but eventually the comp
was called off … I’m not sure what the reason was. Most of the boats launched
regardless and went game fishing. We joined them on the water and after getting
a few livies we went back to Oscar and started pulling lures. It didn’t take
long and we had a smoker on the far line. Unfortunately it bit us off and we
were left to continue the search. As I trolled over a good showing, we went on
again. I was hoping it was a small tuna but to our surprise, it was a 5kg cuda.
I made another turn over the same spot and went on again. Unfortunately the
hooks pulled on the fish, but it was enough to suggest that we change over to
bait and work the area.
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| Herman fighting a tuna |
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| 17.8kg YFT |
The baits had been out for a few minutes when the far
line went away. Herman took the strike and was in for a tough battle. The fish
fought deep for a while and the light cuda rod had little impact. After putting
some pressure on (thinking it was a shark) the line angled up and cut through
the water. I chased after it as Herman put line on the reel. The line then went
slack. We were wondering what was happening but as the last bit of slack line
was wound in, the line went under the boat. In the water next to us was a big
oceanic white tip shark. It had chased the fish we were fighting under the
boat. Now it was hiding under the tunnel and we couldn’t get to it, even though
it was on the leader. Eventually it came out and took off away from the shark.
After freelining it for a while, it settled and we were after is at speed.
Again the fish came flying up under the tunnel but after some fancy footwork,
we managed to gaff an 18kg yellowfin. Another contender for the Calcutta but
alas…
Lines went out again and soon we had 2 big kaakap
on the lines. Wayne and Herman both fought them to the boat where they were
released. There was quite a bit of action and on the next drift, Wayne managed
to get another shoal cuda.  |
| PB Kaakap |
I kept the boat on the marks, stemming the
current. I happened to see a strange showing on the sounder about 3m down. When
I looked back, I could see a big Zambezi shark just cruising behind us. There
was going to be a problem if we hooked anything. It wasn’t 5 minutes when the
surface rod went away again. Wayne took the rod and had a very similar fight to
what Herman did. This time the fish didn’t hide under the boat, it took off on
surface with the shark behind it. Wayne freelined it for probably a few hundred
meters before we started after it. Again, near the boat, the tuna made an
erratic run so Wayne freelined it again. Unfortunately this time the shark
caught up with the tuna and bit through the leader.
We made one last drift and hooked a small
bonnie on a livie. We rigged it up and swam it for marlin, but the 28.2 degree
water took its toll and it perished after a short while.
That was the end of our fishing for the trip.
It was very eventful and we all had a good time. The Vidal Committee organized
a great event and hopefully we can make it next year.
