Trio of Dorado

On Saturday 12th November at 6am, my brother-in-law Carl and I launched “Selfish” out of Richards Bay. There was a moderate NE wind blowing but it was predicted to swing SW by 11am. The plan was to look for a bonito of tuna and pull it for marlin. The current would push us south and by then, the wind would be SW and we could come back with it ... sounded good.

We headed to the pipe line where we stopped to look for some livies. After battling for 20mins or so, I found a shoal of maasies and Carl caught a few strings for bait before we headed out to small high point. While we were running there, the water temp dropped to 22,4 degrees and the colour was green. We were about 1km from the pinnacle when the temp shot up to 23 and the water colour improved dramatically. It was still not blue, but it was a lot better that shallower.
There was already another boat there and they had not had a pull yet... not good news. We set 5 bait rods with small lures, one of which was an iland Saillure. I trolled around the pinnacle without a pull so decided to work south zigzagging the ledge as I went. I found a nice bump on the ledge so made a turn and as I straightened out, Carl saw a splash on the Ilander. The rod buckled and the reel took off. Carl took the rod, hoping it was a bait. A few seconds later, the water erupted and a nice dorado cleared the surface. I cleared the deck and Carl brought the fish within gaff range where I helped it into the hatch ... nice ... fresh fish for supper!

We reset the line and pulled for about an hour without a pull. I suggested we change to bigger lures and go deeper to find clean water. After a quick change, 5 lures were smoking behind us. At about 450m, the temperature was 24,2 degrees but still a clean green. I tacked shallower and in 90m found a nice current line and half a degree temperature change. I trolled along this line heading back north. About half an hour later, the port rigger popped and the 80lbs reel ran a bit. It was a nice bull dorado. Carl brought it closer where we saw that it had a follower with it. I quickly grabbed a spinning rod rigged with a treble and nylon trace. A live maasie was hooked through the nose and flicked overboard.... Coconut! The second dorado swallowed the bait and turned to join the first when I set the hook. It took off jumping. I put the rod in the holder and gaffed Carls fish before continuing the fight. Not long after, Carl gaffed a nice dorado for me.

That was all the action we had for the day and headed back as the SW started picking up. At the club, the fish weighed 9, 12 and 12,4kg. In all, it was a great day.