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OFFSHORE ANGLING => Offshore Fishing Reports => Topic started by: John F on June 12, 2017, 10:08:50 AM
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As per the forecast, last Saturday conditions were excellent, and after the last outing (http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=22261.0) 3 weeks ago, where we had miserable seas and relatively poor fishing, I was eager to give it a go. With winter in full swing here and water temps around 22-23o C, my mind was focused on getting some :yft: ... been a long time since we had them.
So the crew was assembled. A short one it was: just myself and my brother Junior. My son has been recovering from a bad flu so he stayed home this time.
Word around the campfire was that fishing was poor, and only bottoms were biting. With the full moon and spring time on Friday, our plan was to combine various techniques and see what we could come up with.
Sunrise is around 06:30 these days so we arranged to be at the Club at 06:00. Finalize all the tackle and be in the water at 06:30 more or less. We got into the water just before 07:00. Water temp was 19.4o C and the bay was flat. The temp went as much as 23 o C and that was it.
We gunned the boat and decided to go straight to Poco and see if the could get some YFT. The cross of the shallows at Cockburn slowed us down as the outgoing tide and oceanic swell from Friday's wind made for some unconfortable conditions.
As soon as we went past 15 m, we put 2 lines in the water on the Makaira 50W II on bent butt rods. Due to the swell we couldn't go faster that 16-17 knots so we took the opportunity to target some :wahoo:
As we got to the southern tip of Poco, the startboard long rod screamed and out there we saw a :dor: jump a few times. Yeah, nice surprise!!!! After a few minutes, the fish was released into the hatch and we switched to a 4 rod (30 Lb) setup.... 2 rappies (short), one mid (bird + squid daisy chain + seastar with strip bait) and a long one (bird + squid daisy chain + red/white cedar plug)...
Arrived at the tuna spot and :sreel: .... triple strike: rappie and the two long rods! Chaos aboard! We managed to catch all three (2 kawa kawa and 1 YFT) and not tangle the lines. Not big (around 3 kg) but hey fresh tuna is a fresh tuna!!! We worked the area, with only 3 rods and had a double strike. Lost the one fish but got another YFT. It then went quite. As low tide was at 11.20 we wanted to do a bit of bottom... we were about 9 nm from the grounds so off we went hi speed trolling to the couta grounds... no bites so we changed tactics...
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Put baits down as well as a mackie on a balloon. Pretty dead. Not even triggerfish were there. Got only a nice rubberlips of about 2.7 kg. Sent the GoPro down there with a baited hook just to see what was around.... angelfish were bitting!!!!
The sea by this time (12:30) had settled into a mirror so we decided to troll a bit and see what we could come up with.... immediately had a triple strike... followed by a series of double strikes all along till 14:30. That's when we decided we had enough fish. The were absolutely wild. We lost 4 rappies as they were hitting the snap swivels! Changed my trace to a simpler rig. No double line... straight to the piano with an Albright knot! Worked a charm!!
Not big (2.5-3.5 kg), but we got enough fish (12) to keep everybody happy.
We did 84.6 nm and used 94 L of fuel (1.11 L/nm)
By 16:00 we were back at Naval. A nice day out there! Playing a doubles match can actually be great fun especially if you have plenty of action during the day and a mixed bag in the afternoon!
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Lekker pic with the GoPro Marcos... Wanted to try that before but wasn't sure how best to rig it...
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Thanks... I have designed a little gadget to hold the camera... can/will post it separately....
It's actually a great way of checking the bottom and the structure...very interesting... also good to check what those big balls of fish are... we see them on the fish finder but sometimes they don't bite
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great report and outing...congrats
nice footage as well
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Very nice congrats (clap)
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well done some nice food fish there.
A very interesting boat support in the pic, have you lifted the bow on a winch to drain the fish hatches?
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Yes... for the washing the boat is lifted by hand. The plank of pine keeps it secure till the draining is done
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Thanks... I have designed a little gadget to hold the camera... can/will post it separately....
It's actually a great way of checking the bottom and the structure...very interesting... also good to check what those big balls of fish are... we see them on the fish finder but sometimes they don't bite
Here it is http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=22325.0 (http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=22325.0)