It has been exactly 3 years and 7 months since my
last offshore fishing report… I know, unforgivable!
A lot has happened in those 3+ years .... we managed to complete the rebuilt of the new-to-us boat and got back to try and catch fish.
It has not been easy catching fish… situation has deteriorated to a point where catching fish feels like an accident. Well, for some of us it is not just about just catching fish… it’s about getting away and spend time in the big blue…. No cellphones or emails, and simply worry about the next bite and enjoy a good cigar…
This was my state of mind last weekend… after a few weeks of intense work, I was just ready to go… Saturday was prep day as the NE was blowing +10 knots … this is not conducive to a good day out so we settled on Sunday… the forecast was perfect.
I could not sleep the night before so waking up early was not an issue…. at 05:00 I was at the club slowly getting the last bits of tackle on the boat. My bruder arrived about 30 min after that and we easily launched the boat using the Cruiser.
The plan was simple. Get live bait and try for YFT in the morning, in the Poço area. Then, slowly move south to the Inhaca lighthouse trying to get some wahoo and hopefully some of the +20 Kg YFT fish has been coming out lately. Sun came up at 06:35 as we were leaving the bay... fresh air, flat seas and clear sky… can’t beat that feeling!
We quickly made bait (Indian scad) and with the livebait tank full, we proceeded to our target area. The ride was a bit choppy and we got there at about 08:15 and started trolling with rappies. No takers and eventually decided to slow-troll a few livies… nada…. drifted them: zero…sent them to the bottom: nyet! Tried jigging: nothing!
At about 11:30 we decided to pack and move south… not much life in the water. Kept trying all the spots – shallow and deep – nothing touched our live baits! Some humpback whales were seen here and there and by the looks of it we would blank… again! Our cut-off time was 15:15.
At 15:13 my bruder was in the cabin taking a nap after making the night shift and as I was checking my watch when a furious (but sweet!) cry of the Okuma Makaira 30II on the shotgun woke him up like a spring! I had a small red/white kona (with piano wire – Jeremias is know for some gnarly wahoo), a red DIY daisy chain on a bird, on this outfit, maybe 45 m from the boat… just at the end of the prop wash. We immediately saw what it was; the unmistakable jumps, and the chaos brought about by 2 other rods (and jump in the short corner)… clearly we were being ambushed…. It was a pack attack! "VELEIRO" we both shouted!!! Sailfish aka L'Espadon voilier! And it was not small. It was a proper winter sailfish! The two rods with deep diving lures (where I was running a Halco max and a Rapala x-rap) were bending and the reels screaming… sweet chaos!!!
My bruder took the main rod and shouted that it was peeling line properly… "don’t worry… we have 600 m of Maxima there. We’ll be fine!" I wasn’t worried about the line… I was worried about the piano wire… one loop and kink and that fish would be gone!
Cleared the lines and once things settled we got the fish boat side in about 17 min. Nothing like a well oiled team that communicates and works like a clock. We had our trophy license on board and I have been craving smoked sailfish for a while. So, this one was coming home with us.
The fish weighted 43.3 kg and had a lower-jaw length of 216 cm. Not too shabby!
We processed the fish at my place and had a nice late family meal celebrating the first bill on the new boat!
We're back in the saddle!
