A bit late, but finally had time writing a report of our trip to Sodwana in October.
We decided to have a family holiday, but obviously the boat had to come with. So it was only me, wife and son on the boat, and I knew it could get interesting on the boat. My wife went with once or twice but normally prefers relaxing on the beach over fishing.
Sat morning I went to the beach, and there were huge swells, and surf was bad, some charters checked it out for some time, and a few launched later. One boat had a close call. So the first day we got everything ready.
On the Sunday we were ready, launch looked better but still big swells, and after a nerve wrecking looong gully run we were out.
Reports were that mainly tuna were around and not much else. So we targeted tuna, got a miss hit, but later Ruben caught a yf. Was very quiet and that was it for the day. Just before we took line up, we had a very good run, but line parted, think a shark got the fish. Maybe a good size yf not sure.
On the Monday morning got to the beach and found that there’s a sailfish comp on. So after we waited for the comp boats to launch we went out, launch and surf much better.
But fishing again very slow, we had a double up, one dropped and I got a yf tuna. We trolled the north reefs, I do not really have points of sodwana, only a few, I fished sodwana twice before this trip I think. Heard on the radio about a deep reef but I’m not sure where it is. But on the beach reports were that the fishing was slow all over, also no sailies caught by the comp boats.
The next day was a blowout.
Wednesday we got to the beach, and the tide was a bit high, had a bad shore dump, and the surf was choppy. We waited some time for the other boats to launch, and later when the tide dropped, everything looked better and out we went. We went north again, and Carroll got her first yf tuna of the trip.
All went dead our side, but we heard a lot of reports of sailies being caught by the comp boats. We then changed tactics, and I put out 3 halvbeaks, one naked and 2 in lures and 2 high speed lures close in under prop wash if there is tuna around. We wanted to go to diepgat, but found a lot of boats where I do not have any waypoints, so decided to also scout the area.
After about a half hour all hell broke loose on the boat. After 3 days of mostly “bootry” with very little action we got a rude awakening. At first there was some confusion as 2 lines were running, but the skipper left both the clikkers off!
(This just after I explained to my son, that you NEVER take the clikker off, but the baits didn’t want to take off line fast enough while I put them out so I made the mistake myself!) Strafdop. Then I heard the third line running, and saw 2 sailies tail walking towards each other! What a sight! Now I wish I had the gopro recording to get this chaos on film. Then with all this chaos and me trying to multitask giving some instructions, I also managed to get an over wind - kraaines.
So we dropped 2 fish and then my son eventually settled into the fight. He later gave the rod to me and I got the fish to the boat, my wife was skipping and we had some close calls, at one stage the line caught the motor, we had the fish diving under the boat and jumping on the other side of boat! Lucky I had the rod deep down. I had to get the fish close then gave the rod to my son, then leader myself, but got the sail bill eventually. Got everything ready, took quick pic, then revived her and swam away strong. High fives!
We set out the lines again, 2 halvbeaks and two high speed lures. Nothing until 2 hours later we had a double up on the halv beaks. One dropped and the other stayed on. No sail jumping as I was expecting. My wife took the rod, and after some time she complained, said there was something big on the line. It came right up and I saw a yf tuna fin coming out, not a sail. I told her, it’s just a small tuna, pull! I later took the rod, and felt that it’s not as small as what the fin looked like. I then suspected a shark took the tuna, couldn’t gain line, and raised the drag past strike. After about 40 min, saw a number plate and it was still a yf, but good size. With my son behind wheel and my wife for first time ever with gaf in hand, we still had some work to do, some nerve wrecking moments, but she got the gaf set and I helped pulling the fish onto boat, we had a nice yf of about 30kg. High fives again, we had a great day!
Next 2 days we just relaxed on the beach. On the last day we went out again, but then it was very quiet again, same as first 2 days, we got one bonnie. But we had huge shoals of dolphin, swimming with us, and small ones jumping all over, which was awesome, also saw a whale shark.
A great trip to Sodwana!
