Author Topic: Blue Water Charters - Fishing Reports from Fat Girl (Read 91138 times)

Chigger · « **Reply #140 on:** December 19, 2015, 12:47:56 PM »

You learn something new every day on UA

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #141 on:** December 19, 2015, 05:30:04 PM »

Quote from: John F on December 19, 2015, 12:42:57 PM

It's a tricky one

glad you brought that up.... the females are bottom dwellers... the males are pelagic. Check fishbase.org

Thanks Marcos

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #142 on:** December 19, 2015, 05:55:12 PM »

OFFSHORE FISHING REPORT - 18&19/12/2015 - Durban
Dorado are out in full force, mostly smaller females, but we managed to land a nice Bull today on lighter tackle and he gave us a fantastic fight along with the customary acrobatics. Yesterday we had great weather and conditions, but today started out with a strong NE wind and ended with a howling SW wind. Water temp is averaging 24.5deg.C.
Yesterday we had 2 big hits, one I am sure was a Wahoo as the lure was severed from the leader with a clean cut, the other which was a very big hit looks like a Marlin because 2m of the leader was very rough as if it had been sand papered. We also got a nice Yellowfin Tuna yesterday on light tackle that gave us a great fight. So the fish and Marlins are definately around and the water is looking good except close to Durban where the rain water coming out the harbour has made the waters turbid.

Timothy Scriven · « **Reply #143 on:** December 19, 2015, 06:54:06 PM »

Nicely done Mike.

JohnF and Chigger, great info!

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #144 on:** December 22, 2015, 06:29:25 PM »

OFFSHORE FISHING REPORT - Durban - 20-22/12/2015
The last 3 days has seen the waters ff Durban go colder and green with a screaming S-N current, along with some horrid SW winds mad for some choppy days and very difficult fishing. On Sunday we eventually ended up inshore going back to port and landing 2 Dorado on the 20m line. Monday was a surprise as all the clean water was dirty as far as we could go. At 06h00 on Monday morning we had the port inside rigger go and about 20 minutes later we had a small Striped Marlin next to the boat, sorry no pic. A little later that day we got hit by a large black who did one jump and that was the end of the action as he just came loose. After bringing in the line we found that the Marlin had pulled the skirt right off the lure, other than that we had no action for the day except another on/off from something smaller. Tuesday was a simply horrid day, we found no fish at all, I did not even see bottom fish around on the finder, water is green from inshore right out to 400m which is as deep as we went. We ended up catching some shad on the backline before heading in.

John F · « **Reply #145 on:** December 23, 2015, 08:40:07 AM »

Hey Mike, what happened to the back hook?!

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #146 on:** December 23, 2015, 06:58:51 PM »

Quote from: John F on December 23, 2015, 08:40:07 AM

Hey Mike, what happened to the back hook?!

LOL Marcos. Its a single hook rig so the hook you see is the back hook. Ha ha ist also the front hook. It has its skirt pulled down

John F · « **Reply #147 on:** December 23, 2015, 08:07:44 PM »

Ok got it. Reason I asked is from your pic it looks like a tag end of wire... must be one of the tentacles from the skirt...

John F · « **Reply #148 on:** December 23, 2015, 08:14:53 PM »

Quote from: Capt. Hook on December 22, 2015, 06:29:25 PM

At 06h00 on Monday morning we had the port inside rigger go and about 20 minutes later we had a small Striped Marlin next to the boat, sorry no pic.

UA Billfish Hall of Fame?!?!

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #149 on:** December 24, 2015, 08:24:11 AM »

Quote from: John F on December 23, 2015, 08:14:53 PM

Quote from: Capt. Hook on December 22, 2015, 06:29:25 PM
At 06h00 on Monday morning we had the port inside rigger go and about 20 minutes later we had a small Striped Marlin next to the boat, sorry no pic.

UA Billfish Hall of Fame?!?!

I thought Charters were excluded

John F · « **Reply #150 on:** December 24, 2015, 08:47:51 AM »

Nope. Please post there.

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #151 on:** December 24, 2015, 08:57:29 AM »

Fat Girl Running 30knts at sea

Mal Hannes · « **Reply #152 on:** December 25, 2015, 11:47:28 AM »

There is an s missing in her name now.

Congrats on the marlin!!!

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #153 on:** January 01, 2016, 04:12:01 PM »

OFFSHORE FISHING REPORT - Durban - 27-31 December
I first would like to wish everyone a fantastic 2016, may God prosper you during this year.
With a variety of seas from nice calm days to a few bumpy days with NE winds we have been out on the water the whole week and every trip has produced Dorado, the water inside has a slight green tinge but it is clear and averaging 23.5-24.5DegC, 40km out on the 500m the waters are the colour purple and 27deg.C which just gets my blood tingling with excitement, cant wait for this to come closer in. We had a big knock out in the deep when looking for a Blue which I think was a big Tuna, unfortunately it did not stick. We have seen large pods of Dolphins. Wahoo have stolen some lures from us but we have not landed one as yet. The good news is that the persistant SW winds have left us and so we should see the fishing improve as I have found that the fish are not as active as they should be this time of year and even though we getting fish on all our trips it should be better. Plankton levels are low which is probably the reason for this.

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #154 on:** January 01, 2016, 04:12:42 PM »

roban · « **Reply #155 on:** January 01, 2016, 06:35:05 PM »

O no come on is that a salad fish or a darado in the photo with the old man? Either or does that make a kg?

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #156 on:** January 01, 2016, 11:31:44 PM »

Quote from: roban on January 01, 2016, 06:35:05 PM

O no come on is that a salad fish or a darado in the photo with the old man? Either or does that make a kg?

Was probably a Kg, unfortunately this little guy swallowed a Halco which hooked into his gills and was bleeding profusely. We catch many little guys like that and some even a lot smaller which under normal circumstances are released, but there are those ones that are not worth releasing.

Mal Hannes · « **Reply #157 on:** January 02, 2016, 12:26:36 AM »

Such good photos !!!

That blue blue water!!!

Some lekka fishing there.

I hope that 2016 will see Fast Girl hooking up more and bigger than ever before.

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #158 on:** January 08, 2016, 08:23:01 AM »

OFFSHORE FISHING REPORT - Durban - 2nd-4th January 2016
We started 2016 with an offshore fly fishing trip, it was a stunning day with virtually no wind and the water was warm and crystal clear, all we managed to get were small Dorado around the ships. The next day the NE was blowing a little and the day went well with nice clean warm water and we landed some nice Dorado. By the 4th the NE had started blowing strong and to my dismay the water had gone green and dead, there was no life there was not even bottom fish showing on the sounder, we saw no birds. We did see 1 hammer head shark lazining around and on our way back from the deep we came accross a Black Marlin sun tanning who had no interest in our offerings. Very frustrating. Am hoping the current westerly conditions and rains bring some life back to our shores.

Capt. Hook · « **Reply #159 on:** January 15, 2016, 07:31:22 AM »

OFFSHORE MARLIN REPORT - Durban 14012016

Wow what a stunning day, sea was flat like a lake water at 26.5deg.C and that deep purple we always long for. I see that the sun is starting to rise later already, time flies. We did a long trip yesterday to specifically find a Marlin and we traveled almost 90km from Durban. We left port just before 04h00 and it was slightly overcast, after about an hour the sun showed its face and gave us a glorious sunrise, as the day went on the day turned out sunny. At about 06h30 we dropped lines some 50km out of Durban and just before 08h00 the port outside rigger line went tight and a nice 30min battle followed and we got a nice Striped Marlin next to the boat which we released. He gave us a fantastic jumping display and had all his lights turned on and was glowing. Later on during the day we had a double Dorado hook up, we lost one but landed a nice size Bull. At midday the wind turned to the poison SE and we had no more luck with fishing. Then we had to make the long trip back to port.