We (myself, my brother Junior and jsilva) had a very early launch yesterday. Actually, this was the first time we launched so early: 04:40. Sunrise was at 05:41. The reason we had to leave so early was ... we had to be back by 12:30 the latest! Had a bday party that could no be skipped. The forecast was also not to be skipped: 2-5 knots SE breeze to clean the water, 1.1 swells at 9 sec and new moon spring tide!!! Irresistible!!!
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Inside the bay, with Inhaca island far in the horizon
The boat, ice, bait and tackle were all organized the day before so launch was quick and smooth. The sky was a bit cloudy and along the way we had some drizzled - leftovers from the rain we had along the week. It did clear and became a beautiful day later on.
Water temp started off at 27.8o C in the bay and then went over 29o C out in the northern shoals. As we got back it was 26.9o C inside the bay. It was so clean and flat we could see the bottom at 10 m!!!! Fantastic conditions, indeed. Like every angler knows, too good conditions usually lead to no fish!!!
So, back to the fishing. We launched in the dark and cautiously crossed Xefina island - paying speciall attention to unmarked dugout canoes and small dhows.... these guys take advantage of any good day, or night, to try and catch something to feed the family. No news there, so as soon as we went past Xefina, I pushed the zukes to about 3700 rpm doing 19-20 knots and off we went. A quick stop at Baixo Ribeiro to try make live bait only yielded a small rockcod on the sabiki, which was released. The out going tide was already pushing quite strongly, so we decided to carry on.
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Baixo Ribeiro. Can't find bait lately...
Arrived at the couta grounds and a spread of 4 rods with rappies, speedpro and halco max went into the water in red head (×2), silver and pink colours.
We trolled for about an hour and no bites. Eish... maybe conditions were too good!!!! Decided to try other areas (as other boats were also fishing the same waters). Went north a little and a bit inshore (16-18 m) and worked the area up and down... we managed to get 6 couta between 3 and 6 kg. Nothing spectacular, but nice size for the table. By 9:30 we decided to do a bit of bottom fishing... been a while and despite all the triggers we managed some nice emperors and rockcods. Which made the wife's day as she really enjoys those deep fried emperors!!!
We had to start heading back by 11:30 so did a bit more trolling and got a 7th couta... headed home on a mirror sea that saw as doing 20-21 knots at 3900 rpm with the easterly breeze on our back! Sweet!!!
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Oily waters.
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Catch of the day.
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The culprits.
Took a fresh fillet to the braai at the party, which along with the meaty bones off the couta, was a huge success!!!
Great day on perfect seas and fresh fish for the family and friends. We did 70 nm on about 78 litres of fuel. Life's good!!!!
