WARBIRD 2 : CAPE VIDAL JUNE 2019

[Werries]

After we felt that WARBird 1 was getting to small for us as a family during our Dec 2018 holiday  we decided to start looking for a bigger Yeld.
Maybe I was just lucky but soon after I started searching in early January and looking at a couple of 21's I found my perfect boat...a mint condition 19ft with two brand new Suzuki 140 Lean Burns on the back( they only had 8 hrs on the clocks when I purchased her!)

So Russo and I drove through to Nelspruit to go pick her up but it was only mid February when Aniza and I took her down to her locker at Shaun's place in Monzi that we had time to put her on the water the 1st time.
I bucketed down with rain that Saturday morning but we  had just enough time to stick a number on her tail to make her legal and had about 90minutes on the water before the weather chased us off. In that time Aniza landed 2 yellowfin and her PB dorado ...we even had a marlin hit on the one small kona...I thought it was a sign that she will give us good catches in the years to come just like her predecessor did.

[Werries]

 4 Agonizingly slow months went by before we could test her properly this June holiday...
We planned it so that Russo, now living and studying in Ballito, could also join for the long weekend. I also had a client and his son join us on the Sunday for a couple of days. They have never fished offshore so the pressure was on to at least get on the water and get some fish in the hatch.
Saturday morning, my family were on our new baby for the first time...and what a lovely day we had. I decided to target some snoek early , then get some yellowfin on the ledge, then get some livies and target a couta or two.

We ended up with 3 snoek, 3 YFT, a dorado and a wahoo as a bonus...what a great start for us!

[Werries]

The Sunday, with my client and his son, was a bit slow but we managed a snoek, a couta and some yellowfin again 

[Werries]

Monday was a blow out but Tuesday we headed north and got stuck into yellowfin again , landing 4 and some skippies and paying taxes more than I would have wanted to , but they enjoyed the tussles with the taxman nevertheless. Got another couta on the way back as well ...so we enjoyed the sashimi  around the campfire for my client's last evening with us.
They couldn't stop talking about the great experience and to top it all off, next morning on their way out the found two leopards in the road!! 

[Werries]

Thursday was our last day( day 5 on the water) and what a great day again! Russo has left for work on Monday already so it was just  Aniza and Bianca with me on the boat.
Aniza got a very nice wahoo of 16kgs, and we got another 4 dorado's( we released 2) and a couta.

My freezer was full already so we called it a day.
The new boat surpassed all our expectancies and what a pleasure to launch her and drive her... power and space aplenty...and good juju for sure!!

[MIKE PIKE]

  great stuff Werries , nice boat  as well .. 

[Exavier]

Awesome report.
Sounds like she is going to be good to you.
Thank you for sharing.

[colin]

 

[REEFMAN]

Great report Werner, good fishing too! 

[Bwana]

Thanks for the report Werner and congrats on the new boat and catches. With regard to trolling lures you used on that trip what were your most productive lures (colours and sizes) I see the hot pink Speedpro is always a winner but I'm interested in what else worked.
Did you target the couta near Big Hill / Bats area and what depths worked for you guys?

[CAPTAIN MORGAN]

Well done Werries! Nice boat and may you have many happy sea miles with lots of catches!!!

[Werries]

Thanks for the report Werner and congrats on the new boat and catches. With regard to trolling lures you used on that trip what were your most productive lures (colours and sizes) I see the hot pink Speedpro is always a winner but I'm interested in what else worked.
Did you target the couta near Big Hill / Bats area and what depths worked for you guys?

When trolling lures I had a variety of Medium sized Konas with pink and white producing the most bites( Pulsator's Louis Marlin Exciter  producing mostly yft and one dorado on a Black Bart). The hard lures were a mix between Speedpro's and RapalaXrap Extreme's... The Speedpro's that produced the wahoo were hot pink and purple Mackerel. The purple Mackerels produced the most fish( yft's and another dorrie). I got only one fish on the Rapala Xtreme(a cuda) but saying this I didn't pull it as long as the Speedpro's.

Wahoo were on the 40m between lighthouse and 3 sisters.The other cuda's were on the 22m from greens down to Dunn's with Dorado coming in on the livies as well.
Snoek on sardine stripbaits between 6-10m of water at BigHill

[Nooduck]

Thank you for the report and    on the new boat.

[FishStyx]

Thanks for the report. Fantastic boat and great catches. Well done mate. May you have many successful launches and a great many 

[Bwana]

Thanks for the report Werner and congrats on the new boat and catches. With regard to trolling lures you used on that trip what were your most productive lures (colours and sizes) I see the hot pink Speedpro is always a winner but I'm interested in what else worked.
Did you target the couta near Big Hill / Bats area and what depths worked for you guys?

When trolling lures I had a variety of Medium sized Konas with pink and white producing the most bites( Pulsator's Louis Marlin Exciter  producing mostly yft and one dorado on a Black Bart). The hard lures were a mix between Speedpro's and RapalaXrap Extreme's... The Speedpro's that produced the wahoo were hot pink and purple Mackerel. The purple Mackerels produced the most fish( yft's and another dorrie). I got only one fish on the Rapala Xtreme(a cuda) but saying this I didn't pull it as long as the Speedpro's.

Wahoo were on the 40m between lighthouse and 3 sisters.The other cuda's were on the 22m from greens down to Dunn's with Dorado coming in on the livies as well.
Snoek on sardine stripbaits between 6-10m of water at BigHill

Fantastic info thanks Werner. We fished gamefish Nationals up that side in May and the fish were not keen on lures, we got 90% of our fish on livebait so it's good to know what to pack for next year.
Well done again  Have some cred 

[SAfish]

  Congratulations on your new boat. Great report and awesome catches. The new Warbird has some really good luck. 

[HooknCook]

Nice Werner, glad you had a great first trip on Warbird!! Gonna have to climb into that locker at Shauns for some waypoints🤘😂😂

[manamarak]

Lekker Werries, mooi vis en ek is bly jy kon bietjie die boot op die water kry.

[dugong]

Great report and some nice fish How did the Hilux tow??