Went fishing from Houtbay with Nick, his son Jonathan and Nino, the owner of Big Eye looking for tuna. It was a misty and wet start to the day when we left at 5.30 am and although the mist cleared up later we fished in soft rain the whole day (so please excuse the pics). Luckily the sea was as flat as the proverbial dam.
At around 30 miles from Houtbay we saw the commercial tuna fleet spread out and put our spread of Havoc lures in the water. Within 5 mins we had multiple strikes and landed all 4 fish - 2 longfin tunas and 2 yellowfins around 30kg's.
The rest of the day was spent catching the one longfin after the other. 2 Were caught on bait and 2 on spinners, the rest all on Havoc lures. These tried and tested lures have proven themselves to be tuna killers and 95% of strikes ended up in a fish hooked and landed.
We followed the slick of one of the big stern trawlers and suddenly all mayhem broke loose as we saw the big splash and heard the Penn 50 screaming with a big yellowfin on. It was my time to take the rod and get stuck into a bus. I was very happy for the harness that took the strain of my arms but it was still quite a battle for me to eventually land my pb yellowfin tuna of 1500 mm or 64 kg.
After a few more longfins it was time again for the big fish - first one spat the lure, the second one pulled a bad knot after 5 mins into the fight and then Nick got stuck into a monster of a fish that he manage to bring close to the boat where it was constantly shadowed by a blue shark before he managed to get the 80+kg fish on board.
We were safely back in Houtbay harbour at 5.30 pm with a final tall of 4 yellowfin and 36 longfin with 2 skipjaks we released. A stunning day at sea and one I hope to repeat after the Easter holiday.
