Nikao Fishing Adventures took 2 clients deep sea fishing off Durban.
We launched at 06h00, the sea looked nice and the swell was around 1.4m, and it was clear skies with a super sunrise over the water. Water temperature was around 21 deg. C. The sea stayed flat the whole day.
We started out collecting live bait and got a lot of mackerel and red eye sardines, we got right into a pocket of the sardines and were just hauling them up by the dozen; the mackerel have been small of late and there have been a lot of birds around.
Then we did a trawl along back line with some light tackle and lures, but got nothing.
We then went out to the 40m and 50m contour line an did a slow zig zag trawl with 2 live baits, 1st strike was a Gannet, and although these are beautiful birds they are large and really aggressive, so when we got him to the boat we distracted him with the gaff handle and I grabbed him around the neck. Lucky for him the circle hook was only around his wing bone and we got it off of him easily, the bugger nipped me under the armpit, and has given me a good scar and bruise, those beaks are so sharp. We released him and he dove into the water swam a few meters and then took off. We did not see him again that day. I was hoping for a Sailfish after that because last time I got a Gannet, we caught a 3.57m Sailfish immediately after.
There were also a lot of Albatrosses, and Storm Petrels around all day.
Then we hooked into a Gas Bottle (Yellow Fin Tuna) of around 15Kg, he took around 400m on the first run, we got him to about 20m from the boat and saw him when he took a second run and went deep when all of a sudden the reel got smoked and then the line went slack. It was the tax man (Shark) and it must have been a big one that just swallowed that Yellow Fin Tuna whole and took about 1m off our 80lb leader.
We then went out to the reefs and fished bottom with bass tackle, it just amazes me at the variety of fish species we get on these reefs, and it is always great fun.
I had also put a live baited mackerel out on the drift on a trap stick and a shark took this and made good run, but I had no steel and he bit us off.
