Initially the plan was to go for some Snoek, but with the huge swells I decided to take a safer approach and stay far away from the backline. Swells were around 2.8-3.0m, wind was a light NE and water surface temperature was 21 deg. C.
We got going at around 06h30 and made our way to collect some live bait, and for once there were no sardines around, the Mackerel were scarce but we got some, we also got some Shad and a few Red Eye's.
I immediately pinned the Red Eyes and swum them as live baits on the bottom using my down riggers, and swam two Mackerels out wide on the surface using the out riggers. I worked an area where a lot of Grunter and Daga have been reported but we got no action, I then continued out deeper and dropped the down riggers as we went along but there was no action until eventually we got a pull and found the Red Eye bitten in half.
Whilst pulling these baits I had noticed a few swirls, and so decided to bring the live baits out and change over to lures as we could cover much more water, and this proved to be the right choice. I has noticed some activity in the distance ad headed towards it and as we got into that area I noticed that the water surface temperature rose to 21.4 deg. C and it was not long before two reels were screaming and we boated the 2 very first Yellowfin Tuna for this summer season, as we fought them to the boat we went out of the warmer pocket of water. Once re rigged ad trolling again I turned back towards the warm pocket and I could even see it clearly on the surface as it had a different ripple to the water around it and it was an oval of around 300m x 200m. Immediately when we were back in the warm pocket another reel screamed and we landed a nice large Eastern Little Tuna (Kawakawa).
I also saw an orange crate floating and we did several passes, but no takes. There was a really strange brown fish close to it that looked like a rag, we went close and slowed down to see what it was and ran the gaff passed it, the fish moved away and then returned to the crate. I do not know what fish it was as I have never seen it before and will have to research a little. We also saw a Logger Head Turtle out there and this is also a sure sign of summer coming.
After that I worked the warm pocket for a while with no further action and then decided to head off South. As we were going along I thought I saw a Whale blow and shouted Whale, and so everyone was now looking forward to see this whale that never materialised. Then I thought I saw a fish jump out the water but was not sure, but I changed my heading anyway towards what I thought I saw, everyone was still looking for this elusive Whale.
The events that unfolded before us was something that I have never encountered before.
It was a school of Wahoo smashing a school of Eastern Little Tuna's (Kawakawa), these Wahoo were coming up from the depths at high speed towards the surface and smashing into the Eastern Little Tuna (Kawakawa) and then flying 3-4 meters into the air twisting as they went up and then down, and everywhere in front of us was Wahoo in the air. I estimate about 30-40 Wahoo where smashing in to the school (which I managed to see and count) of 7 Eastern Little Tuna (Kawakawa) and we could even see the Wahoo charging up to them.
So we took our lures right through the middle of this and 2 reels screamed, one much more than the other, and it looked like we had hooked up 1 Wahoo and 1 Eastern Little Tuna (Kawakawa).
It was not very long before the Wahoo made mince meat out of the leader and was off, whilst we fought the smaller fish. Suddenly hell broke loose and this fish took off as if it grew 3-4 times it size in an instant and before we could even think anything 300m of line was out.
The fight ensued and then when close to the boat we could see it was a Wahoo, and then the line went slack and after all that we reeled in the remains of a head from an Eastern Little Tuna (Kawakawa) which had been ravished by the Wahoo.
With all the excitement and fish fights the remaining lines were tangled and in a mess, and so we drifted for a while to untangle everything and get reorganised. Sadly I also had an outrigger snap with all this commotion.
Whilst we were busy there was Wahoo jumping in the air all around us and they were extremely savage and aggressive as they gave the poor little fish a hiding and then it all went quiet. Our lines were now sorted and we were trolling again but there was no further sign of the Wahoo.
We went up North again to the warm pocket to see if there was more Tuna around, and managed another double hook up of large Eastern Little Tuna (Kawakawa).
All said and done it was an awesome and exciting day, and I am so happy that we have Game Fish around after some quiet months.
