It’s Winter - Bonito back in full force and a good Tuna
Offshore Fishing Report – Durban – 14 May 2019
Winter is here and our game fishing season ended abruptly at Easter after the floods. Clean up teams came out in full force about a week after the floods and the bulk of the debris has been cleaned up. Offshore waters are clearing up and things are looking alive and active. The water temperatures have been dropping and today it averaged just over 22 deg.C. Deeper out the water is clear blue and inshore it is green but clear. This morning as we left port we saw the first Whale for the season and there are many juvenile Gannets around. We had a short morning trip with a guest from the US who said he wanted a Yellowfin Tuna and had tried in many places around the world but always lucked out. I found nothing in the deep so headed inshore with light tackle and different tactics, we found some bird activity but they were only smashing sprats and no fish. I then found and area with good showings and 1 bigger fish and started working that spot that I marked and we had a good run with Bonito (Eastern Little Tuna), catching one after another and even plenty multiple hook ups which was great fun as our sole guest got to fight fish after fish after fish and on light tackle Bonito are good sport. During all this action we had a large Zambezi Shark (Bull Shark) about 3.5m long jump clear over our lines just a few meters behind the boat, this was a magnificent display when he broached about 3m in the air and twisted as he cam e back down. I could still see 1 big fish on the showing in the shoal as we followed it around and finally after landing 20 Bonito we hooked into a good size Yellowfin Tuna which gave a great fight on the lighter tackle. I knew the Tuna was there, I saw him and we persisted till we got him. After landing the Tuna we got a few more Bonito and then we headed back to port.
