On Sunday morning we left the Marina at about 06h00 to make our way to the deep where I had located some warm water areas from the surface temperature charts hoping for some Yellowfin Tuna. When we first got out to sea there was a stiff NE wind blowing and the swells were large and the water surface temperature was 21deg.C. We decided to carry on based on the forecast which indicated that the swells would die down in the morning and the wind would let up a little.
Sure enough as we got out deeper the water temperature started increasing and at 130m it was on 22deg.C and by the time we got to the area indicated by the charts it was on 22.5deg.C in 450m of water when I set a spread of lures to troll. We noticed a lot of bird activity further out and headed towards them and upon approaching them we found the temperature was over 23deg.C, we also saw a huge Blue Whale out in this deep water and the depth was around 700m. I was sure we would find Tuna with all the bird activity but we could not keep our lures in the water as the birds were constantly picking them up and after we had 8 or 9 Albatrosses and Petrels tangled up in the lines having to always stop bring them to the boat attend to them carefully and release them we decided to leave the area and made our way North with a long troll till we got to 65m where we started doing some bottom fishing.
By this time the swells and wind had subsided as forecasted and we made a long drift over reefs and pinnacles and the day turned out quite pleasant.
On the drift we caught a lot of Rockod and Soldier Bream and the highlight was an area which produced some nice Copper Bream. We also saw a Loggerhead Turtle out here which is a sure sign that summer was on the way. One of the ladies also said she saw the tail of a large fish when she heard it jump.
On the drift we got accompanied by an increasing amount of Petrels which fascinated the ladies on the boat with their comical antics and I showed them how to feed them by hand and they had a great time feeding them watching them squabble and run on the water, eventually the birds became so forward that one could not put your hands over the side and it even became unsafe to take a pee for fear it would get nipped.
The ladies reminded us about the Nemo movie where the birds were always saying "mine, mine, mine" and I think with their greedy behaviour it was correct.
