We launched from Durban Harbour at around 05h30, it was overcast but not raining. The water surface temperature in the harbour was around 22.5 deg. C. The sea was flat, there was virtually no wind and even thought the swell was 2.1m (7ft) it was spaced at 22 seconds making for a really nice day. We were greeted by one of those sunsets that light up all the clouds on the horizon and give it a golden orange glow.
We shot out towards Reef no. 1 and set our spread heading north, the water surface temperature here was between 24.5 deg. C and 25.5 deg. C. Here we trolled along the 100m contour line and the plan was to get some Dorado. I had noticed a complete absence of Birds and other than 2 nice ones we saw on a Sport Fisher when leaving the harbour there was no signs of them. There was no sign of Dorado and as I cruised along my usual points there was nothing to be found. I saw several other boats out there and never saw anyone fighting any fish but am not sure if anyone else got any Dorado.
By the time we were in front of Umdloti I had enough of the silence and cancelled my navigation plan for the day and headed out deep, here the water was warmer and the surface temperature averaged around 26.5 deg. C and as we got to 200m depth we saw lots of birds and as we got closer we saw Yellow Fin Tuna leaping and jumping out the water. I changed the spread and we did a pass by the side of the action but nothing happened and so on the next pass I went through the middle and all 6 lines started screaming. We were only 3 on the boat and so I tightened 3 drags and we fought 3 landed and then fought the next 3. We then reset the spread and did it again and got another 6, did it again and got another 6, and another 6 and 6, and 6, 6, 6 ………. and so we continued to make pigs of ourselves and even though we lost a few that we being held on the drag and landed 4, 5 but mostly 6, and another 6, and a another 6, and 6, 6, 6, …………. We caught so many Yellow Fin Tuna I really do not know how many and eventually we decided to stop as our arms were sore and going numb from repeatedly fighting fish. In amongst all the Yellow Fin Tuna we also got 2 Oceanic Bonitos, but the rest were Tuna. This was just one of those rare occasions when you get so many fish you just need to stop fishing.
With sore arms I changed the lures again and we left the feeding frenzy and continued out to deeper waters looking for something big and cruised along the 350-400m mark in a southerly direction. Here the water surface temperature was 27 deg. C. We saw a bunch of Dolphins out here, and also saw 2 Marlin jumping in the distance there was a lot of flying fish around and they were larger than the last ones we saw earlier in the month. There was a lot of plankton in the water and we saw some kind eggs floating, came across a patch with 1000's of tiny cuttle fish around 5mm long there was tiny blue bottles and some small transparent jelly fish.
Then in the distance we saw this black thing in the water and headed towards it, as we got closer we saw it was fins and then we saw what it was…. A Blue Marlin that was just basking in the sun and holding on the surface of the water, we came passed him with the boat and he was stunning, all his colours were glowing and he was just hanging there dead still. As the boat passed him he went down deep and never toughed our lures. A truly magnificent creature, which is so beautiful. When one sees something like this it just humbles you and makes you realise how small you actually are when compared to creation.
There had been no action for a while and we were getting bored and were joking that it was time for another round of Tuna, when low and behold there in front of us we saw birds again, and so we changed our lures again and went for another round Tuna Madness getting 6, 6, 6, 6 until we had just caught so many Tuna that we just simply could not fight another fish and got back to shore at around 17h00.
I truly do not know how many Tuna we got, and as I write this report my arms, hands and back are so stiff and sore from fighting so many fish.
