My husband Quintin and I was invited for dinner by a friend of ours one evening and being keen fisherman it didn’t take them long to start talking about fishing. Stories of the big fish they caught and lost in the past was on the order of the day. I sat in amazement next to Quintin listening to all these “fisherman” stories. I could actually not believe that they catch fish up to 90kg’s.
During the course of the evening I was asked the question if I ever caught a fish in my life. I blushed and told them that I have never been on a fishing boat. Daniel then made me promise that next time I will join them. Not thinking much of it I said sure… why not?
A few weeks passed when Quintin phoned me one Friday afternoon on his way back from work informing me that Daniel invited us to join him to go fishing the next day. I could hear his voice was bubbling with excitement….
The weather predictions were looking good and expectations were high. Little did I know that this fishing trip would exceed all of them. The target species for the day were longfin tuna and then the trophy yellowfin tunas that inhabit the Cape waters.
We launched at 04H00 am from Harbour Island in Gordons bay towards Cape Point. About 20 miles out into the deep past Cape Point they decided it was a good place to start the day. The plan was to put out some rapalas and trawl until we get the first bite. From there we will start to chum and hopefully if we are lucky we can get a shoal under the boat in the chum line.
We trolled for about 20 min when we got the first bite. The rod was handed to me and the fight was on. The fish took some line and I gained some line. About ten minutes later I boated my first longfin tuna.
We caught about 10 longfin tunas during the next hour. I must say I enjoyed every second of it.
Quintin jokingly said, now that you are warmed up… lets go look for a yellowfin. We started to trawl again. About thirty minutes one of the rods had a bite. I could immediately hear by the sound of the screaming reel that the fish on the other side of the line was a lot bigger. The line was peeling off the reel…
Daniel screamed from behind the steering wheel….. That’s a YELLOW! It was as if Quintin nominated that fish to bite…
Daniel and Quintin quickly pulled in the other lines and handed me the screaming reel. I could feel my heart pounding in my throat and the heavy weight of the rod my hand. I started fighting the fish… Quintin was standing next to me guiding me every minute of the fight.
Twenty minutes later the fish started swimming in circles under the boat and I could feel my back and arms starting to pain. I just kept my focus on the rod and reel and tried my best to ignore the pain. Ten minutes later Quintin said to Daniel “we have colour”. This means that he can see the fish swimming approximately 10 metres underneath the boat.
For the first time I looked overboard and saw a picture I will never forget in my life! A giant yellowfin tuna emerged from underneath the boat with its bright golden sickles. I could not believe the size of the fish! It was almost the same length as I am.
The fish continued to swim in circles under the boat coming closer and closer with every circle it makes. When it eventually was close enough Quintin and Daniel gaffed the fish and with a big cheer they pulled it aboard the boat.
All of a sudden my back pain and numb arms disappeared!
After we took some photographs and put the fish in the fish hatch we started to trawl again. About an hour later the reel started screaming again. I decided that I was going to take a little break and said Quintin must rather catch this one. Thirty minutes later he boated another big yellowfin tuna!
We then started to chum hoping we can lure some fish to underneath the boat. Daniel kept his eye on the fish finder and it was not long before he told us there are some big fish under the boat! We baited some hooks and let some line out…
All of a sudden one of the rods had a bite and started screaming!
Before I could say no I am too tired they handed the rod to me and the fight was on. I was fighting my second yellowfin for the day… For some reason this fish was more stubborn than the other one and fought a lot harder. Ten minutes, twenty Minutes and eventually 40 minutes had gone by and the fish was still underneath the boat.
At this stage my back and arms were killing me…
I fought the fish for nearly an hour when Quintin and Daniel gaffed the fish and pulled it into the boat. I was so tired and could not even pose for a photo.
I was extremely exhausted and needed a bar-one to get my blood sugar levels up. The day of fishing claimed its toll and I shortly after passed out in the cabin.
My 55kg yellowfin tuna!
Thanks to my husband that made sure that I stayed on board and caught a trophy fish.
It’s not bad for a first timer I would say.
I definitely want to try and beat my “personal best” one day ….