Yellowtail in Abundance | African Fishing Adventures

12/10/2022

In our previous article, we shared some of our winter inshore sessions with you. Not much has changed at all and we have been getting stuck into some amazing fish.

Our weather here in the Western Cape has been very inconsistent, with the winds we expected earlier in the year only showing up now. Be it as it may, nothing could stop us from having an absolute blast.

The amount of Yellow Tail this season has been mind blowing. We knew the area we fish in has a healthy population, but this year was something else. There were shoals and shoals everywhere you looked and once we figured out their patterns, we could be much more effective during our sessions.

Even though we thought we had it all down, we still faced challenges and had to work hard for our fish even in their vast numbers. No day was the same and we saw that with consecutive seasons. On a few occasions we would fish 2-3 days in a row. The 1^st day tended to be the tougher day out and would kind of make you question whether you should stick around for the next day or two. Then comes the next day and you smash it properly. What stood out for us was how their feeding behaviour changed depending on what bait was in the water. The “dirtier” water tended to contain most of the pelagic bait fish and the cleaner blue water contained the Krill ect most of the time. If they fed on Anchovy, catching them on a spinner was a given, but if the were feeding on krill, we had a much tougher day out and getting them to bite was a challenge itself.

Being professional fishermen, we know too well that this sport is called Fishing and not catching for good reason, but we are made for this, and it is in our blood to figure out what we can do to make them bite.

I recall having Grant with us onboard recently. This was not Grants first time onboard with is either, so he had a good idea of what to expect. As with many sessions, our days start off early in hope we get that shoal that decides to rise early in the morning. This was the case that morning, as we got to the spot, we saw the fish come up and it was game on. With two guys going on at the same time and the third needing to stand by to gaff.

Just as we started to find our rhythm, the fish decided it was time for a break. We have seen this movie before and knew it was only a matter of time before the show starts again. As the day progressed, the fish started coming up more frequently and the fishing got better. With not many boats around we where out there having the time of our lives. We ended the day on a good note, but the weather had other plans. What was initially going to be two days on the sea, this turned out to be the only day.

A week or two went by with very volatile weather, so going to sea was limited.

In the interim, one of our sponsors, Jacitas gave us a few of the new 8ft Assassin Duel Zero Heavy rods to test out and asked us to go on a filming session with the talented Tyrone Henn who works closely with ASFN.

Things looked to be lining up and we made plans to take Tyrone on this epic adventure. It was Tyrone’s 5^th trip to the deep and what we could gather he has not seen much action either. That is something we intended to change, and we wanted to make sure he got what he came for, epic footage and lots of fish, so we booked out two days.

With lots of Whales, seals, and Dolphins around we knew that there must be lots of bait in the water and it was quickly confirmed on the fish finder. What we did not know at that time was that the Snoek mad another appearance and Tyrone was in for a surprise.

We set out a few back lines to trawl and it was not long before we had our first Snoek onboard. We showed Tyrone how to break their necks and spoke about this sought-after delicacy from the West Coast. As the day progressed, we got a few more Snoek until the Yellow Tail gave us a quick opportunity to catch a few. Not what we have hoped for, but still a good day out. In Tyrone’s books this was an excellent day and he got plenty of footage.

We called the day early and hoped that the next day will be better. The forecast showed a perfect day, and we were super excited.

We woke up to fog hanging low, but the prediction was that it will lift later in the day. Knowing what we knew from the previous day, Snoek loves this type of weather, and the plan was to target a few of them until the fog lifts. We made our way to our spot and quickly came onto some Snoek again. Now this was something Tyrone has not seen before and we shoed him the traditional way of catching these silver delicacies on hand line. Before he knew it, we had a bunch on deck, and we started looking around for some more signs.

Sadly, the day got progressively worse, and the fog did not lift as predicted. Around lunch time we saw some familiar swirls and managed to place our lures in the right place. We had two Yellow Tail follow our lures right to the boat and pounce on them at the same time and take off with reels screaming. Now that is what any cameraman wants, a double up on the boat, a camera in each hand and filming two guys having a blast. I must just add, the rods are absolutely amazing and our new preferred inshore spinning rods, make sure you get one in your quiver.

We had the opportunity to get a few more Yellow Tail and called it a day as everything was simply against us. An average day for us, but a great day for filming. At least, we got what we came for and everyone is happy.

Just in time as our inshore Yellow Tail season seems to be coming to an end quickly. We might have a few more opportunities for some Yellow Tail, but the vast numbers have moved on. We hope with the Southerly winds it might change thing up again, but we are happy with a fantastic season and grateful that we could share so many special moments with clients and friends.

Luckily for us, having this holistic approach and being able to fish various saltwater facets, a new season is about to start, and we look forward to catching some big shore species, inshore species like Shad and Garrick and of course the big Tunas offshore.

Never a dull moment for us at African Fishing Adventures!