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Yellowtail fishing off Cape Point!

During our Inshore Fishing Trips to Cape Point we mainly target game fish, this includes the Yellowtail fish. Simonstown is a mere 30 minute boat ride from the famous fishing grounds of Cape Point - Our most popular method for catching Yellowtail is what we call "trolling" where we drag our lures behind the boat, while searching for shoals of bait fish on the surface. Sometimes they Yellowtail prefer it when we stop and cast spinners at them - This all depends on the day as each day stems different results from different methods! 

Yellowtail fish:

The Cape Yellowtail (Giant Yellowtail) or Latin name "Seriola Lalandi" migrate towards the east coast of Southern Africa, following the annual Sardine Run. These fish are found in large shoals, in depths of up to 100 meters and feed off smaller fish like Sardines, Squid and Anchovy. Just like the Cape Snoek, Yellowtail is an important commercial line-fish species down here in the Western Cape. Females can reach up to 1.2 meters where males can reach up to 900 centimeters, but as it stands now there is no real legal size limit. 

Finding the fish:

Yellowtail prefer the warmer areas of the cold Atlantic waters of the Cape - An ideal temperature would be between 16 to 19 degrees Celsius, although we have caught Yellowtail in waters as cold as 13/14 degrees Celsius! As Yellowtail is a highly migratory fish, they usually follow the warmer waters, which are usually a result of particular winds blowing. In our case the Southwesterly winds bring the warmer waters to our coast line and with that usually the fish follow! 

We like to depart from Simonstown, False Bay as early as possible - Usually we ask our guests to be at the public jetty by first light, because In our experience, game fish generally like to feed best at first light (morning) or last light (evening)! The first thing we do when we arrive at our desired fishing spot is we start looking for certain birds, in this case "Common Terns" otherwise known to the local fisherman as "Sterretjies", which usually feed on the bait fish that are getting chased to the surface of the water by the schools of Yellowtail! Most of the fishing action takes place near these birds, so its vital that we keep an eye out for any bird activity during the course of our trips!

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Yellowtail Fishing - Cape Point

Monster Yellowtail for the birthday boy!

Charl, the birthday boy and a couple of his friends joined us today on a Half-Day Inshore Fishing Charter off Cape Point, South Africa! We departed from Simonstown around 6:30 am and we were off to an early start. Mostly all Game fish are known to bite better during first light (early morning) or last light (late afternoon), well that's what we have experienced with over 20 years of sea-experience in the False Bay area and surrounds!

We arrived at Cape Point around 7:00 am, but to our surprise the water had gone cold over night due to the strong wind that had been blowing - We had 13 degree water, which is generally too cold for Yellowtail and other game fish which we target. There was also no sign of bird life (usually Common Terns and Cape Gannets) which are a massive aid when it comes to hunting these game fish, but we were determined to give our guests, especially the birthday boy the best experience possible, so we went in search of warmer water!

Using his knowledge and experience, our skipper, Alan decided to head South East of Cape Point to a well known fishing area called "Rocky Bank" - Four miles from Cape Point we started seeing signs of bird life and the water temperature was 2 degrees warmer. We hooked our fish, a Katonkel around 7:00 am and Charl was the first one to grab the screaming rod! Not long after, his friend was onto a fish of his own, this time a Yellowtail!

Before we knew it, the boys had each landed themselves 4 or 5 fish and could not smiling from ear to ear! The biggest Yellowtail was close to 7kgs and both boys were super proud of their new personal bests! Our boats policy allows our guests to keep their catch, which they did - Well done to them on their catch and enjoy tonight's supper! :)

On the left the birthday boy, Charl and his friend both smiling from ear to ear holding their Yellowtail Fish!

Pelagic Bird Watching on-board "Destiny"

Yesterday, we headed off Cape Point, heading for the well known "Canyon" area in search of Pelagic Sea Birds! Unfortunately we weren't able to find any trawlers or long-liners (which usually have thousands of Pelagic Sea Birds following) so we decided to use an alternative method known as "chumming" to attract these birds. Chumming is the practice of luring various animals, usually fish, but also birds, by throwing "chum" into the water. Chum is bait which consists of fish parts, bone and blood, which attract fish or birds, owing to their acute sense of smell. We managed to lure a fair number of birds which included; Pintado Petrels, White Chinned Petrels, Sooty Shearwaters, Southern Giant Petrel, Northern Giant Petrel, Wilsons Storm Petrel, Subantarctic Skua and the Black-Browed Albatross, which is featured in the picture below.

Our guests managed to get some really amazing pictures of these magnificent sea birds and we soon after started making our way back to Simonstown, but our day wasn't quite over yet - About 8 miles from Cape Point we came across a pod of Orca Whales, which were busy feeding and putting on a show! This is a huge playing factor on why the Great White Shark season in False Bay, Seal Island has been so slow lately. The Orca Whales, also known as "Killer Whales" have been targeting Great White Sharks along our coastlines and killing them for their livers, which is known to be the most nutritional part of the animal!

It was a great trip for everyone involved! :)  

Photo: Jeffery Slater

The Pilot Whale!

Today's Pelagic Bird Watching Charter was nothing but spectacular - Our skipper, guide and 5 bird enthusiasts headed in a South West direction off Cape Point in search of the magnificent Pelagic Birds! At the tip of Cape Point itself the bird life was phenomenal - there were several large groups of birds including Common Terns, Cape Gannets, White-Chin Petrels and Sooty Shearwaters all feeding off massive bait balls of anchovy, which were being chased to the surface by Yellowtail and Katonkel fish.  We were off to a great start! 

Much to everyone's amazement, we started seeing thousands of Pintado Petrels about 25 nautical miles off Cape Point - This was highly unusual for this time of the year as they usually migrate north by mid August. Soon after we had four species of Albatross greet us including the Southern Royal Albatross, Black-browed Albatross, Shy Albatross and the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross. Everyone managed to get some amazing pictures throughout the morning and it was time to start making our way back, but just to add the cherry on-top we were greeted by a group of Pilot Whales which started to follow us home!  

Pilot Whales are interestingly the second largest dolphin in the ocean after the famous "Orca Whale" otherwise known as a "Killer-Whale" and belong to the family of "delphinidae". 

These intelligent mammals received the name "Pilot Whale" from the belief that the pod will always follow a single leader, which is why there is speculation of these mass stranding's that occur from time to time. The pilot whale diet consists of fish, octopus, squid and shrimp and are known to dive up to 500 meters while searching for food. They also known as "Long-finned Pilot Whales", (you can see why in the picture below) and calve between April and September and are found practically everywhere around the world!

Bird Guide: Vince Ward

EXPLOSIVE DAY OF FISHING!

Today was one of "those" days where everything seemed to turn out perfectly - With warm water, 16.5 degrees to be exact, there were thousands of Common Terns and Cape Gannets feeding off massive Anchovy Bait Balls as we arrived at Cape Point. To our surprise, there was only one other fishing boat out, but hey, we weren't complaining - Just meant more fish for us! We started troweling our lures as we reached the "washing machine" (a well known area at Cape Point for mixed currents colliding) and it wasn't long after that we had our first strike! We started off landing one's and two's of Katonkel for the first hour and then the Yellowtail decided to play! Our guests from Germany (all six of them) took turns in pulling fish, almost non-stop until we had our allowed limit, sometimes all three rods would go off causing for some real action! Before we knew it, we had a boat full of fish and the sun was setting, so we decided to head back to Simonstown.

On our way back we were greeted by three or four different groups of Southern Right and Humpack Whales - We made sure to keep our legal distance and the guests were able to get some good pictures of these incredible animals doing their thing! Once we got back, we helped our guests fillet one or two of their catch and off they went smiling from ear to ear! As we like to support the locals, we decided to give the remaining fish (20 or more) to the local haven, "Happy Valley Home", a place for the homeless and hungry people in Simonstown and it's surroundings. It was a perfect way to end off such a outstanding day at sea!