BACK TO BACK SUCCESSFUL TUNA CHARTERS...

Yellowfin Tuna Madness!

On Monday we had two Swedish guests join us on a Offshore Tuna Charter - Skipper, Alan, decided to head into the West of Cape Point after doing research on where the warmer water was situated. It was a decision which our guests would never forget. As we arrived in West, we were boat alone, but Alan said that the water was the right temperature (19-20 degrees), the color was right and the bird life seemed promising. Man was he right! Shortly after putting our back-lines in the water, which consisted of larger size Rapala's (deep-divers) and various size squids, we had our first hook-up of a 45 kg Yellowfin Tuna! Our guest Fredrik was first to take charge of the rod and impressively landed his fish in under 20 minutes. With utter stoke on his face, he handed the harness gear to his friend Katrina and she waiting anxiously for her turn to take on the mighty Yellow-fin Tuna! 

About an hour later, the ratchet went off and it was Katrina's turn! She grabbed the rod and we clipped her in. She surprised us all, by not giving up she fought the fish one on one and managed to land her very first, personal best Yellow-Fin Tuna of about 40-50 kg's. She was beside herself and we were super proud of her achievement. Our guests went on to catching ac couple of Long-fin Tuna shortly after and then it was as if someone turned the lights off and the fish stopped biting. We returned home to Simonstown with big smiles and some great memories.  Well Done Fredrik and Katrina on an amazing catch!

Yesterday's trip was an action packed day to remember. Our return guests from America, joined us, but this time for a Tuna Charter. They have been with us before, where we caught heaps of Long-Fin Tuna, but now they had returned to catch the elusive Yellow-fin Tuna! The three boys ended up taking turn's fighting larger sized Yellow-Fin Tuna, one of which exceeded 100 kg's. All our guests landed their largest, personal best record Yellow-Fin Tuna and to make the day even better, we landed a couple of large (15-20 kg) Long-Fin Tuna. 

Well done to all our guests from the last two charters - We hope to see you again soon! :D

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Lets talk about...

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

Lets talk about...

Yellowfin tuna fishing!

The mighty Yellowfin tuna are found in the warmer pelagic waters of tropical and subtropical oceans around the world! Its metallic dark blue back and yellow/silver looking belly make for an incredible looking tuna fish. These tuna fish can reach up to 130 kg's in size and are extremely fast and can reach speeds of up to 40 mph. During the warmer water months of October to June Cape Boat Charters starts to run Offshore Fishing Charters to target the bigger fish species off Cape Town, South Africa. These species include the famous Yellowfin tuna, Longfin tuna (Albacore), Skip jack tuna, Big eye tuna and Dorado (Mahi-mahi). For 9 months of the year these full day fishing charters will take you into the deeper oceanic waters off Cape Point in search of these monsters! 

Nutrient rich water is found at a place known to the local fisherman as the "Canyon" as a result of the mixing of two large ocean currents namely the Benguela current and the Agulhas current. This are is close to the continental shelf and is home to the larger tuna fish species!

Feel free to comment, share or message us if you have any questions or information and we will happily get back to you straight away! :)

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Yellowfin tuna fish (Thunnus Albacares)

Game Fishing Off Cape Point!

Yellowtail Fishing!

We headed off for a Half-Day Fishing Charter towards Cape Point from Simonstown at 6:00 am this morning in search of Yellowtail, Katonkel and possibly Cape Snoek! There were a couple of commercial boats on anchor sitting off Buffels Bay trying for some Snoek, but we didn't see anything coming up so decided to push on towards the point. When we arrived our guests took some photos of Cape Point and the South Western Tip of Africa, Cape of Good Hope as we were setting our lines for a days fishing. 

We had 15 degree water temperature and plenty of birds working in our area. We started off catching 1 or 2 Katonkel, but shortly after the birds seemed to disperse so we upped our lines and made our way to a well known reef called "Rocky Bank" about 3 or 4 miles south/south west of Cape Point. When we arrived there, there weren't a lot of birds working like earlier but the boats were all huddled up close to each other so we knew that something must have happened. We stuck it out and slowly the fish started to bite! 

First the one rod would go off (rapala) and then another rod (feather) and before we knew it we were having triple hook-ups! Each of our guests took turns pulling fish until we had a nice amount for then to take home. We had almost no wind the entire morning and zero swell. It was a pleasant Inshore Fishing Trip for all involved! :) 

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

FULL HANDS AND FULL ON SMILES!

Our guests today, Mark and Sharon, joined us on a Half-Day Inshore Charter to Cape Point - We departed from Simonstown at first light and made our way past Boulders Beach, home to thousands of African Penguins, formerly known as "Jackass Penguins". As we arrived at Cape Point we put our lines in the water and before the line was even properly set we had our first strike with a Yellowtail on a Rapala. After Mark landed the first fish, it was on! We continued to pull fish one after another (Katonkel and Yellowtail) until it was time to head back. On our return home we came across a group of Humpack Whales doing there thing in the distance. We managed to get a few pictures to end off the great day! Well done to Mark and Sharon on their catch! :)

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! 

60 000 SQUABBLING CAPE FUR SEALS!

Our guests from Spain joined us today on a Scenic Eco Trip to Seal Island, False Bay! The island is home to well over 60 000 Cape Fur Seals and a variety of bird life, including 4 different species of Cormorant. With the Cape Fur Seals being the Great White Sharks main source of food, there is always a chance of witnessing a once in a life time encounter between the two species! With the Island being situated approximately 16kms (8 Nautical Miles) from Simonstown, we frequently encounter other magnificent sea animals like Dolphins and Whales, like we did today! :)