Yellowfin Tuna off Port Shepstone

Yellowfin Tuna off Port Shepstone

The yellowfin tuna off Port Shepstone on the southern KZN South Coast, often come and chase the hapless shoals of red eye sardines and mackerel in the Umtentweni area, this time of the year. I think they also need a break from the sharks out there on Protea. Imagine those okes cruising your favourite restaurant all day and night? Anyway, from the whale watching platform at Tweni we saw some action, and in the late afternoon, decided on a quick ambush.

The launch out the mouth has been unruly as of late, so it was with fluttering pulses we cleared the backline and set lines. Catching bait is so much fun and it wasnlt too long before someone shouted “full line” and the game was on. They leave as soon as they start so in the break we got a live bait and a lure out the back, the live mackerel with a condom attached to keep it “safe” and in position behind the boat.

The mackerel went almost immediately and a nice 5kg bonito did a great act of convincing me, and then me in turn, everyone on the boat, that it was a couta. But the bonito went back as is, but with an extended live bait trace, looking healthy. Not for long.

Then we got a second mackerel to join him, also with a condom for “safe” tangle free fishing, and we settled into a nicely aimed drift across our favourite bricks. The east was up and the current has returned to normal and we were heading south at a knot or two when bang bang bang the Saltiga rig starts to get bashed about in it’s holder. No sooner than I had got that free, did the other rod absolutely scream. And scream. I cunningly handed the Saltiga to Roosta and backed the drag off the 50H. Different coloured layers of line were peeling off the reliable old Daiwa, punctuated by my knots like commas in a fast sentence. Luckily all the knots amounted to hundreds of metres and it all got spent out by the time Roosta and Elvis had cleared the decks and started to give gentle chase.

The fish kept going but we closed the gap in about 15 minutes. This time nobody believed that this fish was anything but a ‘couta somewhere hopefully in the class of Roger Davison’s huge couta caught at Hibberdene a month or two back.

The fish we were fighting gradually came closer and then got very energetic and started to dart left and right and under the boat. Not big ‘couta behaviour at all, unless he was foul hooked. Which he was, but that still did not make him a ‘couta. No, it was a lovely yellowfin tuna that gave us such sport. The hooks had him down the side for extra speed on that first run but the adrenalin was not a waste, and I’ll eat tuna any day!