A couple of
small fresh water exotics, Saratogas and Barramundi.
Weather
One of the best weeks weather encountered in 12 years of operating
"Seafaris" on the west coast of the Cape. Light off shore
winds 5 to 10 knots cloud less sky's and light afternoon sea breezes
with the tide turn to flood in the later afternoon during the latter
part of the week.
Moon and Tides
As standard for this time of the year, the spring lows to 0.4m
during the day, becoming progressively later as the autumn / winter
days of 2002 march on. Overnight lows of 2.2m to 2.5 and highs of
3.2 to 3.5m in the early morning and evening. Moon was designated
as first quarter on the Monday the 20th. I don't know why I include
this information, well I do know, you the reader want to know this
sort of thing. To me it has very little bearing or relevance on
the fishing from a prediction stand point. Believe me, "Fish
are where you find them, and he (or she) who puts in the most effort
gets the best results"….Here endith the lesson. Seriously
the whole moon tide thing is a bit of a crock where we fish, just
get out and do it, luckily for us it is always good, often fantastic.
Fishing
A couple of
small fresh water exotics, Saratogas and Barramundi.
Well, as with the weather, one of the best ever. The rate this
fishery is going it's like how an old hippie mate of mine used to
describe life, "It just gets better and better until you can't
stand it any more". 7 anglers, 53 species, total number of fish caught and released
in the high hundreds. Pairs of anglers catching 40 to 50 fish per
boat / day. Long tail Tunas averaging 12 kilos were plentiful although not
boiling as prolifically as I've seen. Absolutely impossible to not
catch as many as you can handle. How good is it when you are staked
out on the flats to sight cast to cruising exotics and the Tunas
are boiling in plain view half a mile away, you say to your companion
"haven't seen a fish for a bit, lets go and catch some of them
and come back in half a hour when the tide is a little further along"
Other catches included a 24 kilo Cobia, several great eating Spanish
Mackerals to 18 kilo, Golden Trevally, Barramundi, Sarratoga, Jacks
etc. etc. etc. 53 species in fact.
Howard from
California's Silicone valley with his unlucky permit that would
not revive. That will soon grace the wall of his office.
Best news last and this is this big, 7 presentations, 7 hook ups
for 5 landed Indo Pacific Permit. I am privy to a secret (soon to
be published by the developer in Florida) fly fishing for Permit
strategy so I can not elaborate. What I can report is using this
technique we had a 100% strike rate with 7 out of 7 Permit eating
the offering, 2 hooks pulled after 30 minutes of fighting the fish
and five, 9 to 11 kilo Permit being landed and photographed. All
bar one were released, one was hooked in the gills and bleeding
badly did not survive. My very good friend from California who caught
the fish was visibly shaken and distressed by the fishes death now
in the freezer and destined as a trophy for his office wall.I have ordered a digital still camera so I will be posting some
hopefully better and more varied pictures to this section of the
site instead of having to rely on clients digital images captured
to the onboard PC running the navigation / autopilot charting system
of the magnificent "Tropic Paradise" our new mother ship. Previous Fishing Trip Reports:
