I was recently joined at the lodge by a couple who came to celebrate her 50th birthday. What better way than to take your better half fishing…, and for seven days from ten nights, just to cover your bases.
She is quite new into fishing, and wanted a trophy fish that would make her remember her birthday. She had heard of a GT (Giant Trevally) of which I have a few photos in my bar. She had never caught one, yet.
We set out to get her one, but, alas, the gamefish went off the bite. Now, October is usually a good month. Maybe there would be a little wind around, still from September, but you would expect to snag at least a Yellowfin tuna, GT, Cuta, Wahoo and/or a Sailfish. These are the fish we catch in the beginning of summer/spring.
On the first day we caught a couple of Bullet tuna, which we subsequently rigged, and swam as live bait. This is one of the preferred baits for GT’s. They got involved with some action which turned out to be some reef sharks. So, we put more bait out, two up and two down with weights, and caught some more sharks- we ended on four! No GT’s. We did manage to snag a Great Barracuda in the process, which is a great table fish, and it went into the hatch for dinner.
Day two, and we trolled the shallows by the sand banks, looking for a GT. When the sun was high in the sky, we went on the drift, with baits- still nothing.
When this happens, one usually starts trolling the www, to see what is the apparent cause of the unwillingness of the fish to partake in the action. One starts analysing the weather channels, checking on barometrical pressure deviances, offshore storms, wind direction and the like. One also then becomes an aspiring astronomer, in that you also look for answers in the moon, amongst other things……
Day 3, I started seeing Sailfish finning on the surface. This was while we were on the drift, and on the troll. We didn’t want a Sailfish though, we wanted a GT! So we persisted with plan A.
On seeing the Sailfish finning again, and after a barren three hours doing what we did for the first two days, I called for plan B to be put forward. The hypnotist had caught, and released one Sailfish off Madagascar the previous trip, and he was keen to see Mandy get her own. His had a name: Molly, which is proudly displayed on the wall of their pub! There are stiff penalties if you don’t greet Molly when you are invited for a drink there.
We ended up raising 2, had two strikes, and one hook-up, which we duffed. Mandy found new respect for a Sailfish, because apparently Molly didn’t put up much of a fight off Madagascar. This one pulled 15# drag so hard and for 200 meters, that I was silently hoping that Mandy wouldn’t let go of the rod- one of my favourites. This had happened in the past with a previous lady angler.
Day 4 was the date of her birthday, and we needed a good fish to dilute the party atmosphere that usually comes with turning 50! 50 is a difficult one- one starts to worry about all sorts of things. Am I feeling a lot older than the day before? Is it all downhill from here?
My newfound crew started seeing the signs of Sailfish finning, as I had explained what to look for. First the hypnotist, and then also Mandy started seeing them. As I was preparing baits at the stern, I would hear shouts- there’s one, no two, no three……They did sure see a lot of them. We ended with another two raised into our spread, one stuck, and as we had a previous day dress rehearsal, Mandy knew what to expect and got her sailfish, Dansa, which we released after I had the leader under control. As is usually the case with only three on the boat, things happen quite quickly when it jumps on your bait, and there is a lot of excitement around. The hypnotist managed to get the shot on the video, after I told him that I didn’t want that responsibility, as I didn’t even know how to turn the damn thing on. Besides, I had to clear lines, steer the boat and do all sorts of other important stuff.
Mandy got her Sailie on her 50th, the hypnotist got his video shot, and thereafter we went into celebration mode. Luckily the next day would be a rest day.
The following day, we went back to plan A, but only briefly. We were all feeling abit under the weather from the celebrations, and didn’t put up our best fight. It seemed as if the fish were also not in the mood again. No strikes, and no fish.
Next day it was the Hypnotists chance to find Molly a mate. We brought our best and ended up raising 6, having 5 strikes, and getting one fish- called the Captain Hook. Now that is its own story, but briefly, whilst I was wiring the fish, it was still a little green, and the hooks came out as I was leadering the fish, and I caught sight of it at the last moment coming to me at a rate of knots. I turned my face, and the treble hook went straight into my temple!
So, the hypnotist got the Sailfish, Mandy got the shot which was an improvement on the previous days camera work, and I, the Captain, got the treble hook in my temple!
Mandy wanted nothing to do with taking it out, and the hypnotist’s glasses couldn’t be found, so it was with sadness that we had to return to a fishing friend, Niel, at a neighbouring lodge, so that he could remove it without too much fanfare.
I was disappointed, because it was only 11am, and we had raised 6 fish, got one, and we were due for at least another. It was an incredible day in that we must have seen 30 fish at various times finning at that stage of the morning, at 11am. It was the most Sailfish I had seen in all my time fishing- all 10 000 hours of it- from all over the world! Later, that night, my head throbbed as I realised that that was the day to fish all day, and not get off the water. It was one of those days that you got to convert, because they only come around every so often. Hindsight is a perfect science.
It was an incredible 7 days fishing with this couple. I failed in that I didn’t get them a GT, but they just weren’t there. The sailfish had come, as had the Yellowfin Tuna and some Cuta on the last day...