Holiday Dorado
Offshore Fishing Report – December/January 2020
With the weather against us on many days with strong NE and SW winds and some really choppy seas the last 2 weeks have been very busy and we have done a lot of trips between the boats even with days that the weather did not allow for a trip. For the first time in my life I encountered water of 27.6 deg.C straight out the port, usually we find this warm water 50km out. Dorado have been around and have been regular catches on all trips along with a few Yellowfin Tuna, this seasons Dorado have been on the small to medium size with many little rats and the better ones only 4-7Kg with the odd one bigger, the Yellowfin Tuna have been scarce. The Oceanic Bonito arrived during this period which is a very good sign as this means that Black Marlin are around, we have been catching a lot of these with many multiple hook ups which is always great fun on the boat. Nawty Girl hooked up a Sailfish and on the same day Fat Girl hooked up a small Marlin almost at the same time, sadly both fish came off on the jump. Bottom fishing has been a bit slow but some nice fish have come out. The highlight for this holiday period was a really nice Yellowfin Tuna of 14Kg on Nawty Girl. This hot weather the past few days is caused by the Agulhas current being so close to shore along with the very warm water temperatures and I think a nice cold front will do wonders for the fishing and give the fans and air-conditioners a break. By the looks of things we may have a longer season than usual and the Dorries will be here for longer, I hope so anyway.
