Maiden Voyage

By: Craig Heslop

On Friday we headed up to Cape Vidal, the mecca of gamefish diving on the South African coast line and prodigious producer of big gamefish. It was to be the first real test for my new boat, a 15ft Monohull with 2 x 40hp motors, customized for spearing.

 

The boat was named Gcwalisa, meaning “Fill it up” in Zulu and this was to be her first test. We launched at 12pm and were at Leven Point by 12:30, with incoming tide, North – South current and clean water, the recipe was perfect for big fish. Within minutes of getting into the water a shoal of mackerel came through, however the bigger fish in the shoal (20kg’s +) were too wise for me and I couldn’t get within range.

 

I was lying on the sand on the outside of the deep reef at Leven (about 20m of water) when I saw the torpedo shape of 3 Wahoo on the surface, their pointy beaks signaling a surge of adrenalin through my veins. Previous experience has taught me just how hard these fish can be to approach, so I was very careful not to appear too aggressive or threatening and I slowly swam to the surface avoiding eye contact with the fish. I singled out the biggest one and so began a game of cat and mouse as I inched within range, finally releasing a shot with my Carbon Stealth 130cm.

 

The fish was hit well and the first run was slow until the slack of the float line was taken up where after it disappeared out to sea with my 11lt float. The fish swam more than 1km out to sea during which time I got on the boat 3 times to chase it, ever conscious of the likelihood of a big Bull shark eating my catch as it tired. I was lucky to haul the beautiful fish in within 20 minutes and boated my biggest Wahoo to date of 28kg’s (61.6lb’s).

 

It was my lucky day as I bagged another fine Wahoo of 20kg’s shortly thereafter and four nice Mackerel of between 10 – 18kg’s during the afternoon.

 

Here’s to hoping that Gcwalisa continues to produce more fine fish!