Nikao Fishing Adventures- Action updates

Nikao

New member
    So December 2012 has just about come and gone...and what an  interesting month it has been!
Fishing has been tough but we have had some successes and  some failures!  Water conditions have  gone from one extreme to the next, from horrible dirty green and cold water, to  sparkling deep purple and hot waters!
One of my first trips for the Season was with Debbie and her  daughter Sheena …
Debbie was the designated bait catcher for the day - landing  some good size Mackerel; while Sheena caught a nice bull Dorado and her man  Lloyd caught a nice Daga Salmon (which came off the hook right at the boat and  swam away only to surface again a short while later!).  We also managed to catch one of the largest  Puffer-Fish I have ever seen, as well as some nice Snapper and Slinger!
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That afternoon I took out Martin and his wife for a short  trip, where we even caught a nice Dorado in and among all the debris and trees  floating around due to the heavy rains the week before!
The next day was a trip with Jaco and his father, who have  been regulars on board, sadly this trip was hard work and we only managed a  couple of  Snapper and some Slinger off  the bottom and despite my best efforts the Tuna and Dorado evaded us!
However, my very next trip started off with a bang, as within  minutes of setting the spread, one of the rigger lines took off like a jet  plane!  After thinking this was a nice  sized Tuna, I was happily mistaken to find out that it was in fact a 20kg  Couta!!! Caught on a Kona of all things!!! I am just glad that that particular  Kona was rigged with a single hook chain-gang which is what saved us! Sadly the  Kona was not the same after that…as most of the skirt was missing! Also managed  a couple of nice sized Dorado as well!
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Then I had Niel on board - this trip was hard but we had  managed to find a nice big school of Tuna in the 5-7kg range, unfortunately  these guys were not interested in feeding, we tried everything from Kona’s to  Rappala’s to drifting baits to Chumming…they were just not interested in  anything we threw at them! We did however get smashed up on the bottom about 6  times with something we could not hold on to and in fact, it pulled so hard  that it straightened the hooks!  Sadly we  ran out of time before we managed to get one up; but I have the spot marked and  will be going back with some heavy tackle to catch whatever is lurking beneath!   That very afternoon I had 2 gentlemen  from the UK on board and with good weather I made my way out to the deep! Water  was good but on the cooler side.  We found  a couple of nice Dorado and had a couple of Marlin strikes too, but sadly they  would not stick!
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Then on the 24[sup]th[/sup] I had Justin and his mates on  board; the weather was good but the water was not great and after a couple of hours  of trolling I found some clean and warm water in-between the ships off Umhlanga!   And as the sun broke through the clouds we  were on with a double-up on Dorado...which we landed - both Bull and Queen of  about 8-10kg!  As we set the spread again  we had another take from another pair of Dorries but after a short fight they  came off the hooks and no sooner had they come off the hooks, I watched as a  Sailie hit the one lure and gave it a quick run before dropping it and disappearing!   Knowing that there was a Sailie around I  worked the area trying to see if he would come in for another go at the lures…but  to no avail! 
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I also managed to get in a nice Harbour Trip for Ashlin where  we had some great fun on light tackle catching Grunter and Snapper Salmon!
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Then yesterday I was out with almost perfect water … a deep  dark purple colour and average temp of 26.5 deg. I headed for the deep only to  find that the good water actually started in nice and close! So I dropped lines  and started my hunt for Dorado and Tuna! It was not long before we found the  Dorado in some 29deg water, the current was screaming south to north which made  bottom fishing near impossible, so we decided to keep on trolling! Then all of  a sudden the shot gun went screaming away and as I watched the line disappear we  saw her jump - and a big Black Marlin armed with only a Torium 30 and 40lb line…this  was going to be an interesting one! We had a good hook up and this beautiful  fish was giving us a really aerobatic display! When all of a sudden the line  parted at the reel but the Black was still not done showing off and carried on  giving us a nice display!  She was  jumping alongside the boat when she turned and almost charged the boat jumping  clear out the water and heading straight at us! I managed to throttle back as  she jumped clear over the bow of the boat…I guestimate that she was at least  3.5 to 4m! It would have been rather interesting had she jumped on board!  But Brian and his family where happy to have  seen such a magnificent aerial display!
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Then today was some family time before a Harbour trip in the  afternoon - so we headed to the back line for an hour or so!  We didn’t catch too much, just a small Pinkie  and Lizard Fish, but the kids and Mommy enjoyed themselves!
As for the Harbour trip; Shaun and his two daughters had a  great time catching some little Stumpies and Kingies! We also got a small  Grunter and a Harbour Eel!
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Thank you once again to all my great customers!  This year has been great…Let’s do it again in  2013!
 

Nikao

New member
So with the weekend behind here's whats happened! On Saturday i have to run 2 8 hour trips the first we launched at 4:00am into a light SW wind with swells around 3m at 15 seconds! it was not long before we found some good water nice and close! temp was up around the 26deg marks and water was deep blue and clean! after working the area for a while i kept seeing a dark shadow in the spread but alas it was not ready to commit to any of the lures! after traveling up north we tried a bit of bottom fishing, as we get read to drop lines we hear a report over the radio of a hook up on a Black Marlin about an hour and a half later they landed it on a TLD20 but sadly it got caught up in the props and died
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   The current on the bottom was flying from South to North this was going to be a tough as we where drifting up to 500m off the mark in what felt like seconds! but we did manage a couple of nice sized Snapper before we called it quits for the day and headed back! After giving the boat a quick clean and grabbing some Chow my next Charter arrived! I had, had to move there trip from the other day when the weather was so bad! as they all walked onto the Dock Deon says that it is only going to be him and i on the boat as "mommy" and the Kids are not wanting to join us this time as they are a bit scared of fishing into the night! 
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So after a quick fuel stop we exited the harbour at around 14:00 and with the Swell dropping i made my way to the deep blue water to look for that shadow from earlier in the day! after a couple of hours i was starting to get worried as we had not even had a sniff on the lures!! I decided to head back to some shallower waters when 
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as i looked back all i could see was this beautiful sight of a 
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jumping against the Suns reflection on the water! Woooooohooooo!!!!! after quickly Strapping Deon in to the harness and clearing the lines the fight was on! Deon was smiling From ear to ear!
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with only the 2 of us on the boat this was going to be a tough one as i have to skipper, Direct leader, and tackle hooks and fish! but after a 30min she was close to the boat and gave us a good couple of Jumps! after 45min i had her on the leader next to the boat! now was the tricky part to grab hold while leadering the fish! i had asked deon to unclip him self and place the rod back into the gunnel so that he could come give me a hand as i reached out to grab her bill the hook pulled and she quickly darted back down to the depths!! sadly i was unable to get a pic of Deon holding his fish but he got to see her and loved every min of it! after a quick couple of High fives!we rested the spread and continued onward!
 
Well done, Bud, you guys are doing well!

All the best for 2013.

I see your dad ordered a bunch of poppers from me, is there an epic trip coming up?
 

Nikao

New member
Finally Have some good weather this weekend so going to spend both Saturday and Sunday Chasing some Marlin
 

Nikao

New member
Finally Have some good weather this weekend so going to spend both Saturday and Sunday Chasing some Marlin
 

Nikao

New member
Finally Have some good weather this weekend so going to spend both Saturday and Sunday Chasing some Marlin
 

Nikao

New member
Headed out to the deep on Saturday and had 3 good Strikes but not of them Stuck managed a couple of Small tuna! Water temp was up over 27deg no Dorado around!

Sunday Went out but trip was short lived as clients turned a pale shade of Green after the first hour and asked to head back!
 

Nikao

New member
Just received a nice email this morning-

I would like to thank Richard from Nikao Fishing adventures for the experience of a life time, he went out of his way to accommodate me. My first experience with a deep-sea charter was well disappointing especially when they started to cut baby sharks heads off and throw them back into the sea calling it "tag and release". 
Nikao Fishing adventures (Richard) respects the sea and what is in it, his boat is very well rigged for both game fishing and for bottom fishing, and you get your money's worth from the trip.
My trip started in the afternoon from 14h00, we had just exited the harbor mouth when Richard decided to start trawling for game fish, and after approximately 3 hours of trawling we got hooked into a Black Marlin, my first ever game fish, 123.5kg and 2,5m long (which was released), man what a beautiful fish especially when it jumps out of the water.
I will recommend Nikao Fishing adventures to anyone who wants a enjoyable time on the sea, and will only use Nikao Fishing adventures to go fishing on the sea.
My next goal is to catch Tiger fish with Nikao Fishing adventures. 
Once again thanks Richard for a unforgettable experience.
 Deon Claassens
 
Nikao wrote:
Just received a nice email this morning-

I would like to thank Richard from Nikao Fishing adventures for the experience of a life time, he went out of his way to accommodate me. My first experience with a deep-sea charter was well disappointing especially when they started to cut baby sharks heads off and throw them back into the sea calling it "tag and release". 
Nikao Fishing adventures (Richard) respects the sea and what is in it, his boat is very well rigged for both game fishing and for bottom fishing, and you get your money's worth from the trip.
My trip started in the afternoon from 14h00, we had just exited the harbor mouth when Richard decided to start trawling for game fish, and after approximately 3 hours of trawling we got hooked into a Black Marlin, my first ever game fish, 123.5kg and 2,5m long (which was released), man what a beautiful fish especially when it jumps out of the water.
I will recommend Nikao Fishing adventures to anyone who wants a enjoyable time on the sea, and will only use Nikao Fishing adventures to go fishing on the sea.
My next goal is to catch Tiger fish with Nikao Fishing adventures. 
Once again thanks Richard for a unforgettable experience.
 Deon Claassens
That is nice...

When did this trip take place? Why don't I recall reading a report including a Black Marlin?^^..
 

Nikao

New member
So with the weather forecast looking good for the weekend I have 3 trips booked!
The one sadly was cancelled due to rain... so I ended up with a back line/Harbour trip and a short 5 hour No 1 trip!
The Back line harbour trip was an interesting one as we had many interesting species of the backline, Small snapper salmon, Small rock cod and by small I mean 15cm to 20cm black tail and then something I have yet to identify!  Anyhow after a couple of hours the guys started to feel a bit green so we headed for the harbour for an hour but unfortunately the harbour was quiet! Not even a nibble! We returned to the doc for about 11:00pm… the next morning I was up and out for a 5:00am launch. As we headed out to No1 we started to set the spread and with only the 3[sup]rd[/sup] line wet we had our first take… a small bonnie.. which on the 30lb tackle was a nice bit of fun for the guys... we continued on we had a nice multiple hook up with 3 lines away. One of the 3 however was screaming away… so we quickly landed another 2 bonnies as Ettienne started to fight what I initially thought to be a large tuna…. After a couple of minutes we could start to see the spool of the reel so I turned around and gave chase to get some line back.. we managed to get most of the line back but this beast of a fish did not want to turn… every time we gave it a chance it just peeled line! There was nothing we could do. I am not even sure the fish knew it was hooked, but after about an hour of following and trying to turn it without any success... we decided it was make or break time so we pushed up the Drag and held on... but this was short lived at the line parted….. I would guess it was a big shark but am not convinced that it was. It would run like a big tuna and had an aggressive head shake... but I guess we will never know what it was now… any way the trip continued and we managed a couple more tuna... 1 yellow fin, 2 skip jacks and 3 bonnies came home with us the rest of the Skip Jacks we managed to release. So in total we had 10 tuna and one large unknown!
 

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