LET THE GAMES BEGIN

[Originally published in the January 2024 issue of SKI-Boat magazine]

By Craig Stubbs

“TIME and tide wait for no man.” Truer words have never been spoken, and as chilly winter mornings become windy spring days, the Indian Ocean’s moods, currents, temperature and bounty fluctuate with those vagaries.
On the east coast of South Africa, those windy spring days herald a change. Initially very frustrating, as those winds mostly keep us off the water, come early- to mid-November, they generally begin to moderate just a little, and we start whispering excitedly about “gamefish season”. Those frustrating north easterly winds bring with them a warm current from the north, and that current heralds the arrival of the ocean’s speedsters.
In general, I keep my ears open for the arrival of gamefish on the KwaZulu-Natal upper north coast, particularly around Cape Vidal. When one starts seeing photos and stories of dorado, ’cuda and sailfish making an appearance there, it means that within two to three weeks, the lower north coast and upper south coast should start to see some action. Of course nothing is set in stone, but it’s uncanny how often this scenario plays out in almost identical fashion.
Those initial few weeks of the gamefish season can be a little erratic, but after months of most boats sitting idle in their boat sheds, just a little positive news is enough to get anglers setting early alarm clocks and dusting off their gamefish tackle.
For me, after months of having bottoms on the menu, gamefish is a welcome change both in terms of tackle and techniques, and also on a plate. Nothing comes close to the feeling of filleting those first few gamefish of the season with warm sunshine on your back and a cold beer in your hand.
I am not going to go into massive detail on the actual techniques used to catch gamefish, as this has been covered before, but I will share some helpful tips on upping the odds in your favour.

BE PREPARED TO TRAVEL
If you really want to get your reels screaming early in the season, then there is little doubt that places like Ponta Do Ouro, Sodwana Bay and Cape Vidal are the places to get to. They are consistently good producers of a variety of gamefish species early in the season.
However, fear not. Should you not be able to get “up north”, your local waters should also have a few fish by now.
If you have chosen to stick it out in your local areas, then a little on the water travel may be necessary too. Logic will tell you that these early season gamefish are not as abundant as they can be as the season progresses, so in this case I’ll go against my normal “stick, stay and make it pay” approach. If I’m out on the water and I hear that a few fish have come out within a 15/20km radius of where I’m currently fishing, I’ll often bring lines in and make the trip to that area and try to cash in.

TACTICS
Fortunately, livebait is normally pretty easy to come by early in the season as most of the cool water bait species are still around, so it should not take very long to stock up on a few livebaits. I like to get a mix of mackerel and maasbanker early in the season, and will not really fish larger baits such as shad or big sea pike at this time of year.
There’s a very good reason for this. Early season fishing is a bit of a lottery, and we have yet to establish what species are around, and what general areas are producing what fish, so, in a sense, we are fishing blind.
Now, I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but fishing a live shad, for example, quickly drops your odds of catching dorado and tuna which both have comparatively small mouths for their size, and much prefer a smaller bait. As a result, I prefer a mixed spread of smaller baitfish species which opens up my opportunities for most gamefish.
Talking of these “gamefish”, what exactly can we expect? In order of likelihood – and definitely not without exception – you’ll get dorado and yellowfin tuna, then ’cuda (king mackerel), then wahoo, billfish and some of the kingfish species.
We know that each of these species has their own “best practice” when it comes to targeting them, but as we are in effect fishing blind, we need a bit of a general approach.
Early in the season I’ll often start my day by pulling a few lures. I give this only 30- to 45 minutes to try and cover some water and perhaps get a quick bite. If that’s not successful, then I will switch to bait fishing – ideally livebait fishing if I’ve been able to get some “liveys”.
This might sound counter-intuitive, because I’ve already stated that you have a fair chance of snagging a ’cuda, but very rarely will I fish a wire trace early in the season. The moment you add wire, you quickly diminish your chances of catching a tuna or dorado, so I fish straight monofilament/fluorocarbon traces, and only switch to wire if I have been bitten off by a sharp-toothed gamefish.
Unfortunately, in the early gamefish season there are often quite a few small hammerhead sharks around, which bite and initially run pretty similarly to a gamefish, so if you have a small run and are cut off, it could also be a shark.
Examine the end of your trace line, as sharks often scuff the line with their sandpaper-like skin, and even the actual bite off on the line is often quite jagged and rough compared to a bite off from a ’cuda, for example, which is efficient and clean, almost like your line was cut by a pair of sharp scissors.
If I know for certain that I have been bitten off by a ’cuda, then I will fish wire traces on my downrigged baits, but I still fish straight mono on my surface baits, as these ones are most likely to get snacked on by any dorado or tuna that are be around.

DRIFTING VS TROLLING
I don’t mind doing some slow trolling for gamefish with one motor just in gear, but in the early season I do prefer to fish on the drift. Tuna can be very motor-shy when you’re fishing baits. For some reason, they will eat a lure in your prop wash but seem less likely to eat a livebait behind a running motor. This tip was given to me by an experienced commercial angler, and I’ve seen it play out enough times to realise that tuna prefer eating a drifted bait.
When fishing on the drift, I will generally go as far as a few hundred metres above my chosen reef (depending on wind drift/prevailing current), put out four lines (two or three on the surface and one or two weighted) and drift broadside towards my chosen spot.
Once I’ve passed that spot, I’ll continue the drift for another few hundred metres before repeating the process. It really does help to chum a little with sardine cutlets, and also to have one angler on board throwing a popper or stickbait. Make sure you are throwing that popper or stickbait on the same side of the boat where your spread is, as you want to attract fish towards your spread where they will hopefully take your baits. It is less effective if the angler is throwing a popper into open water where, if the fish passes up the popper, it is unlikely to take your next offering drifting on by.

READY, STEADY, GO
Lastly, if you do get some action, particularly from dorado or tuna, you need to be on top of your game and ready to capitalise on the bite. The aim is to keep those fish in the area for as long as possible before they move off, so if a rod goes away, while one angler is fighting their fish, I will often leave the other lines out and increase the chumming activity.
The reason I say you need to be on top of your game, is that when a large dorado decides to run along the surface, cartwheeling as he goes, you need to get those other lines managed so you don’t end up with one massive mess of line wraps and lost fish. The best practice is to wind your remaining lines in a little closer so they are out of the way of the action, but still in the strike zone. Assign your crew some specific tasks, whether it be chumming, managing a rod or two, or continuing to throw that lure, and you should be all right.
Hopefully the stars align and you get some early season bites and a few fish in the box. Remember that giving fresh fillets out this early in the gamefish season can hold you in good stead with the neighbours and boss for the rest of the season!