Titan Takes the Win

By Gary Maas; photos by Amanda Bruwer

AS with most fishing trips, my visit to Struisbaai in February started off with a phone call. My son, Craig, phoned me very excited: “Dad, will you come to the Struisbaai marlin comp with us?” “Sounds good, boy,” I replied. “What’s the deal? It turned out the boat, accommodation and entrance fee were all in — Dad’s coming!

I was really looking forward to fishing with my two boys — Craig and Ryan — who are now both top anglers. Ryan “Pulsator” Williamson had a very successful Cape Verde marlin season with over 131 marlin to his credit, and Craig was based in Cape Town, catching marlin and yellowfin from Hout Bay and Gordons Bay through his charter company, Big Game Fishing.

Ryan and I flew into Cape Town on the Saturday morning and soon found our accommodation — a lovely house owned by Chris Steyn. Later that day we were joined by Grant Peddie of Magson Marine who was joining us for the week. In the driveway stood a great big gleaming 25ft Titan — straight out the box.

On the Sunday we launched at 5.30am and headed straight to Five Mile Reef although it felt like Reef City because there must have been 100 boats there — commercial and competition boats — all catching yellowtail. I went around the edge and we caught one 5.6kg yellowtail on a kona; we won third prize in the Calcutta for this one.

The sea was jumping a bit, so we headed out to the banks about 40km out. When we got to Halfway House the water was just below 21 degrees and the Pulsator lures went out. We were pulling lures because there were no baitfish; the sea was very dead and we returned to base at 4.30pm.

Heading back we were dealing with 25 to 30 knot winds, a big swell and a following sea, but the boat rode like a dream. She’s also very economical and we only used 105 litres while travelling about 40 nautical miles that day.

On the Monday we headed back out to Five Mile Reef where commercials had spotted some marlin. We put out a 7kg yellowtail and ten minutes later we had a hookup. It was a very strong fish and we never saw it — it parted the line on the reef after 30 minutes.

Over the radio we heard that Stompie had a hookup and release of a striped marlin at Halfway House. We continued trolling with Pulsator lures but had saw no other life so we returned to base at 4pm.

On Tuesday and Wednesday there was no fishing because the sea was bad, so we had a good time at the club instead before heading back home to prepare for Thursday’s fishing.

Back at Reef City there were tons of boats all catching yellowtail, but there were none for us. Craig caught an octopus on a jig so we headed to Halfway House. Saw a mako jumping, as well as some sunfish and blue bottles, but no marlin. Alas, the water did not have that Moçambique smell to it, something I always looked for in my marlin days. Wombat took a black marlin on a kona at 12 Mile, but no other fish were reported.

Our plan for the Friday was to hit Five Mile Reef to try for livebait, but we had no luck so instead we set off for 12 Mile pulling konas. The water temp was good at 21 degrees and the colour was blue — good indications.

About 4km before 12 Mile we saw a big pinnacle on the fishfinder, so we put out some small lures, did a circle, and bang — two skipjack onboard. Craig and Ryan rigged them very quickly and once the livebait was in the water we did a wider circle around the pinnacle. Within five minutes we had a hook-up but did not see fish for 40 minutes until it jumped behind the boat.

It was a black marlin of approximately 170kg. Brad was on the rod fighting what was a very strong fish. Twenty minutes later Ryan had the leader and the fish was released next to the boat.

We put out some small lures and headed for 12 Mile where all the other boats were. Over the radio we heard of a hookup here, hookup there, but they were mostly sharks. I turned the boat and went back to the pinnacle we found earlier, got another skipjack and put the livebait in the water. One circle around the pinnacle and we were on again. The fish took off too fast to be a shark, but we didn’t see it for 20 minutes. We had to ask for extra time from control and as our time was almost up the fish came to the surface 60 metres away — marlin time! Forty minutes later we had another safe release — Chris Steyn’s first marlin, about 120kg. With smiles all around we returned to base, hoping that we had won the competition, as Wombat also had two fish.

We were indeed successful in taking away the first prize, so that was a great ending to our trip. I must say, as an avid marlin angler I think Struisbaai is a great venue. I would, however, suggest using 80 lb International outfits if you’re targeting marlin in that area because I believe there are big marlin there in excess of 800 lb, and fishing with 50 lb stand-up rigs gave my boys a hard time.

I must compliment the Suidpunt Deep Sea Angling Club for being great hosts; we hope to be back to defend our title next year.

1. Titan (Skipper Ernie Magson, Chris Steyn, Craig Maas, Ryan Williamson, Grant Peddie, Brad du Plessis)

2. Wombat (Skipper JB Snyman, Steve Denny, Rudolf Jonker, Div De Villiers)

3. Stompie (Skipper Riaan Swart,Willie Steenkamp,A Nortje, E J v Rensburg, R vd Merwe)