Tuna Fishing from Gordons Bay
Tuna Fishing from Gordon’s Bay
By Alan du Plessis
Few people from Gordon’s Bay are aware that we live in one of the top tuna fishing towns in South Africa. It is a fact that the waters off Cape point, where the cold and warm currents of the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet in a cauldron of rough seas, high winds and stormy weather, hold some of the best fish and fishing on earth.
Since the first tuna was netted in SA waters in 1922, (a large bluefin tuna estimated at 500 pounds) the tuna have held a fascination for our locals like very few other fish have done. In 1930, C. Leo Biden, in his book Sea Angling Fishes of the Cape, wrote
“With the advent of sixty foot cutters to withstand our wind driven sea, some venturesome big-game angler may one day solve the meaning of an occasional big dorsal fin which some fishermen have for years mistaken for that of a large shark”
And how did we solve the meaning of those dorsal fins? Giant Bluefin Tuna were the culprits, but they have long since been fished out and are now a dim memory of a few surviving “big-game anglers” from yesteryear. But all is not lost. Yellowfin and longfin tuna still abound off our coast, and as mentioned previously, we are right up there within the top three tuna fishing villages in the country. Thirty nautical miles southwest of Cape Point is an area called the Cape Canyon, here the water gets to 1000 meters deep and during the summer months it is blue and warm and provides a bounty of food for the voracious tuna that stop over to fatten up during their annual migration. On weekends, when the southeaster is at rest (the odd occasion that this occurs) boats from the Gordons Bay Boat Angling Club and others can be seen leaving our shores before dawn to go in search of these magnificent game fish, many of which reach 80 or 90 kg. Just recently, a fish of 135kg was caught by Okkie Vermeulen, a local resident. It is one of the biggest tuna caught off our coast in recent years, and it was done right here in ‘!
As the winter fronts move in, so the water cools and these fish continue on their migratory routes, leaving our shores till the next summer’s south easters bring with them the warm water and big fish. Our tuna season is drawing to a close, I have felt the water cooling and the oceanic birds are plentiful out there, a sure sign that things down in Antarctica are getting too cold, even for them. But come and see in the old harbour and the new, next season, when the apples are in bloom and the first summer winds have abated. The boats will once again carry the enthusiastic anglers to wild waters south of Cape Point, where the tuna still abound.
Source: Gordon’s Bay Reviews – June, 2010 issue