South Sea Safaris Fishing Charters - Game Fishing

Welcome to the web site of South Sea Fishing Safaris. As one of the longest operating deep sea and tuna fishing charter businesses in Cape Town and the Western Cape our success rate speaks for itself. Started in 1998, our reputation has been built on solid service and performance. Most of our clients come back for more and some use us to the exclusion of all other charter operators. We have added a local fishing report at the bottom of this page to give our overseas and upcountry visitors and idea of what is happening on the local scene. We'll tell it like it is, no frills, when it's good we'll tell you, and when it's bad, we'll tell you that too. Please have a look and e-mail your comments to us.

South Sea Fishing Safaris caters for local as well as visiting international anglers and freedivers. Join us on one of our customized craft, from the custom built 11 meter sportfishing cruiser to our new 9 meter sportfisher and an 8.6 meter ski-boat suitable for smaller groups. Operating from Gordons Bay and Struisbaai, all boats are fully seaworthy and safety certified. We have self-catering or fully catered accommodation at both venues. The choice is yours.

NOTE - Pictures are thumbnails for quick downloads. Please click on thumbnails to see full size picture and text.

We have taken delivery of our new 9 meter catamaran, "Tyler", named after our trusty jack russel boat dog, is bigger and better than the old 8 meter cat, Le Boat. Tyler is a 9meter butt-cat powered by twin 200 hp Suzuki four strokes. She is extremely fast and very comfortable. During her maiden fishing tournament she took top honours with an 86kg yellowfin tuna caught by Gareth Beaumont. We have now run about 60 trips and she performs superbly. The "new" Lynx is not so new anymore and is now fast approaching four years old. Last season we installed two new Suzuki 250hp motors and she should be good to go for a few more years. We have kept one of the older motors as a back-up in case of problems and should anything unforeseen occur we could reasonably expect to get either boat back on the water within a day. Below is a list of notable achievements over the last few years:

LYNX - 1st Prize, Gordons Bay Offshore Classic 2003 - 1st Marlin landed at Gordons Bay Feb 2004 (97kg Striped Marlin) - 1st Prize, Hout Bay Tuna Derby 2004 - Top Boat, Gordons Bay Offshore Classic 2005 - Top Boat, Gordons Bay Offshore Classic 2006.

TYLER - 1st Prize Gordons Bay Offshore Classic 2007 - 2nd Place, Two Oceans Marlin Tournament Struisbaai 2009.

If rock & surf or fly-fishing is your forte, allow us to take you to some of the best fishing spots around the coast and some of the most productive inland waters. We provide good quality tackle, and apart from specialist fly-fishing equipment, everything will be supplied. Fishing is to IGFA standards and records can be claimed.

On the underwater side of things, we offer blue-water hunting off Cape Point and reef diving trips up the Cape Coast. These trips can be arranged for any period of time. Have a look at our rates page for and idea of what is on offer. The South African record yellowfin tuna was broken many times by spearfishermen in the last couple of seasons and I have no doubt it will be broken again soon. Our biggest fish speared so far was a brute of 95kg with a number of fish in the 90's having been taken. Fish of between 80 and 90 have almost become a formality. If you could ever say spearing a yellowfin is a "formality". Incidentally, we managed to catch our 100+kg fish during the last season, 101.2kg to be exact. We once again had a number of fish in the 90 to 95kg class, but only one of over a 100. Our ladies spearfishing record yellowfin of 66kg also still stands. This is only 2kg short of the current ladies world record.

We will arrange all bookings, collect you at Cape Town International Airport, arrange transfers and/or car hire and ensure you are accompanied to our guest house/holiday apartment or any other accommodation you may choose.

Join us for a day, a week, or a month, we offer a truly memorable local fishing adventure.

I could tell you all that we have been so busy fishing, that I have not had time to update the web site or do a fishing report. Truth of it is, I have just been a bit "slapgat". (Slack arsed for those of you who don't understand the mother tongue). I have finally decided that the physical act of fishing is far, far better than sitting in front of a computer and writing about it. Which brings me to a point, the multitude of fishing web sites, blogs(whatever they are, still not sure how the stuff works) and chat groups. It would seem that the electronic age has well and truly made itself felt in the fishing game. Gone are the days of a school of fish arriving at a place (any place) and being caught there for a week or two by a few fishermen that were fortunate enough to find them and catch them. Usually whilst the rest of the fishing community were oblivious to their presence. In these instances, the bulk of the fishermen out there only found out about the presence of these fish a few weeks after they had made their departure. Not so anymore. Now the news of these shoals of fish flies out over the wired and wireless networks as fast as the electrons can get to their intended destinations. One galjoen gets caught at Die Damme and next day fifty thousand anglers know about it. This in itself is not a problem, but when news of the white steenbras biting at Melkbos or the belman at Broken Road gets out, the hordes of anglers that converge on these spots is something to behold. At times like these I am really glad I'm not a fish. Where am I going with this? I am not sure really, but one thing is for sure, the less fish we have in the sea, the more hell-bent we become on catching them, and the more lethal our methods of doing so become. I appreciate that anglers all over the world enjoy sharing their stories and experiences. I am one of them, and though this may seem a case of pot calling kettle black, (charter and commercial fishing is my business) I strongly believe that we must be aware of how good we have become at catching, hopefully not always killing, our finned friends from the depths. And so I guess, the electronic communication network that has become so much a part of our day to day lives, is yet another means of making our fish catching endeavours so much more effective. Now for my real point..........this is a fishing report, but because I was "slapgat", it is old news and I suspect not one single fish will get caught because of it! It is simply a report of some fish that WERE caught, some nice big ones too.

OFFSHORE
People have been asking me how the tuna season went and my reply has been "Oh, we have had a good one." Yesterday I still though so. This morning I looked at my catch statistics and now I'm not so sure. Since 2006, our catches have declined every year. This year was marginally lower that last year, but I had 20 percent more sea days. Meaning that our average catch per trip was substantially lower than last year. This pattern that has developed is a bit worrying, but how much to worry, I do not know. Notwithstanding these statistics, we still had a good season. We caught yellowfin and longfin in April, May and even in mid-June we still had a few fish in 16 degree water. Some classy ones too. We regularly had fish of 90kg plus and one or two may have touched 100.

No doubt, the fish of the year, and for Okkie Vermeulen the fish of his life, was the 135kg southern bluefin (we think) caught during the Gordons Bay Offshore Classic 2010. The competition was a blowout again, but for one fishing day. On the one day we did fish, Okkie landed the biggest tuna caught off our coast for many years. Talk about catching the right fish at the right time. Well done to him and the crew of Magoofter. How did we do in the competition? The less said about that the better. We did win the prize for the biggest longfin of the tournament, but that's about it.

One thing that really did stand out, was the fair weather we had when we did get to sea. The sea was either unplayable, or very benign. Few days were the typical bump and fall around kind of seas we normally venture out in. Now it is end June and the water is probably under 16 degrees out there and as far as I know, the fish have moved off. I do not know of anyone who has been out there in the last week or two. It is time to service and mothball boats and tackle and wait for October. Wonder what next season holds in store for us?

INSHORE AND FALSE BAY
Cape Point has continued to be busy and in the last couple of weeks the snoek have been plentiful. The crocodiles have been around Southwest reefs, Bellows and Rocky Bank. Yellowtail have been active and some good catches made, but it has been sporadic. In typical yellowtail fashion, one day the anglers get them on an array of methods and tackle, next day they are nowhere to be seen. Somehow I have chosen the days when they are nowhere to be seen.

As many of you know, I will be on my way to Gabon next week (30 June). I will be working with the Gabon National Parks to combat illegal fishing in their marine reserves. Hopefully I will have time to sample some of the legendary fishing that is to be had in the estuaries and the sea. Kingfish, tarpon, cubera snapper, threadfin and whatever else hangs around there will be on my list of must haves. Things are apparently quite primitive in the jungle, but we will have satellite comms and internet. To this end, I have created an extra web page on my site. You can get there by going to this url: www.southseasafaris.co.za/Gabon.html or click here to take you to the page GABON. Currently I have only put up the web address of the reserves I will be working at and I really do not know much about the whole setup, but it looks awesome! I will try to put up pictures and stories as they occur.

That is about all we've got this time around. I will be escaping for a few months and will see you all on the other side of the miserable Cape winter.

Last, but not least, we are sending out regular reports and fishing updates to our friends and customers, both in South Africa and internationally. If you would like me to add you to our mailing list, feel free to drop me an e-mail. Please come back and check our regular updates.