Tuna Time with Mom

Special days out off Table Bay

By Ryan Nienaber Photos by Grootdorsproduksies

MY mom,Stella Taylor,has witnessed the absolute obsession that my brother and I have both had for fishing in the ocean since we were young boys. Her adventurous spirit has lead her to join us on a couple of occasions in and around the peninsula,catching the odd yellowtail or snoek,but we recently had an extra special day on the water..

Mom (now 67) has seen our factory hustle and bustle with boats in and out at the yard,and has heard all the stories of the big tuna that we catch on our doorstep in Cape Town,but until recently she had never witnessed first hand what we do in the deep.

Traditionally,our Cape Town tuna season runs from the end of March until mid-May and sometimes the start of June when the northwesterly winds and cold fronts bring on the Cape Town winter storms.

Late one Thursday afternoon I was looking at the weather for the weekend and saw that Friday 10 June’s weather was looking absolutely perfect.It was unprecedented for that time of year,and with the waters still looking good,I decided to take a run out off Table Bay in search of some tuna,and invited Mom to go along.

Our boat was still rigged for snoek as we had spent the last of couple weeks up the west coast on the snoek run,so after a late evening getting the boat into “tuna mode”I finally got home and quickly made up five trolling squids and grabbed two bait rods.

We launched at 5am from Oceana in Cape Town,heading out 40nm to the tuna grounds where the trawlers had been working the day before.A couple of hours later day break was upon us,the water temp had jumped from 14°C to 19°C and bird life everywhere it just looked fishy.We where still a couple miles short of where I wanted to start fishing for the day, but it just looked so good I couldn’t resist.

I slowed down while Mom got some tea ready and I put the first trolling rod out,then the second rod.I was busy clipping the third squid onto rod number three when I heard a “bang”and the 80W Tiagra screamed off at a rate of knots. With all my mono out and down to my Dacron backing,I knew this was a good fish.

The initial run was so hard and fast that it turned my plastic squid inside out.

Mom didn’t know what to do,and with the sheer excitement of the noise of the reel going off,the tea was all over the floor! She tried to hold on to the rod while I cleared the lines and turned the boat for the wind.It was a big first run,so I got the harness ready for Mom and she settled into the rod.

“Mom,just take your time,relax and enjoy.You only need to win a few centimetres every time the swell goes down,”I coached.

The fish was strong and was resisting.We got back onto the mono and then it had a second big run.Eventually Mom passed the rod on to me for a few moments so she could take off her jersey and have a sip of water before taking it back again to continue the fight.Overheating while fighting tuna is a real thing.

The fish came closer in big circles,flashing its gorgeous colour.As we saw this beautiful tuna circle next to the boat, the sickles looked good.I told Mom that the fish must be 75to 80kg and we should keep it whole for a good photo back at the slip.

Eventually the fish was loaded and my day was made;a perfect mother-son memory in the bank that I will always cherish.

On such a high after landing a wonderful fish with my mom I didn’t need to catch any more — mission completed. However,as luck would have it,after getting the boat reorganised I looked up and a trawler was coming our way.We ran up to the trawler and,as if from the textbook,dropped the bait line down and it was on within seconds.

Now that we had a system on the boat,Mom and I had the fish alongside very quickly and with much greater ease.We ran up to the trawler again,bang on again within a couple seconds,landed the fish and repeated.

Soon we had four wonderful big fish on board and decided to call it an early day.The weather was perfect and the run home was easy.

Twenty nautical miles short of Table Bay hundreds of gannets where diving,and as we got closer baitfish and tuna were jumping everywhere in the glass-like sea conditions.It was simply too good to resist.

We quickly put out two lines and got a pull fairly quickly. Mom took the rod and got this one in with ease — a gentleman-sized fish at 28kg,it came in nice and easy.With another in the box,we ran home smiling,only stopping briefly in Table Bay for a mother and son photo with Table Mountain as the back drop. The following day my mate Jero Revett from Wild Wanderer came to help me capture this special fish and memory using his Gyotaku Japanese fish printing technique.This is a process where octopus ink is used to take a rubbing of the fish on a handmade cotton-type paper cloth.The rubbing is used as a foundation on which the artist uses carbon and graphite to create a one-off custom artpiece of the fish. This tuna will become the centrepiece of our family’s beach home in Struisbaai,and the story of my mom and I fishing for tuna will be told again and again as this artwork hangs above the fireplace. What a memory!

Stella's tuna immortalised in Gyotaku Japanese style printing.

The blessings of sons

By Stella Taylor

WITH the zing of the fishing line on the reel my adrenaline started to rush as a tuna was hooked. Rod firmly wedged in the “magic”harness,the fight was on.Working with the swell of the sea,I reeled in the line to bring the fish to the boat.

It was an early start on a Friday,a beautiful mid-winter’s day in Cape Town,and I was out on the water with one of my sons,Ryan,who owns and runs Greenfish,a fishing company that supplies fresh fish to the public and trade.

As a mother of two very busy sons,I take any opportunity to spend time with them,be it for a braai or just a take out dinner,but by favourite is when I am invited to go on a fishing trip with them and I’m up early and ready to go.

We launched at 5am and put the boat on autopilot,heading out to sea to the tuna areas.Once there,all the rods were set up and cast,and we sat back to wait.

As soon as we heard the reels zing we were there to reel them in.All three of us on board got involved as the fish weighed between 20- and 80kg.Gaffs in hand,we pulled them on board once they got close enough.

The fish were all packed in the ice down in the hold to maintain freshness and quality,ready to be served on your dinner plate.

As the day progressed we fought off the birds trying to steal our bait and watched the seals frolicking in the water. Tuna flew past after smaller fish — the trick is catching them.

What a privilege it was to spend the day out at sea with my son.As we headed back to the harbour,the restaurants were busy.We pulled the boat up the slipway with our prize tuna on display,and I could not have been prouder to be doing this with my son.

Sons hold a special place in a mother’s heart,but I suppose if I had daughters I would be out shopping or having a mani or pedicure with them.

Who would have thought I would be doing this at my age! What a blessing sons are.