AFC#9 King of the Reef | african-fisherman

One big advantage to a number of Dogtooth tuna locations in Tanzania is their relative ease of access from Dar Es Salaam, into which many airlines fly, and where there is a wide range of accommodation options available.

After deciding upon where I would pursue my quest for a big doggie – and I have to quantify this and say my target was what, in my mind is a big specimen; a 40-50 kilogram fish - I rapidly tried to add to my already fairly substantial vertical jig collection; much of which consists of short, lighter 200-300 gram jigs which I had previously used during a number of trips to Madagascar. Much of my efforts focused on getting hold of a range of longer, heavier jigs, as the currents and the depths at which you will be targeting fish at Latham can result in one not even having the jig reach the reef or sea bottom, which is far from ideal. I trawled a number of fishing forums, got in touch with friends who had fished for Dogtooth before, and soon I had a pretty good idea of the jigging gear that would stand up to the job. Big fish place considerable strain on your equipment, and thus you are really looking at high-end choices in terms of reels – A Shimano Stella 10 000 Power Gear Japanese Domestic Model version and a Daiwa Saltiga Expedition were my reels of choice, and I paired these up with a Smith Nirai WRC 55 rod and a Fishermen Spinoza Amberjack rod I had custom made for me in Japan for some previous jigging exploits. Despite looking into the idea of steel or even split ring links to function as the critical connection between the all important jigging hook (Shout Kudako 7/0 my favourite for this application), I settled upon using ‘standard’ Varivas Kevlar Assist cord, knowing full well that toothy species can cut through this like the proverbial knife through butter! I also decided not to go down the fluorocarbon shock leader route, and chose conventional nylon – Varivas in 130 lb b/s, and a heavier Fisherman 150lb shock leader, although I used the former for the most part.

Upon my arrival in Dar, I was soon on the way to the Slipway Hotel, which was a strategic base from where I could easily get to the boat in the early hours of the morning, as well as have a range of restaurant options close to hand. I met up with Jason Alexiou, with whom I would be fishing together with Magdelena Martinengo, better known as Mady, and we had a discussion about how we would approach the fishing, and also discussed the weather patterns at the time – the outlook was mixed in this regard. I had decided upon doing two trips, each one consisting of two days fishing which includes the not insubstantial time it takes to Latham from Dar, and a night targeting the ‘gladiator of the sea’, the Broadbill swordfish, weather dependent of course.

A very early morning departure the following day, and we were soon on our way to Latham Island, which is about 70 kilometers to the south-west of Dar. After a fairly unproductive period of high-speed trolling en-route, we reached Latham at about 11am, and soon afterwards positioned over a jigging mark and we were making our first drift. Latham Island itself is fairly unimpressive – a 300 meter long bar of sandstone or similar. However, what is impressive about Latham is the underwater topography which surrounds the ‘island’ – reefs, substantial drop-offs and strong currents – perfect ‘doggie’ territory.

Anchor 4

King of the Reef

By Marc Towers

The Dogtooth tuna (Gymnosarda unicolor) has, for a good few years been one of those species which I have dearly wanted to target, especially vertical jigging. I have spent a great many hours researching into all those potential destinations around the globe where one is in with a fighting chance of an encounter with a large ‘doggie’, as they are affectionately known. A few places come immediately to mind – A number of Pacific islands such as Fiji and Vanuatu as well as the Coral Sea in Australia. That said however, there are a number of options in Africa which present equally good opportunities – the Seychelles and the various Atolls within it’s waters, some areas in Mozambique (Lazarus Banks for example) as well as Francophone countries such as Reunion, Rodriguez and Madagascar are all ‘on the radar’ in terms of choosing a Dogtooth location. However, after many hours spent researching options, I decided upon Tanzania and more specifically Latham Island as somewhere I would try and pursue the challenge. A date was set – early in October 2012, and the seeds of anticipation were well and truly sown!

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We picked up a good few fish in that late morning/early afternoon session on the jig – I was fortunate enough to have picked up two doggies already, which although both fairly modest by Latham standards, made me a happy man nonetheless. Other fish commonly encountered on the jig were Ruby snapper, although the shark often took their fair share of these. I did manage to get one shark – an oceanic Whitetip which took a jig directly – not a bad specimen at an estimated 100 kilograms, although a long way short of the specimen taken by a friend shortly before my trip – a 186.2 kilogram specimen which has since been approved as the new IGFA all-tackle world record – taken on jigging gear! We also lost a number of fish and jigs – some of the runs from what were almost certainly big Dogtooth are virtually unstoppable, even with a heavy drag and 80-100lb braid, and the result is always the same – the fish wins! That evening, we trolled a spread of lures briefly whilst circumnavigating the island, and picked up a decent 40lb Yellowfin; a good sign that they were about.

We opted to spend the first night on anchor at Latham, fish the majority of the next day and prepare to troll for broadbill whilst slowly making our way back to Dar. It was a bumpy night, especially with the currents that push through the area, and I will be the first to admit that I barely slept that night.

The next morning we were soon back drifting over a couple more marks. The day started off the same as the first day had, and my first fish was a modest sized GT, followed shortly by a decent green jobfish specimen. The rest of the day resulted in us intermittently jigging a number of known marks – however, we were heavily distracted as it were, by the presence of good shoals of Yellowfin tuna on the surface. We often ran a spread of lures – in general Rapala magnum’s on the downriggers and a spread on the surface, and we had decent success, as by the end of the day we had picked up twelve or so Yellowfin, all between the 30 and 60 pound mark – one specimen took a jig which was great fun! I had a further two dogtooth, neither particularly large, on the jig - so all in all a good result and I had some pretty tired limbs. There was no time to sit back and relax so to speak, as we would be fishing the next ten or so hours, trolling for Broadbill swordfish.

The tuna bite continued until nightfall, so we literally brought in the lines, had a quick bite to eat, and we had 45 minutes or so to re-rig and get prepared before we were slowly trolling over ‘swordfish territory’. As those of you familiar with the Kenya night-time trolling scene are aware, a various combination of lightsticks at strategic points are part of the rig. Very early on, less than an hour after we had set the trolling spread, we had a good take, but as is often the case with trolling for broadbill at night, after a long run the fish came unstuck. There is a school of thought that feels Broadbill slash at a potential meal with their bills, and that often the long runs and poor hook-up rate is a result of fish becoming partially bill wrapped, and the hook slipping as a result of this.

The following five or so hours passed by without incident – and I must confess that after a few evening beers, I could not muster the will to stay awake, and thus when one of the rod’s drags started to sing incessantly at 3am in the morning, it was a bit of a shock, although I was quickly at the back of the boat with the rod in hand and as luck may have it, this fish stayed on. The fight was a dogged affair, or perhaps I should admit that it was very tough indeed – the fish almost cleaned out the spool – A Tiagra 50W on one of the initial runs, and regaining line, especially at the end when the fish was holding deep, was a painstaking process. Eventually, after a laborious fight lasting over three hours, during which I was eternally grateful for the comfort afforded to me by the Black Magic harness I was wearing during the fight, the fish was finally brought boat-side. Hard fights always seem to make the end result more worthwhile, and whilst this was neither the longest fight nor the biggest fish I have taken, I was delighted with the result. We continued to make the journey back to Dar, and almost as an afterthought, a Black marlin hit one of the large Pulsator lures in the spread; whilst not a huge fish (150lbs or so) it was most welcome, and although thoughts briefly turned to an IGFA grand slam (both fish thus far were IGFA ‘legal’), we did not encounter a sailfish on the way in.

I must confess that I was pretty exhausted after the first half of the trip, and utterly delighted with the results thus far. I had achieved my initial ambition of managing to catch a couple of reasonably sized doggie’s on the jig, and of course the other fish had been a substantial bonus, not least of which the Broadbill which was the other species I had hoped for on the trip. However there was not much time to daydream – as we had arrived back later than expected – mid-day, and there was only time for a quick shower, a hand-over of my stinking clothes to the helpful staff at the hotel, a bite to eat and then a decent night’s sleep. I had agreed that we should start ‘part 2’ of our program a bit later, given we had an extended dayla during the latter part of our previous trip.

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After a full night’s rest, we were soon once again bound for Latham, and again anticipating what may be in store fishing wise. Our outward trip was largely uneventful, and I think the first fish I had was a very small Yellowfin when we had almost reached Latham. Perfect livebait like this are actually quite hard to come by, so we quickly decided to go to a spot and put him down on a nearby drop-off zone, and hope that a big doggie would take a fancy to the delectable morsel! Unfortunately despite a good run, we did not get a positive hook-up, and thus reverted back to vertical jigging. We targeted deep spots with heavy current – fast action, short drifts and heavy jigs – in other words, hard work. We finally came to spot and both Jason and I were immediately broken off - we stayed in the area, and on a later drift, Jason was once more broken off – those first runs of a big doggie are something else. At the same moment, I also had a hit – subtle at first, and then the head shaking could be felt – something substantial had taken my jig. Soon afterwards the fish took off – the first run was the essence of pure power – it took me all the way down to literally having only two turns of line – 80lb Power Pro, on my spool, as Mady just moved the boat in time to prevent us losing the fish. After the initial powerful run, I managed to slowly gain line back – not without a few anxious moments and further runs, but fairly soon afterwards we saw colour, and it was indeed what I was hoping for – a monster Dogtooth tuna! When we finally got the specimen on board mention was made of the 80lb IGFA line class record, as the head of this fish was, according to Jason, bigger than the specimen that holds the record – caught by one of their deckhands. Of course, the weight would also depend on how full her stomach was or if she was gravid. The decision was taken that we should fish that night back to Dar, trolling once again for Broadbill, and let the scales decide. It would involve sacrificing a day of fishing at Latham, as the following day we would be limited to trolling in the waters around Dar and the Zanzibar Channel, but I had already achieved more than I could have possibly hoped for, so it was an easy decision to make. Indeed, upon reflection, luck had played a large part in the capture in that the fish had hit about 50 meters off the bottom or reef edge, which I am sure contributed to my being able to actually stop the fish....just!

The night trolling for Broadbill was unfortunately unsuccessful – we did have two strikes, but neither resulted in a positive hook-up. Upon arriving in Dar, we watched with bated breath as we finally got the fish on the scale. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, as the fish came up short - hitting the scales at 91 kilograms. The general consensus of Jason and Mady is, having weighed many dogtooth before that such a fish would have weighed in the 94-95 kilogram mark before fluid loss etc. Although no records were made, it was still a catch of a lifetime, and one I will remember for many more years.

We spent the final morning fishing in the Zanzibar channel, catching a number of wahoo, King mackeral and dorado, as well as some small GT and Big-eye trevally on jig. A fairly sedate end to what was a fantastic experience.

All in all, an exceptional trip; many foreign fishermen seem to go on about how good multi-species destinations such as Panama and the Maldives, to pick but two, are – but in my mind, we have African destinations which can easily match such places for the quality of fishing on offer – and I haven’t even touched on Madagascar as yet, but perhaps that is one for a future edition...

LEFT: Fortunately the yellowfin tuna were around during our trip. This specimen was taken on a 200 gram Sea Rock jig, and gave a very good account of itself on medium weight jigging gear. RIGHT: The highlight of a very special trip. Mammoth Dogtooth tuna like this specimen are often considered the pinnacle of achievements in the jigging world. Note the bent jig, and fortunate hook position.

A supremely special personal moment – a good size Broadbill swordfish, taken trolling at night, is finally boated at 6.30am after a fight lasting just over three and a half hours.

All the species which seem to occur around Latham are sizeable specimens. A good brace of Almaco jacks (close relation of the larger Amberjack) which fell to vertical jig and a 50lb wahoo, taken on the troll, very close to Dar itself.

Dear Editor

A big thank you for all the African Fisherman magazines you kindly sent on to me - they are greatly appreciated, and definitely somewhat nostalgic in some regards - clichéd though it may be, but the more you read and scour such magazines, the more you can learn as a 'fisherperson'..!

I have just returned from my annual leave (yes, spent fishing!). I must say I did have a good time - tight lines and all - I have attached a few photos. My first trip was to Texas targeting Alligator gar in the Trinity River - I was lucky enough to catch the two biggest gar of the season thus far - 181 and 206lbs, during one of the four fishing days fishing! A friend and I then headed to Panama, and although we were greeted by deluges and fairly inclement weather every day, we did catch some fish - including a 210lb yellowfin on livebait, a 100lb plus fish on popper, plus a couple of good roosterfish and so on.

I have had time to prepare a further article which may be of interest to you and the magazine - it is on a trip I did late last year to Latham Island in Tanzania.

All the best,

Marc.