Cape Vidal trip February 2004

This was a very exciting trip for me, a dream come true. No I didn't shoot a massive Wahoo or Sailey. But for years I have seen my mates go off on diving trips, returning with stories of clean water and good fish.

And finally with the culmination of patience, elbow grease, blessings and faith. I had my boat I built with a 27 year old motor and a borrowed 4x4. So it was, we got to go on a fully fledged diving trip of our own!

So you could imagine, I did not get much sleep that Wednesday night before we left. Infact we got to the Cape Vidal Gate at St. Lucia early, and had to kip for 20 min before the gate opened.

Thursday Day 1:Chris & Craig - 3 cuta 7kg, 8.5kg & 14kg and a whole shoal of queen fish. My son Braiden getting in on the photo action. How long he gets his own fish....?

Craig Harper who is taking time out before zooting off to London, joined my family and I on the trip. We got to Cape Vidal at about 5:30am and when we hit the beach at we were greeted by brown mif water in the bay. It would have been easy to listen to the fat 'Dutchman' who was telling us that the water was green and cold all the way up to Eleven Mile Point. But we had been amping for days and in almost a idiots frenzy dumped the boat on the beach, let my good wife and kids on the beach, and headed out to sea. I could hear the words of an old local in my head saying, "the water only got clean a K or so from 11 and the fish were going wild!"

The sea was super calm, and I had never been on my boat in such calm conditions....so naturally we floored it the whole way up. We had been traveling for about 25min, about half way and the old motor was screaming away, and the water was absolutely poo! I did not want to say any thing to Craig, but I had my doubts if we had made the right choice.

A colour line! There it was we were about 3km from the point and there was hope! When finally got up to the markers that mark the Sanctuary area beyond the point the water was excellent. We jumped in and started our first drift. And almost straight away we started seeing some good reef fish. I think Craig got the first fish, a good Queenie. A shoal of them came onto me moments later and I drilled a good one, it blasted off bending my only spear, all the rest were back on the beach. Never the less I straightened the spear and got back in. The off shore wind had pushed us out off the deep ledge, the water was awesome, and we both picked up another Queenie each.

We decided that Queenies weren't on the menu any more and watched them swim past. We again had drifted way off the reef and into deep blue water, the surface vis was 20 plus meters. So when I saw this huge shark near the surface slowly approaching, I figured an average Zambie. How wrong can some one be! the head became square and it just seemed to grow and grow. I eventually realized that it was a huge Tiger, and when it got about 10 meters from me I faced it opening my arms and legs.....trying to look as big as possible. This was my only defense not having a power head on me. The beautiful shark turned slowly infront of me, eye balled me, and with a one movement disappeared into the blue. My heart still in my throat, I scaned around waiting for its return. I could still see the stripes in my head..awsome, so my time out there ended quickly and we were back on the boat and heading for the reef in no time.

We eventually found the right line on the reef and we got some cuta, it was amazing to watch the shoals come in from 'miles' away and intercept them as the cruised past. Craig got a good one of 14kg and bag two average ones around the 7&8kg mark. We sat on the boat, the time about 11bells, and fairly content with the days hunting. We figured that there would be more good days and that we had enough fish for one day. Also my family had been on the beach since 5:30 that morning, so we packed up our kit and headed back to the beach 18 kilometers south.

My family were waiting for me on the beach when we arrived, the kids didn't seem to mind that they had been on the beach for the whole morning. We cleaned up and headed up to the cabin, and only came back down to the beach late that afternoon to take Braidy fishing.

The water up at 11 the next day was bleak, with a heavy cold and green thermocline. We managed to get a snoek each around the 7kg mark. It was quiet funny, I was hanging mid water and a shoal of snoek came onto the flasher, Craig slightly ahead of me saw the fish from the surface first. He dropped down on them, I saw the fish and Craig at the same time. I was about to drill a nice fish when from over my shoulder came a thwack!....The bugger had capitalized on me taking my time. Fortunately it was only moments later while Craig was still on the boat sorting out his fish that I drilled one, and all was forgiven.

From Left: Sean, Steve, Mike, Craig, Bruce & Rob

That Friday night saw some of the other guys jioning us for the week end. They were all amped for some fish, after some story telling of Thursdays dive. We organized who was going on what boats and packed our kit.

Some one had to sit out so Craig hung back and let his mates in on the action. But this turned out to be a smart move as the water on Saturday was worse than terrible, and the reef was a little too crowded for my liking so Rob, who was my crew for the day, and I did an about turn back to the bay and relaxed the rest of the day.

Sunday seemed to look the same as Saturday, but it was difficult to sit on the beach and maybe miss out on fish. So we found our selves riding up to 11 before sun up, anticipating a turn around in the water. However it was not to be, the water was still miff. I managed to get a spear into a cuta on the shallow ledge, but it was hard diving in cold green water, especially when you never know what is going to come out the merk to greet you.

We said cheers to the mates and sent them home, fishless but stolked to have come on the trip. We took time out and drove around the park to check out the wild life.....but the wild life were acting like the fish elusive! That night Craig pipes up "Sordies is 10 -15 m vis" we worked out that the clean water wasn't to far away, and again in faith decided to brave the long trip up to 11 the next day.

We packed most of our kit that night, as we had to be out the cabin by 10 bells. We hit the beach early Monday morning, the arraignment was that we would not be to long...famous last words! Craig and reached 11 and were greeted by some good looking water. We jumped in and it was fairly good, but within minutes the water started to change, I could see the clean water through the mirk. And when I swam into the blue water it was warm and full of plankton. The currant was humming, and the water was getting cleaner and cleaner. Eventually we were in 15-20m vis it was awsome..it was what we came for. But still no signs of fish. We moved around trying to find the right line, eventually an 8kg cuta swam in over the sand and got tagged and released into the hatch.

Some time went past and no more cuta. We did see a serious Zambie, it had a whole entourage with it. A couple remoras, a shoal of small fish and one large...20kg or so large Prodigal. Jokingly I pipe up "you distract the Zambie while I blatt the Prodigal.". But I think This would have rang the dinner bells for the Zambie.

We had drifted out off the reef so, I got Craig to swim in and locate the reef while I got the boat. Craig found the reef and I set the drogue. I had promised Michelle that I would let her know when we would hit the beach. Knowing that we were way late I tried to send her a SMS. I got Craig's cell out of the hatch and turned it on. It prompted me for the pass word, so I called to Craig for it. He gave me the number and I continued to try send a SMS. We were only 20km from the tower so I figured there would still be reception. But I then found out that Craig's service provider doesn't use that tower. Just at that moment I see Craig pop up with a nice Cuta in his hands and smiling from ear to ear.