We headed to Petingo into a really sloppy sea. It took us almost an hour to get there but when we arrived, the conditions looked perfect. There were several boats that had been there since the morning, including Wesley and Bryan Rapson on “Blackfin”. There had been a few fish already so things looked good.
I only had 9 wala-wala with me so if they were going to eat, it would have to on wala. I rigged 4 rods, 3 on surface and 1 down and started my approach. “BIG W” and “Blackfin” came past me on either side and they showed me that they had 3 and 4 fish respectively. Wesley shouted that they were eating only bonnies down deep. As they passed me, I looked back to see the far surface rod bend and the reel took off. Both Wesley and Wayne could not believe it. I just had to smile. Carl took the rod and fought an average size cuda to the boat where I gaffed it. Nice ... on the board.
Lines went back in and I made another circle. We were busy putting sunblock on when I heard a splash behind the boat. As I turned to look, the reel smoked off. I took the strike and after a good fight, Carl gaffed a nice cuda of 20kg or so. Definitely worth coming out for the afternoon.
The other boats were not having much luck since we arrived so some of them upped lines and went home. This gave me more room to troll. I had just gone over the wreck on th
e southern side when another surface rod took off. Carl was on the rod and brought in another nice cuda of about 20kg. After having 3 strikes, I found the pattern and speed that the fish liked and stuck to it. All the fish were on surface so I brought in the deep bait. I had the rod in the holder while removing the sinker when all of a sudden the line was ripen out of my hands! The cuda had grabbed the bait not 5m from the transom! Awesome. I took the strike and had a great time with another good fish over 20kg.
The other boats were now following me so I made a few wide turns to shake them. On one of these turns, I asked Carl to check the baits. He picked up a rod and gave a few turns on the reel. The rod was almost jerked out of his hands by another cuda! This fish gave us hell and we soon found out why. It was a really nice fish and it was foul hooked. This fish was the biggest of the day and didn’t fit in the hatch so it lay on the deck with a towel.
One of my friends approached us and asked how many fish we had as he had heard we were doing well. I was busy telling him when another reel smoked off. I took the rod and brought in a nice fish of just under 20kg.
By Now the bait stocks were low and it was getting late. I decided to make one last turn over the wreck. As we came off the wreck, the reel took off. Carl brought in another good fish to end the day. We knew that this was a special day and that we would n
ot have similar fishing in a long time to come.
We were back at the club at 17:30 with 7 cuda. The smallest was 12kg ad the biggest 27kg.
