The weather forecast for Sunday the 17th looked perfect. A light SW swinging to an Easterly by midday with a few clouds around was predicted. My Dad, Denis, At van Tilburg and I made arrangements to go fishing off Richards Bay. Our plan was to look for some bait for the upcoming cuda season. There had been quite a few mackerel around and the guys also caught a couple of bonnies.
At 4am on Sunday morning I phoned At to check if we were still on for the day. There was still a light SW breeze with a bit of drizzle. At was keen to go so my Dad and I packed our things and headed for At’s house where we hitched the boat and headed for the Richards Bay Ski Boat Club. There were about 15 boats out already, most planning to look for marlin. We joined the queue and after launching we headed to sea. We arrived at our bait spot at around 6am and rigged up the bait rods. My favorite bait jigs are the white sabiki rigs with 10 hooks on them. I use a 12oz to 16oz sinker to get the jigs down quickly and it also helps prevent tangles when the baits try to swim up as the main line is kept straight. I use a 9ft rod with a 6:1 ratio multiplier reel.
At sounded the area for a while and once we had located a bit of a showing, he pulled neutral to check the drift. The wind was a bit stronger than the current so we drifted from south to north. With the drift line established, At positioned the boat upwind of the showing and we all three sent the jigs down. We drifted over the spot and the showing came through again. Moments later all three of us felt the lines become heavy as the small fish climbed on. We brought the jigs up slowly so that the hooks did not pull and when we got the bait to the boat we would lift them over the gunwale and hold them over the livewell. Each fish was removed and then the jigs were returned overboard and sent back down to the shoal of fish. Once the production line had been established, everything works well and a lot of bait can be caught in a short time. We were getting mackerel and maasbankers, with the off karapow in between. All the baits were relatively big… perfect cuda baits. I decided to speed things up a bit and so I tied a second set of jigs onto the one I was currently using. With 20 hooks, I was ready to let the games begin. At put us on the spot and down went the jigs. As we hit the bottom, and gave one jig of the rod, there was instant weight to the line. I left the jigs down for about 15 seconds and then retrieved them. When the top hook got to the tip guide of my rod, I lifted the shoal of mackerel/maasbankers halfway into the boat and At grabbed the second half of the trace and pulled it into the boat. There were baits everywhere! At about 8am the bait disappeared. We then packed up our bait rods and headed north to the 50m ledge. The other boats were complaining that there were no fish around and that they were thinking of working their way back to the harbor.
When we arrived at the “Castle”, I set up the outriggers and clipped two traces onto the 50Lbs and 30Lbs marlin rods. The traces consisted of about 3 meters of 200Lbs nylon trace with a 14/0 circle hook snelled onto it. This was clipped onto a wind-on leader. I bridled a live mackerel using a #32 elastic as a catalina and set the lines at 20m and 30m behind the boat. I then attached the line to the rigger using a #64 elastic. The reel was set just above freespool with the ratchet on so that the fish could swallow the bait after the rigger popped. I then rigged a third bait, a big karapow, on a cuda trace with a single in the nose and two trebles. I put this bait down with the down rigger set at 90ft… about 30 meters. We slow trolled these baits across the ledge, working the high spots that come up to 40 meters. At about 9:30am, the port rigger popped. I ran to the rod and fed it a bit. While I was doing this, the starboard rigger also popped and my Dad ran over to feed that fish. I pushed the drag to strike and a dorado came flying out the water but threw the bait. My Dad put up the drag and went tight with another dorado. I fed the mackerel back and was rewarded with a pickup. I fed for a bit them put the drag up and went tight. Both fish were in the air and gave us a good show before they came to the boat where they were gaffed and put into the hatch. I took the hooks out of the two female dorado and checked the trace for any major damage. I walked back to the live well to rig another bait when I noticed the rod connected to the downrigger flick up. I knew that there was no way that the bait could break the elastic so I ran to the rod and wound up the slack. The line came tight at the same time as what a nice bull dorado came flying out the water not 5 meters from the back of the boat. I handed the rod to my Dad who brought the fish to the boat where it was gaffed and put into the hatch. Not too shabby considering there were no fish on the castle … according to the other boats.
I rerigged the three lines and we continued trolling along the ledge. About an hour later, the port rigger popped and the 30Lbs rod took off. I fed for a bit then put up the drag. The rod buckled and the reel took off. The line went straight down and stayed there… not a good sign. My Dad cleared the other two lines and I just started gaining line when the fish bit through the trace. It was obviously a shark and from the marks on the trace, it was about 2,5m long. I am glad it bit through when it did!
Anyhow, I set the lines and continued trolling. At about 1pm At said that he thought he saw a fin about 100m deeper than what we were but could not see what it was. I turned to intercept and about 5 minutes later I saw a big hammer head chasing the port bait. My Dad and I ran back and pulled the lines in while the shark gave chase. It was a good one of about 120kg. luckily it did not eat the baits. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I put the lines back in and while I was setting the last line I saw the shark again. We cleared the lines and watched the hammer come closer. We decided to hook it so that it would stop following us and we could get on with fishing. I fed out a mackerel and watched the shark grab it. I put up the drag but the hook missed the shark. It turned away, happy with it’s easy meal. But as At said, those hammers can count and it knew there were two baits. I had just put the baits out again when the starboard rigger popped. I fed the fish and put up the drag. The rod keeled over and the 50Lbs international took off. The line went straight down again indicating to us that we had hooked the hammer that had been hassling us for the past half an hour. I put on the standup harness and pulled for all that I was worth. The shark came to the boat very quickly and my Dad took the trace. At bumped the shark on the head before the trace broke. We set the lines again and trolled south back toward the harbor. On the south end of the ledge I saw a big swirl about 10 meters out the back. The port rigger popped and the reel took off. I fed the fish and put the drag up. The rod bent and the reel took off but again the line went straight down. I put on the harness and started pulling the fish to the top. The pressure was quite heavy and when the fish sounded again I pulled back with the harness to lift the fish’s head. Suddenly the reel felt very strange. I looked at it to see what the problem was but then saw that the reel seat (the plate that is secured to the rod) had bent. The rod had pulled down and the harness had pulled the reel back causing the reel to bend towards the rod but and now the spool was toughing on the rod butt. I unclipped the harness and tried to bent the seat straight but only moved it a tiny bit. This was enough to get the reel working and I pulled the +-70kg hammer to the boat where my Dad traced it before it bit through the leader. After that last shark I was buggered and we decided to call it a day. We were more than happy with the 3 dorado that we caught, not to mention the 50 odd mackerel that we had for the coming cuda season.
At 4am on Sunday morning I phoned At to check if we were still on for the day. There was still a light SW breeze with a bit of drizzle. At was keen to go so my Dad and I packed our things and headed for At’s house where we hitched the boat and headed for the Richards Bay Ski Boat Club. There were about 15 boats out already, most planning to look for marlin. We joined the queue and after launching we headed to sea. We arrived at our bait spot at around 6am and rigged up the bait rods. My favorite bait jigs are the white sabiki rigs with 10 hooks on them. I use a 12oz to 16oz sinker to get the jigs down quickly and it also helps prevent tangles when the baits try to swim up as the main line is kept straight. I use a 9ft rod with a 6:1 ratio multiplier reel.
At sounded the area for a while and once we had located a bit of a showing, he pulled neutral to check the drift. The wind was a bit stronger than the current so we drifted from south to north. With the drift line established, At positioned the boat upwind of the showing and we all three sent the jigs down. We drifted over the spot and the showing came through again. Moments later all three of us felt the lines become heavy as the small fish climbed on. We brought the jigs up slowly so that the hooks did not pull and when we got the bait to the boat we would lift them over the gunwale and hold them over the livewell. Each fish was removed and then the jigs were returned overboard and sent back down to the shoal of fish. Once the production line had been established, everything works well and a lot of bait can be caught in a short time. We were getting mackerel and maasbankers, with the off karapow in between. All the baits were relatively big… perfect cuda baits. I decided to speed things up a bit and so I tied a second set of jigs onto the one I was currently using. With 20 hooks, I was ready to let the games begin. At put us on the spot and down went the jigs. As we hit the bottom, and gave one jig of the rod, there was instant weight to the line. I left the jigs down for about 15 seconds and then retrieved them. When the top hook got to the tip guide of my rod, I lifted the shoal of mackerel/maasbankers halfway into the boat and At grabbed the second half of the trace and pulled it into the boat. There were baits everywhere! At about 8am the bait disappeared. We then packed up our bait rods and headed north to the 50m ledge. The other boats were complaining that there were no fish around and that they were thinking of working their way back to the harbor.
When we arrived at the “Castle”, I set up the outriggers and clipped two traces onto the 50Lbs and 30Lbs marlin rods. The traces consisted of about 3 meters of 200Lbs nylon trace with a 14/0 circle hook snelled onto it. This was clipped onto a wind-on leader. I bridled a live mackerel using a #32 elastic as a catalina and set the lines at 20m and 30m behind the boat. I then attached the line to the rigger using a #64 elastic. The reel was set just above freespool with the ratchet on so that the fish could swallow the bait after the rigger popped. I then rigged a third bait, a big karapow, on a cuda trace with a single in the nose and two trebles. I put this bait down with the down rigger set at 90ft… about 30 meters. We slow trolled these baits across the ledge, working the high spots that come up to 40 meters. At about 9:30am, the port rigger popped. I ran to the rod and fed it a bit. While I was doing this, the starboard rigger also popped and my Dad ran over to feed that fish. I pushed the drag to strike and a dorado came flying out the water but threw the bait. My Dad put up the drag and went tight with another dorado. I fed the mackerel back and was rewarded with a pickup. I fed for a bit them put the drag up and went tight. Both fish were in the air and gave us a good show before they came to the boat where they were gaffed and put into the hatch. I took the hooks out of the two female dorado and checked the trace for any major damage. I walked back to the live well to rig another bait when I noticed the rod connected to the downrigger flick up. I knew that there was no way that the bait could break the elastic so I ran to the rod and wound up the slack. The line came tight at the same time as what a nice bull dorado came flying out the water not 5 meters from the back of the boat. I handed the rod to my Dad who brought the fish to the boat where it was gaffed and put into the hatch. Not too shabby considering there were no fish on the castle … according to the other boats.
I rerigged the three lines and we continued trolling along the ledge. About an hour later, the port rigger popped and the 30Lbs rod took off. I fed for a bit then put up the drag. The rod buckled and the reel took off. The line went straight down and stayed there… not a good sign. My Dad cleared the other two lines and I just started gaining line when the fish bit through the trace. It was obviously a shark and from the marks on the trace, it was about 2,5m long. I am glad it bit through when it did!
Anyhow, I set the lines and continued trolling. At about 1pm At said that he thought he saw a fin about 100m deeper than what we were but could not see what it was. I turned to intercept and about 5 minutes later I saw a big hammer head chasing the port bait. My Dad and I ran back and pulled the lines in while the shark gave chase. It was a good one of about 120kg. luckily it did not eat the baits. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I put the lines back in and while I was setting the last line I saw the shark again. We cleared the lines and watched the hammer come closer. We decided to hook it so that it would stop following us and we could get on with fishing. I fed out a mackerel and watched the shark grab it. I put up the drag but the hook missed the shark. It turned away, happy with it’s easy meal. But as At said, those hammers can count and it knew there were two baits. I had just put the baits out again when the starboard rigger popped. I fed the fish and put up the drag. The rod keeled over and the 50Lbs international took off. The line went straight down again indicating to us that we had hooked the hammer that had been hassling us for the past half an hour. I put on the standup harness and pulled for all that I was worth. The shark came to the boat very quickly and my Dad took the trace. At bumped the shark on the head before the trace broke. We set the lines again and trolled south back toward the harbor. On the south end of the ledge I saw a big swirl about 10 meters out the back. The port rigger popped and the reel took off. I fed the fish and put the drag up. The rod bent and the reel took off but again the line went straight down. I put on the harness and started pulling the fish to the top. The pressure was quite heavy and when the fish sounded again I pulled back with the harness to lift the fish’s head. Suddenly the reel felt very strange. I looked at it to see what the problem was but then saw that the reel seat (the plate that is secured to the rod) had bent. The rod had pulled down and the harness had pulled the reel back causing the reel to bend towards the rod but and now the spool was toughing on the rod butt. I unclipped the harness and tried to bent the seat straight but only moved it a tiny bit. This was enough to get the reel working and I pulled the +-70kg hammer to the boat where my Dad traced it before it bit through the leader. After that last shark I was buggered and we decided to call it a day. We were more than happy with the 3 dorado that we caught, not to mention the 50 odd mackerel that we had for the coming cuda season.
