On Friday 30th April, Marius de Wet and I packed At van Tilburg’s boat “AVANTI” for the weekend’s fishing. It was the Annual Umlalazi Cuda Classic hosted in Mtunzini. The rules allowed for boats to launch at Richards Bay, Zini, Amatikulu and Zinkwazi but the fish had to be weighed at the Umlalazi ski boat club. Only cuda would count and the each angler could only win one prize.
Marius and I drove to Zini to enter and to attend the briefing. There were 120 anglers on 45 boats participating. After the rules were explained, we had a drink or two then returned to Richards Bay and finalised arrangements for the following morning. At 05:00 I met Marius, hitched the boat and headed for the Richards Bay Ski Boat Club. There were a few other crews there preparing their boats. We launched the boat and waited in the harbour for first light. While we waited, I rigged up 2 rods with sabiki rigs and took out 2 bonito and 2 wala-wala out of the bait box to defrost. After asking for clearance, we headed for the bait spot with a light NW wind blowing. We battled for bait, but finally managed to get a few mackerel and headed for Petingo.
When we arrived there, I rigged a live mackerel and put it out on the surface. I then rigged the 2 wala-wala and put one on top and the other down deep. The same was done with the two bonito. I started slow trolling around the wreck looking for a cuda. By 8am there were 23 boats around the wreck making it almost impossible to troll near the structure. I decided to work the outskirts of the wreck where there was less traffic and I could let my deep baits down deeper without running the risk of snagging the bottom. Every so often, I would check the baits to see if they were swimming properly. The water was exceptionally clean which meant the baits had to look very natural otherwise nothing would eat them.
At 9am the reel with the live mackerel took off. I picked up the rod as the fish shook its head and stripped about 60m of line. I passed the rod to Marius and then cleared the other lines. The fish came in very easily and both Marius and I thought it was a small cuda, not more than 10kg. The fish circled under the boat and when it came out from underneath, I put the gaff in. Still thinking it was a small fish, I tried to lift it into the boat, but was met with some resistance. I then took a closer look at the fish and realised that this was actually a good fish. I heaved the fish into the boat and then saw that it was over 20kg. Marius and I were over the moon! We put the fish into the hatch with some water and got some order in the boat. I reset the lines and continued trolling.
There were a few fish being caught on the outskirts so I decided to stick to this area. At jut before 12am, the rod with the deep rigged bonito screamed off. Marius and I ran to the back to clear lines and then I took the rod. The fish felt heavy and fought deep and hard for about 15mins before we saw it for the first time. It was a nice cuda. As I was looking down at the fish, I saw a second cuda swimming with this fish. I told Marius to put the live bait in the water to see if we could get that one as well, but no luck. My fish in the mean time took another run and had me battling to lift it. When it came close again, I saw that it was hooked in the side of the head making it difficult to pull in. After 20mins, we finally managed to get a gaff into the fish and Marius pulled it aboard. It was also a good fish of about 20kg. Wasting no time, I put a fresh live bait in the water and Marius opened the throttle a bit to let the far line out. While I was letting the line out, I felt the bait panic and then the reel took off! I fed it some line and then put up the drag. The rod keeled over and line smoked off the reel. We slowed the boat down and the fish continued running. It had about taken about 50 meters of line when suddenly the hook pulled. Unlucky!
Again, the lines were reset and the trolling continued. The competition rules stated that the scale would close at 5pm. This meant that we needed to get back to Richards Bay, take the boat home, load the fish and then drive through to Zini before 5pm. After doing our calculations, we figured that we needed to leave petingo at latest 2pm to make it.
After an hour without another strike, I lifted the deep lines and headed over the wreck. This was going to be our last circle before we packed up to head home. We were on top of the wreck when I saw the surface rod flick. I told Marius that there was something not right and went to the back to check. I picked up the rod and at the same time, there was a splash on the surface near the bait. Next thing the rod pulled down and the reel took off! Marius cleared the other lines and I pulled the fish in. It didn’t put up much of a fight and after a few minutes Marius gaffed a small cuda of about 5kg. I suggested that while the lines were up, we should call it day make sure we made the scales.
The sea was beautiful so we made good time to the harbour. After the boat was at the house, we put the fish into a “Body Bag” filled with ice and headed to Zini. We arrived with 30mins to spare...not bad timing. We put the smaller fish on the scale and it pulled the needle down to 20,5kg. The bigger fish was then weighed and ended up being 22,9kg and was the biggest fish for the day and the other was the 4th biggest. It goes without saying that we had a drink or two on the fish.
The next day started out the same as the previous, but we could not get any live bait. We had to resort to dead bait after pulling around the wreck for a few hours without a strike we were nervous that we might not maintain our position. The scale closed at 2pm so we would need to leave by 11:30 latest. At 11:30 we had not had a strike and only a few small fish were caught by the other boats, so we packed up and headed back. We had no Idea what had been weighed and assumed we would be bumped into 2nd or 3rd.
The prize giving started at 4pm. There were only 23 fish weighed and there were 30 prizes. The prizes were handed out in ascending order and after not being called up before 6th place, Marius and I started doing the calculations. If I was 4th on day 1 and Marius was 1st, then if I was 4th overall, we would have won. The 6th prize was called and it was not me... then the 5th prize was called and again it was not me. I had won the 4th prize. This meant that there had not been any bigger fish weighed and the first day’s positions remained the unchanged! Marius was called up for the first prize of R30 000 for the biggest cuda. Great!
All in all it was a great competition. It was well organised and I am pleased that the event was well supported. We will definitely be there again next year.
