On Friday the 7th of May, Michael Duvenage, My Dad Denis and I arrived at the Umhlanga Ski Boat Club for the Prestige Interclub. We were representing the Richards Bay Ski Boat Club. At registration, Rob King introduced us to Jurgen, our skipper for the weekend. He owned a 21ft Butt cat named “Mdagwane”. After the briefing, Jurgen took us to see the boat so that we knew what to expect in the morning. We then returned to the club for supper. The festivities continued into the early hours of the morning and when the alarm went off at 4am, we were not feeling too good!
We finally got our things together and headed for the club with the mother of all hangovers! We packed the boat and had breakfast before going down to the beach. At 5:30 the 15 boats were launched one by one through Granny’s Pool and we all assembled on the backline. Once the last boat was through the surf, it was a race to the barge to get livebait. After filling the livewells, the boats ran to their fishing destinations. Most of the boats headed far North to Zinkwazi, where some good fish had come out the day before. We opted to stay closer to the launch and headed for Pete’s Cottage. The water was a beautiful colour.
Michael and I rigged 5 rods with a variety of live baits which we staggered behind the boat in depth and distance. Jurgen slow trolled over a few marks that he had on his GPS. After about 30 minutes, the long surface bait was taken and Michael fought the fish. After a few good runs, the fish came to the boat where I gaffed a good sized cuda. The lines went back into the water and Jurgen continued the troll. About an hour later another surface bat was taken. Before anyone could get to the rod, the hooks came out. Not 5minutes later, one of the deeper lines took off. As I got to the rod, the hooks pulled. Could we be so unlucky?! But a few seconds later, the surface rod went away and the hooks found their mark. Michael fought the fish for a while before my Dad gaffed the smallish fish. It had foul hooked in the side of the body which made the fight harder that it would normally.
Jurgen made a few more turns in the area, but we had no further strikes. We upped lines and ran further north toward Umdloti. After trolling for 45mins or so, we had a strike on a surface bait. The fish took a few meters of line before the hooks pulled! By now, we were starting to get irritated, but carried on trying. The NE wind had picked up to about 18knots and we were running out of time. Jurgen suggested we go further north and drift back over the marks that we had worked during the day. After setting the lines, we settled down and waited for a rev. It took a whole 5 mins. The deep bait took off and I grabbed the rod. The fish took quite a bit of line. The lines were being cleared and Jurgen was turning to case the fish when the hooks pulled ... again. Epic FAIL! The lines went out again and we continued drifting. The wind was now blowing more than 20 knots and the sea was upside down. After about an hour, the surface bait was eaten but the end result was the same ... pulled hooks. That was the last rev we had for the day and we upped lines and headed for the beach.
At the weigh in, our 2 fish weighed 15,6kg and 5,3kg respectively. The water at Zinkwazi was dirty and only one small cuda was caught between all the boats that travelled to there. The other boat that weighed in fish did not have anything spectacular and we ended up leading on the first day.
We had a quick team talk and we all agreed to change the hooks we were using to try to increase the hookup ratio. After the tackle was changed, we had supper and then watched the Sharks vs WP game before going to sleep.
On Day 2, the wind had died down and a beautiful sea awaited us. We went through the same drill as the day before and once all the boats were behind backline, we headed for the barge to get livies. 20mins later, we headed for Pete’s cottage. The lines were in the water for half an hour when the surface rod went off. My Dad took the strike and boated an 8kg cuda. Not to be outdone, I boated an 8kg cuda 15mins later. Jurgen made a turn over the area and again the surface bait was taken. I took the rod as the fish smoked off. Jurgen chased the fish while the other lines were cleared. After a hard fight, I managed to gain most of the line. The fish felt very strange but had alot of weight to it. I said that I thought the fish had tail wrapped and after 10mins we got a look at the fish, which came up tail first. It was a good size yellowfin tuna. Things went a bit quiet and we moved a bit north. The baits went out and 15mins later Michael was into a fish. After some fancy footwork, I gaffed another cuda. The rest of the day produced only 3 hammerhead sharks. At the weighin, our cuda weighed 8.5kg, 8.7kg and 10.5kg. The tuna pulled the scale to 17.6kg. The other teams also weighed in some nice fish (22kg kingfish, 21kg cuda) and we all knew it was going to be a close call.
At the prize giving, we found out that the top two teams were separated by 13 points! We had done the calcs and had calculated that we were second. Our calculations were correct and so we managed to take 2nd place by a narrow margin. On behalf of the team, I would like to thank everyone involved in the organising of the competition. It is without a doubt the best interclub that I have attended. Thanks to Jurgen for giving up his time to drive us around the sea watching us catch fish. Thanks also to my team. I really enjoyed sharing the battlefield with you. We will be back next year.
