When we launched, the mist was lying over the bay and continued out to sea. There was not a breath of wind. We headed north to 5 mile and joined about 15 other boats who were waiting for the fish to come up. There had been no sign of the fish so far so we decided to pull some lures around to locate the shoal. I put out four cd7 rapalas and a small green mean machine and started zig sagging between 12 and 20m. The other boats headed north while we stayed in the area where the boats had found them the day before. The sun had just started to break the horizon when the surface lure was eaten and the reel absolutely smoked off! I turned around and picked up the rod and quickly slacked the drag a bit. Willem and Theuns cleared the other four rods as I lost line at a frightening speed. By the time the last line was in, I had already turned the boat toward the fish and increased the speed just to keep from being spooled! Finally I could leave the controls and get to the task at hand. Slowly but surely I regained line and things calmed down. The fish stayed on the surface and Willem maneuvered the boat next to it. The water was very clean and we saw the number plate clearly when the fish turned. It was a nice size cuda. I managed to lift the fish’s head and Willem put the gaff into it then hauled it over the gunwale. It looked over 20kg! Not bad for #3 wire and a 3/0 hook.
The lines went back in and the trolling resumed. The offshore breeze had pushed the mist over the sea and for almost an hour we could not see more than 100m in front of us. We all strained our eyes looking into the mist to avoid collision with other boats. At 9am, we had not had any more action so we decided to rig a few baits and slow troll the area. I rigged up 2 sardines, 2 redeyes and a fillet and worked the same area that we had been trolling. At just after 10am, the sardine on the surface was eaten. Theuns took the rod as the fish went on its first run. We cleared the lines and Theuns worked the fish closer. It was a nice snoek of 7,5kg and after a few short runs around the boat, Willem stuck it with the gaff and boated it.
The baits went back into the water and we continued working the area. About 15 minutes later, the deep bait was taken and Willem took the rod. After a relatively short fight, I gaffed the 6kg snoek and it was 3 for 3. It was apparent that the snoek were not going to come up as they did the day before so at 11:30 we upped lines and headed home. We weighted the cuda at the ski-boat club and it pulled the scale to 22kg. What a great day.
