The alarms went off at 5am and we reluctantly left the warmth of the tents. We packed our tackle, hitched the boat, warmed the motors and headed for the beach. The surf was relatively small, but there was a strong side wash and nasty shore dump. One by one the boats were launched with the help of the club’s boat pushers. After a slightly wet launch, we stopped on the backline. Our first stop was at the livebait spot where we caught a few maasbankers. With the livebait tank full, we put out some halcos and feathers to look for small bonito. About 45mins later, we had 2 small jub-jubs. We had decided to fish the home reef area which is straight off the launch at mapelane in 17-21m. There had been a few fish there the last while so we were confident that we would get some fish.
Divan and I put out 2 live maasbankers, a small bonito, a wala-wala and a shad while Wayne crisscrossed the length of the reef. I had just put the last bait in the water when the surface livebait was eaten. The reel smoked off as Wayne and I retrieved the other rods. Divan fought the fish hard but the big circles it was making concerned us. We all agreed that the fish was foul-hooked and after a 20min fight, I gaffed a 7,5kg cuda (hooked in the side). The lines went out again and Wayne resumed his trolling pattern. At about 10am, the small bonito was eaten and seconds later, a large blackfin shark came spinning out the water, wrapping the trace and parting the leader, luckily! Again we put out the lines. At about 12pm, the rod with the wala-wala bent and the reel screamed. This fish fought very strangely and after a minute or so, the line went slack. Divan wound as fast as possible and next thing the rod was almost pulled out his hands as the fish changed direction and the line took tension! The fish gave up quickly and Wayne put the gaff into the cuda. It was 5,5kg and was hooked in the tail! By now the NE wind was blowing and the sea was getting rough. We were the last boat on the reef and so we decided to make one last turn before we called it a day. As we came off the reef, the surface livebait was eaten but after a short but fast run, the hooks pulled. After that, we upped lines and headed for the beach where the fish were weighed and stories of the day’s fishing were swapped. There were only 8 fish weighed between 18 boats and we had 2 of them, so we didn’t do too badly.
The next day dawned with beautiful weather and calm seas. There was a lot of livebait around and the bonito were jumping everywhere. We put out the same spread as the day before and after about 2 hours, the surface livebait was eaten. The fish fought deep and when it was close to the boat, the fish went wild running left then right and taking line at speed. Next thing the leader parted. We all knew what had happened ... a shark had eaten the fish we had on and bitten through the fluorocarbon leader. The rest of the day produced no more strikes and we returned to the beach with a few small bonito. There were only 5 cuda for the day. The biggest fish was 16,5kg. The prize giving followed shortly after the weigh in and after the proceedings were over, we made our way home. Thanks to everyone for a great weekend.
