On Saturday the 26th, Michael Duvenage, Divan Coetzee and I hitched Michael’s Dads boat “Lihann” and headed off to the club to launch. The forecast for the day was for a NE of 10 knots swinging to a light SW at midday increasing to around 18knots in the afternoon. We were planning to head south to go deep dropping for swordfish in the morning and then when the wind turned, we would fish for cuda and come back with the wind.
We headed out to 550m about 30km from the harbour mouth. The NE wind was causing some good white horses which was going to make the drift difficult. We attached a 7kg weight and sent a squid down to the bottom. We drifted for about an hour before we saw the rod bump a few times then it lay still. Michael and I retrieved the bait and found it to be mauled, probably some kind of small bottomfish. I rigged another bait and Michael repositioned us for another drop. The wind was tapping off so the drift was a lot better. I put on a 5kg weight and sent the bait down. Near the end of the drift, there was another bump on the rod. We left it for a while before deciding to check the bait. Again the bait had been chewed up by something with teeth as the 300Lbs trace had some good nicks in it.
It was 11:30 and the wind had dropped to almost nothing. We decided to abandon the swordfish hunt and headed for High Point. When we arrived, the SW started blowing lightly. There were three other boats there and they had a cuda or two. Divan and I put out some small halcos and feathers to catch bait and on the first turn over the reef, we managed a small bonito which we put in the tubes. As we pulled away, another rod went off and Divan released a yellowfin tuna of about 4kg. We put out the lines again and trolled south along the reef to see if there were any other bumps worth working. Michael saw a showing on the echo sounder in mid-water and said we should get a strike here. His words were not cold when 3 reels took off. We each grabbed a rod and started pulling. My fish pulled hook and as I was retrieving the lure, another fish grabbed it and smoked off. In the mean time, Divan loaded a 2kg bonito and Michael pulled hook on a similar size bonito next to the boat. When my fish finally stopped, I turned its head and pulled it to the boat. It turned out to be a yellowfin of around 4kg which was released. Michael worked the rest of the reef without a strike so he headed back north to where the other boats were. Again, as we went over the main pinnacle, two rods went away. Divan and I each pulled in another yellowfin which were both released.
By now the wind was doing about 12 knots and the see was getting a bit bumpy. Two boats had left and the other boat had not had a strike since we had arrived. We decided to head toward the harbour. We still had the live bait in the tube so we decided to pull it over a reef called Danies, which was about 7km from high point, on the way home. Michael slowed us to a trolling speed and Divan rigged the bonnie while I rigged some wala-wala and a dead bonnie. On our second pass, the live bait was eaten. I was told to take the rod and after a 15 min fight, I had a 14kg cuda next to the boat which Divan gaffed. It was 14:00 and we upped lines headed for the harbour. Our baits were still rigged and when we came near to the Petingo, Michael slowed down to give the wreck a try for a short while. Divan and I rigged some baits and we trolled around the wreck in a figure of eight. On out third turn, the bonito on the surface was taken but after a short run, the hooks pulled. The bait was rerigged and we continued trolling. At 17:00 we started pulling in the lines to go home. Divan retrieved the deep bait and was busy removing the sinker when the line was ripped out of his hand! We were on. The fish took quite a lot of line and once Michael and I had cleared the remaining lines, we chased after it. The light was bad so I had to direct Michael up the line while he battled the wind which was close to 20 knots by now. Divan pulled hard and after 15 mins, I managed to get the gaff into the 17kg cuda. After that, we headed for home and cleaned fish and boat in the dark. It was a really enjoyable day on the water. Thanks to all.
