Picture Perfect Conditions

On Saturday the 14^th of August, my Dad and I planned to go Garrick fishing with Wayne Ritchie and Hendrik McCarthy. The forecast looked promising and at 6:30am we launched “Selfish” and headed off to the pipeline to get bait. We stopped at the coordinate and Wayne and I sent the jigs down into a good looking showing. Before we hit the ground, the rods doubled over as the baitfish climbed on. We brought up two full strings of mackerel. My Dad repositioned us and again we brought up strings of mackerel. I cut one up for bait and put a few pieces on the jigs, hoping for a shad. On the next drop, Wayne brought up a few maasbankers and I managed to get two shad and a few mackerel. We moved a short distance away and found a few red eye sardines which we kept for snoek bait. After filling up on bait, we went shallower and caught a few pinkies before heading to groenkop.

We wanted to fish the low tide for Garrick, but this was only at 11am so we had some time to kill. I rigged up a few redeyes and a live mackerel and we slow trolled a ledge at 12m. Apart from a half hearted strike, it was quiet. At 9:30 we headed for the backline.

There was almost no swell and the water was crystal clean.

I rigged two mackerel, a shad and a pinkie. My Dad slowly trolled into the shallows and headed for one of the rips that was forming with the outgoing tide. We had gone about 100m when the shad was eaten. I fed the fish for a long time then struck the fish. It took about 30m of line before the hook pulled. Unlucky! I rigged the last shad and as we went into the rip, it was eaten. I fed the fish for a while and set the hook. This time the fish was on properly. Hendrik took the rod and fought the fish to the boat where it gave a good account of itself before I put the gaff into a 7,6kg Garrick. We went back to the north side of the rip and set the lines again. I had no more shad so I put another pinkie out. Again, as we went into the rip, the pinkie was taken. I hooked up and gave Hendrik the rod. The fish came to the boat quickly and turned out to be a nice rockcod. We carried on south to the next rip and as the baits came out of the turbulence, the pinkie was eaten. I fed the fish but before I could strike, the fish dropped the bait. We did not have any more action for half an hour so we upped lines and went back to where we had started the day. We had the baits in the perfect spot when the pinkie was eaten again. I fed the fish and hooked up before giving the rod to Wayne. This Garrick took a lot of line and gave Wayne a good go. Wayne decided to tag the fish so I traced it and lifted it into the boat where it was measured, tagged and released. Great!

We rerigged and trolled to the next rip. Wayne had also put on a pinkie because this seemed to be the bait of the day. A short while later, this bait was eaten. Wayne fed the fish and then tightened up. The fish was on for a few minutes but then threw the hook. We were now out of pinkies and so we had to use mackerel and maasbankers. Again we rode to the north of the rip and rerigged. I put out new baits on all the rods and as the last bait was in the water, the mackerel was taken. Wayne fed the fish for quite a while and then tightened up. Hookup! The fish was on a spinning rig and Wayne wanted Hendrik to feel what it was like to fight on a coffee grinder, so he handed over the rod. Hendrik fought the fish to the boat and after a good tussle, I gaffed a 7,4kg Garrick.

With a renewed faith in the other baits, we reset the lines. We decided to up lines at 2pm and at 1:55pm, the deep bait with the maasbanker was taken. I fed the fish but unfortunately the line tangled with another and the fish spat the bait before I could strike. We were happy with our day and headed back for a cold beer.