Non-jumpers

Early on Sunday 18th December, Hannes, Manie and I left Richards Bay and headed to Cape Vidal. We were going to fish for the day and then leave the boat there for a few days. We finally arrived on the beach at 6:30 where we met up with the rest of the crew, Wayne and Mark. After an uneventful launch, we quickly looked for some maasbanker on the point, but found only a few seapike. We then headed to Oscar pinnacle to look for live bait for marlin.

The sea was beautiful. The surface was like oil and the clarity was like gin... conditions that you you REALLY battle for bait. We put out several halcos and feathers and worked the area for a few hour. At about 10am, we finally managed to get a small kawa-kawa. We rigged it and put it out in 60m of water. The wind was slowly picking up but still very fishable.

In 120m, the rigger popped and I fed the fish. We hooked up and the fish stripped quite a lot of line before slowing down, allowing us to gain control. About 25 minutes later, a big hammerhead shark came into view. I traces it and just before I could cut the leader, the shark bit us off.

There were now a few white horses on the surface and things looked lively. We put bait rods out again to look for bait. It took about 20 minutes before we had a double strike on kawas. We managed to get one, but it was hooked in the gills and died after pulling it for a while. Back to the bait rods... this time, it took all of 3 minutes to get bait. Again, this one was in the gills so we did not even waste time rigging it.

We managed to get another kawa-kawa a few minutes later but it was also badly hooked. We decided to rig it and see how it swam. After pulling it for a few minutes it began flashing on the surface. We slowed down and that seemed to help the situation. Not long after, the rigger popped. We hooked up and settled into a strong fight. The line stayed deep for most of the fight, but finally angled up to the surface. We could just make out the shape of a big shark cruising on top. Wayne fought the fish to the boat where I leadered a +-250kg tiger shark. After a quick photo, we cut the trace and it swam off. After that we headed for the beach.