On Sunday 15th May, Edmund Johnstone, Riaan Pretorius, my Dad and I launched “Selfish” off Richards Bay to fish for cuda. There had been a few fish around and we were hopeful that we would get a fish or two. We left the harbour at about 6:30am and headed to the pipeline to look for bait. The water was not a nice colour and we failed at catching a single livie. After more than half an hour, we headed for petingo.
We arrived at about 7:45am, I rigged 3 bonito and 2 wala-wala and staggered them in depth and distance from the boat. The water was a nice "cuda green" with a slight current. There were alot of jellyfish around even though the water was 23 degrees. My Dad began slow trolling around the wreck. Everywhere there were bonito crashing bait on the surface and good showings on the echo sounder. Things looked good.
At just after 9am, the deep bonito was eaten and the reel took off as the fish took about 50m of line. Edmund and I retrieved the other lines as my Dad chased the fish. Riaan was on the rod and had quite a tussle with the fish before I managed to get the gaff into it. It was a really nice cuda, well over 20kg. After cheers and congratulations, we reset the spread and continued trolling.
It was just before 10am when the surface bonito was eaten. The reel smoked off as the fish headed about 100m in the opposite direction. Riaan and I cleared the lines as my Dad chased the fish. Edmund gained line quickly and had it at the boat in a relatively short time. As the leader came out the water, the fish took off again. It started fighting differently ... very erratic. Only then did we see that a shark was after it. The cuda tried every trick in the book and finally managed to get away from the shark. As it swam past the boat, I put the gaff into another good fish.
The lines went out again and we continued trolling. The wind turned to an easterly direction and all the activity vanished. The rest of the day was dead and at 2pm we upped lines and headed home. The two cuda weighed in at 25,2kg and 18kg respectively.
