The long wait is over...

On 29^th October 2011, Riaan Charmers, Wayne Ritchie, Jacques, Divan and I launched Riaan’s 27ft Butt Cat “Predator” off Richards Bay. We had not been on the water in weeks and we were all looking forward to an eventful day. The weather looked promising with a light SW swinging to NE in the afternoon.

We headed up north to Groenkop where the guys had caught some snoek the previous few days. We trolled small lures for about half an hour before upping lines and running for the deep. We had the big guns with us and put out a spread of marlin lures looking for our first billfish of the season. The water was a cold 22.7 degrees, but at least the water was blue. We headed out to sea hoping to find warm water and something that would indicate where to concentrate our efforts. The temperature stayed about the same all the way to 1100m with it reaching a max of 22.9degrees... Not exactly ideal.

There was nothing that tweaked our interest so we headed shallower. In 450m, we found a slight current line with the odd bird nearby. I zigzagged the line a few times and started seeing flotsam. In this same area, we found a few flying fish. This was the most activity we found so far. About an hour later, we had a pair of dorado come into the spread and managed to hook one of them up. Riaan fought the fish to the boat where Divan gaffed our first Dorado of the season. A fish of around 11kg ... Finally some action. We worked the area for a while without any more action. At 2pm We turned for the harbour. In 100m, Jacques saw movement on the japan lure on the centre rigger. As I looked up, I saw a small billfish chasing it down. Moments later, there was a big splash and the rigger popped. The reel gave a short burst but then went silent. I tried teasing the fish, but to no avail. I assume the cold water resulted in the fish not being aggressive and so it just swatted at the lure before moving on. Oh well, at least we saw our first billfish for the season.

We headed back to the harbour where we had some electrical issues. After manhandling the boat onto the trailer, we found the problem to be a faulty battery. It was a really great day on the water and a good sign of things to come...