On Saturday 30th June 2012 at 05:30, we launched Jannie Jacob’s boat “OHANA” off Richards Bay. We were keen to catch one of the late season cuda that were still around. Our first stop was at the pipeline where we caught a few shad and maasbankers before running deep to small highpoint to look for jube-jubes. After trolling small lures around for a while, we managed to get a small yellowfin tuna which we bled and put on ice for sushi. With no more success, it was off to the 32m ledge off Petingo.
On arrival, the water was a clean green with a slight north to south current. The off shore wind was dropping as predicted resulting in perfect conditions. I went about rigging a livie, bonnie and wala-wala while Jannie rigged his wala and a redeye sardine. The baits looked good and after trolling around for about an hour, the bonnie went away with the first fish. Chris, a mate of Jannies from the Cape, took the strike and boated a nice 14kg cuda... not a bad start. The lines went back in and 20mins later, the surface wala screamed off! Jannie fought the fish to where I could gaff it and an 18kg cuda joined the first in the hatch. Things went a bit quiet for a while due to a pod of dolphins harassing us, but as soon as they moved on, the bonnie was eaten by a smoker! I took the rod and tussled a 20kg cuda to the boat where Jannie gaffed it. Nice ...we each had one for the day!
A fresh bait was rigged and trolling continued. I was watching the deep bait when I noticed the rod bump and pull down. Just before the reel went, the tip flicked up. I wound like hell, but the fish was already gone. I got back half a bonnie with 2 trebles dangling where the tail used to be. Sometimes I can’t believe a fish can miss those hooks! I was down to the last fresh bonnie and lovingly lowered it to the ground, armed to the teeth with trebles. It was not even 15 minutes before I saw the same deep rod dip. This time I was quick off the mark and started cranking immediately. The rod stayed bent to the water and finally loaded up to where the reel ran. Chris took the strike and had a strong tussle with a fish that stayed deep. After a long fight, the 16kg cuda circled under the boat where it was gaffed. The trebles were all hooked down the flank of the fish which resulted in the long fight. We were now out of decent bonnies. I scratched around and found a frot, pale, soft bonnie which was tossed in the chum bucket earlier that morning. It looked awful but it was still a bonnie. Somehow it stayed together long enough for me to rig it and it too went to the bottom.
It was now 3pm and nearing the end of the day. Jannie suggested we troll to the northern most coordinate then up lines. About half way there, the surface wala took off, almost giving us a heart attack! Jannie took the strike and after a few long fast runs, the 14kg fish was gaffed. With time running out, Jannie let out the livie while Chris cleared the deck. I noticed that we had drifted quite far and suggested we pull up the livie and ride a bit north then put out else we would take forever to get to the last coordinate. As Jannie retrieved the livie, a +-15kg cuda came swimming in after it. We tried everything to get it to eat, but it was just window shopping and left as soon as it arrived. Without saying, the lines went out right there! We trolled until 4pm before upping lines. When I retrieved the deep bonnie, I saw that it was chopped! Oh well, can’t catch them all, all the time.
We ended the day with 5 lovely cuda. This was the best that Jannie’s boat had ever done with cuda so he was really chuffed, so were we all...
