On Saturday the 7th July, Herman, Brin and I launched “Mitsufishi” off of Mapelane in the Junior Interclub. Both Herman and Brin’s kids were in the Mapelane U/16 Development team. Being the first time Brin’s daughter had ever been to sea, we were nervous to drift as this might cause her to feel sick. It was decided to just pull lures around and hope for a few yellowfins or bonnies. The lures went out and 10 minutes later, a first time angler caught a bonnie! Welcome to the world of deepsea fishing... We trolled deeper out to the ledge but the sea was picking up due to the 15+ knot wind. Brin suggested we turn back to the shallows and calmer conditions. His words were not cold when 2 rods went on with small jube jubes. These went straight into the bait box. Herman made the proverbial “one last turn” and again 2 rods went away. This time it was with 2 small yellowfins. By now the kids were feeling uneasy so we headed back to base.
At the weigh-in that afternoon, there were only a few fish, but a few really nice ones. The Richards Bay team got a 25kg cuda to win the comp. Cape Vidal had a snoek ad a 16kg cuda, both on spinning outfits. Although not eligible for the competition, a 32kg musslecracker was also weighed. The Sunday was blown out and the prize giving brought forward to 10am. My hat goes off to the organisers for a superb job. Everything was great, food, boats, accommodation, logistics, everything. The prizes were excellent and every angler received a prize, regardless of whether a fish was weighed. This is definitely THE junior comp to be part of... till next year.
