First Snoek of the Season

On Sunday 23^rd June, Mike and Dale Leenstra and I launched “Beluga” off Richards Bay. We were just going for a relaxed social outing and had no plans of really fishing too hard. Mike also wanted to test his new GPS / echo sounder.

The sea was calm and a nice clean green colour. We stopped at the pipeline, but after almost an hour, we had not caught a single live bait. This often happens after a SW buster comes through. We decided not to flog a dead horse, so we headed for 5 Mile. There had been a few Snoek (Queen Mackerel) caught there the previous day, so it seemed like the logical place to start. Dale and I put out a few baits and Mike trolled along the colourline looking to find a fish. It was not long before the surface bait went away with a small fish. After much deliberation, I took the rod and winched in a small snoek ... my first for the season. The baits went in again and the search continued. After about an hour, we were quite far north and turned back to work the shallow ledge. Dale and I were playing around with the GPS when a nice midwater showing came through. We were still joking about it being a shoal of snoek when one of the reels went off. Mike took the strike and landed a nice 4kg fish. While Dale and Mike rigged and set the lines, I turned back towards the waypoint. The showing had gone, so I tacked north for a few hundred meters. By luck, we drove over the showing again and the deep bait went on. Mike was next to the rod, so he  brought in a really nice fish, the biggest of the day so far... around 6kg. I was busy turning when the other deep bait had a pull. Unfortunately it missed the hooks. The baits were rerigged and I trolled the area without another pull. I started trolling north as it seemed like thats the way the shoal had been moving. About 20minutes  later, the deep bait went away with a small fish which Dale brought in. We were keen to release it, but unfortunately it was in the gills so we kept it.

 

Things went a bit quiet for a while and we were contemplating returning to port. At one stage, Edmund Johnstone came past us and went on with a fish. He had been trolling lures and had had a few strikes already. That was enough to convince us to change rigs. Dale and Mike set the lines and I tacked back over the area we had found a few fish earlier. It was not long before we had a pull. Dale took the strike and when I slacked the speed, another rod went away. Dale got a small snoek to the boat where we released it. Mine was in the gills and bleeding badly so it went into the hatch. I made another turn and this time the japan rod went away. Mike took it and got another nice size fish to the boat.

 

It was 11am, so we decided to troll back home. We had gone about a kilometre when we spotted a shoal of halfbeaks leaping out of the water toward us. We all agreed that there must be something chasing them and when our lines came into the area, a reel went off. Dale passed me the rod. It was hardly fighting, so we assumed it was small and would release it. When it came to the boat, it turned out to be one of the biggest fish of the day, so it ended up in the hatch.

 

We trolled right into the harbour without another pull. It was a really enjoyable day and the fact that we had a few fish was a bonus. Mike and my fish weighed in at 6.3kg and 6.4kg respectively.