The Show Must Go On

On Saturday 29^th June, Jannie Jacobs, his wife Mia and son TJ, Francé and I launched “Ohana” off Richards Bay. Our club was hosting a Ladies and Junior Competition so Jannie asked me to be deckhand on Saturday while he skipped. The competition was supposed to be a “Ladies and Junior Interclub”, but unfortunately, after the invites had been sent out to all the clubs in South Africa, we only had 1 team from PE send a team. Disappointing to say the least. As the saying goes, the show must go on and the RBSBC changed the format to a social comp and invited all members to enter. There was an overwhelming response for such short notice and 12 teams ended up fishing! Great to see the enthusiasm and support from local members.

The format of the comp was 1 point per kg and the minimum weight of 1kg. No IGFA rules and no line class. It was as relaxed as a comp could be. The weather favourable on day one and all the boats launched by first light. We headed for the pipeline and collected some live bait before heading to the ledge. The sea was a bit bumpy, but was predicted to settle. I put out 4 small halcos and an Ilander saillure, just incase there was a sailfish lurking. Jannie trolled over the ledge and as the reef started, one of the reels went off. I passed the rod to Francé who brought in a small yellowfin tuna... first points on the board. Without wasting time, the lines went out again. There were a lot of albatross around and we snagged one on the surface lure. Jannie trolled over a midwater showing and it was no surprise when 4 reels went away. Mia, TJ and Francé all fought fish while I cleared the dead line. Unfortunately the one fish pulled the hook but Mia and Francé each landed the shoalie yellowfins. TJ’s fish was converted to a shark which bit through the nylon leader after a while. We continued trolling and went away with a good fish on the surface lure. It took a lot of line and we had to turn after it to slow the run. While I was clearing the deck, the hook pulled... unlucky. A short while later, Francé caught another small yellowfin.

By now we were pretty confident that we had a good position on the leader board and decided to fish for a cuda. I rigged up 2 dead baits and 3 livies. Jannie slow-trolled across the ledge and it was not long before a reel went off. Due to a bout of seasickness, most of our crew were out of action so Francé took the strike. She fought it well but when it was near the boat, it made a fast run followed by a slow, constant pull heading to sea... another conversion. The baits went out again and two more sharks and an albatross later, we were near the end of the ledge. As we were deciding to try another spot, the downrigger rod went away. Again Francé took the strike and brought an 8kg cuda to the boat. That was our last strike for the day and we were back in the harbour by 3pm.

On Sunday, I fished on “ABF” with Martinus Mathee. We tried to get a Garrick, but they were not having any of it. Apart from a small snoek, our day was quiet.

All the competition boats launched in perfect conditions. After a long day, there were a lot of small yellowfin and the odd snoek and cuda weighed. Francé took the top individual, TJ ended 7^th and Mia 9^th due to a few more yellowfins on the ledge.

Congrats to the committee for hosting a really great social event that included the whole family. I hope that this can be an annual event, with more interest from other clubs.