Spring has Sprung

On Sunday 1^st September at 6:30am, Jannie, Chris and I launched “Ohana” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to get Jannie’s first Garrick, and our first Garrick of the season. After speaking to a few of the guys who had been fishing during the week, there had been a good number of Garrick in the bay, but livebait had been a problem. With that in mind, we headed for the bait spots offshore.

On the first drop with the sabikis, Chris caught 3 nice shad. I baited up and went down and as I hit the ground, went tight and lifted a string of shad into the boat. Within 15 minutes, we had a livewell full of bait and headed back to the harbour to find a suitable area to anchor. The water was quite dirty in the bay, but knowing that Garrick feed in all water conditions, we went about setting anchor. We opted for 3 balloons, one with a weight and the others without. We then also set 2 weighted baits straight off the rod tips at 7 and 9m. Things were very quiet until about 10am when the boat next to us landed a fish. 10minutes later, we had a pull on the weighted balloon. I fed the fish a bit, but it dropped the bait before I could set the hook. A short while later, we had a shark eat one of the baits and bite the leader off.

By 12:30, we were bored as hell so decided to check out the water on the outside of the south pier. There was a huge swell running and the water was churned up badly. The strong reverse current ran along the pier causing major rips and coupled with the easterly wind, it made a beautiful colour line about 100m from the pier. We decided to pull the baits along the line for a while before we went home. I rigged 2 surface lines and 1 deep. Jannie slowly trolled along moving north. A little ways ahead of us, a few small baitfish cleared the water followed by a big boil. Moments later, the far surface bait went away. I fed it for a while  before tightening up and setting the hook. I passed the rod to Jannie while Chris and I cleared the other lines. It did not take long to get the fish to the boat and on the first pass, we saw 2 followers. I flicked out another bait to try and tempt a second fish, but no such luck. It took some time to finally get the fish within range and finally I lifted Jannie’s first Garrick into the boat... Finally, the pressure was off.

I rerigged and set the lines. Jannie trolled the same line and it was not long before the deep bait went away. After feeding and hooking up, I handed the rod to Chris who had a great fight with a feisty Garrick. This fish was a carbon copy of the first. It was mission accomplished for the day as both Jannie and Chris had their first Garrick... Chris had caught ‘leervis’ in the Cape before, but never in Natal.

The rip was starting to dissipate with the change in tide so we did not have much longer to fish in these prime conditions. I set the 3 lines again and within a few minutes, the close surface bait gave a few short bursts. I looked back to see a Garrick circling it with the shad trying to jump out of harms way. I lightly pulled on the line to interrupt the jumping and was rewarded with an awesome smash on the surface. I fed the fish but after a few seconds, the fish dropped the bait and did not return as they usually do. I replaced the bait and Jannie made a turn over the same spot. It was no surprise when the same reel went away. This time it all went according to plan and I hooked up. While retrieving the other lines, Chris noticed that one of the lines was tangled with mine so he had to control the other rod to prevent a burnoff. The fish gave me a good fight next to the boat and after 15 minutes, Jannie lifted it into the boat. It was a perfect end to what started out as a slow day.

The fish were all between 7,5 and 9kg. Not a bad way to start the season.