At 6:30am on Saturday 6th April, Jannie, Ruan and I launched “Ohana” off Richards bay. We were keen to try for a cuda as there had been a few nice ones around. The weather looked beautiful and the horrid cold/dirty water from the previous weekend had vanished and was replaced with 26 degree clean green cuda water! BEAUTIFUL!
We stopped at the pipeline and managed to find a few big maasbanker. With the live well full we headed to Petingo where we rigged a few baits and slow trolled the area. Half an hour later, the boat “Tjienkie” arrived with a boat full of spearos. They proceeded to spread out over the wreck with the boat riding circles around the group of divers. We watched as they hauled out a number of bottomfish and small gamefish. Not being able to get near the wreck, due to inconsiderate boat handling, we upped lines and moved deeper to avoid the situation going pear shaped.
Again we set the lines and trolled the area. At 11:30, the deep bait slowly went away. Ruan took the rod and as we were clearing the lines, the surface bait went away at speed. I took the rod and fought a fast, strong fish. About 15mins later, the fish showed itself to be a good cuda of around 25kg. Slowly it circled up and just as Jannie was about to gaff it, it made a short run. I brought it back and just before it was in range, the wire kinked off and the fish faded into the depths! Meantime, Ruan fought what turned out to be a hammerhead of about 70kg. 
With fresh baits in the water, we made another turn. The livie on surface went away with a smallish cuda which pulled hook near the boat. Things went quiet and at 2pm I suggested we go back to Petingo for the afternoon session. On arrival, I put out the surface livie and was busy putting the other surface bait out when the 1st rod absolutely smoked off! I passed the rod to Jannie and turned the boat to slow the run. Luckily the fish ran away from the wreck (and the resident sharks) so we could take out time. After several long fast runs, the fish showed its number plate. It was a BIG cuda, in the class I had not seen in a few years. The fish made a few big circles and I made one gaff attempt but missed completely, misjudging the depth in the clean water. On the next pass, I stuck the fish and hauled it aboard. As it hit the deck, we knew it was an easy 30kg fish. The head looked like a dogtooth tuna! When we slid it into the hatch, it did not fit!
With shaky hands, I rerigged the baits and Jannie trolled over the wreck. About half way up, the deep livie went away and I took the rod. After a quick tussle, a 10kg cuda was gaffed and joined the crocodile in the hatch. It looked minute against the other fish.
At 3pm, we upped lines and ran home. At the club, the fish drew a crowd of onlookers as it went to the scale. All guesses were surpassed when the fish pulled the scale to 34,7kg!!! A fish of a lifetime! Just it was a weekend too late as it would have won the Easter Bonanza and R40 000.
Well done to everyone on board.
