On Saturday 14th September 2013, Jacques Spence (AKA Tjokkie) and I launched “ABF” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to get in a days Garrick fishing before the season came to an end. The weather looked like it was going to give us a nice window, with a wind direction change at mid day, so we set off at 6am.
After catching a hatch full of bait at the pipe, we headed back to the harbour to troll for Garrick. I put out 2 surface baits and one deep, then slowly made our way around the point of the south pier. After about 45minutes, we had no action so I turned and headed into the bay. Friends of mine had called me indicating that they were into a shoal of fish about 100m from where we were so I headed in that direction. I replaced the deep bait and while letting it out, there was a big swirl behind the motors. Next thing a Garrick broke surface and ate the bait that I had just rigged. I fed the fish for a while then tightened up and passed the rod to Tjoks. The deck was cleared and the tag kit readied. After a strong fight, the Garrick was next to the boat and just when I was getting ready to take the leader, the hook pulled! Unlucky...
I rerigged and worked the area a bit without any luck. The boats that were anchored nearby were getting the odd strike, so we anchored up put out a few baits. For the next 2 hours, not one of the boats around us had another strike. The tide was scheduled to turn at 11:30 and I wanted to cover more ground during that time so at 11m, we pulled anchor and trolled to the pier again. With fresh baits in the water, a tide change and a swing in wind direction, something had to happen. I rounded the point of the pier and just started to turn back when there was a big swirl between the lines, followed by the reel running. I fed the fish then tightened up before passing the rod to Tjoks. The fish took a lot of line so I cleared the deep line and headed after it. A few minutes later, the reel ran with a second fish which I hooked up. Being only 2 on the boat, we had our hands full so I slacked the drag on my fish and put the rod in the holder so that we could concentrate on the first fish. After 15 minutes, we got our first look at the Garrick. It was a really good size and gave us the run around at the boat. Finally it was close enough to get hold of the tail and lift it into the boat. Only then did we see the true size of it. It was possibly the biggest one of the season so it was decided to keep it. Meanwhile, the other Garrick had settled and was just cruising along with us. I put up the drag and pulled it in before grabbing the tail, tagging and finally releasing it. Great stuff! Talk about a confidence booster...
Tjoks took us back to the pier while I rigged up 2 new traces. As we stopped, I let out the 3 lines and made a similar approach. The swell was pushing the boat towards the rocks so Tjoks turned to sea to avoid collision. I was busy at the back of the boat when the deep bait gave a short burst. I freespooled the reel but not much happened. After a short while I decided to check the bait and wound in the line. As I retrieved, the line angle moved to the front of the boat and the rod took tension I tightened up and to my surprise, the rod bumped and the reel took off... we were on! At first Tjoks could not believe it due to the strange strike but when I handed him the rod, there was no doubt. Again the fish took a lot of line so I followed it to help Tjoks regain some. After a good tussle, he had the fish at the boat where I grabbed the tail and wrestled it onto the deck where t was tagged then released. It was a nice fish of around 11kg.
Again Tjoks took us back to the point while I rerigged. When we stopped, I let out the lines and just as the last line was set, the far surface reel ran. I started freespooling the fish then passed the rod to Tjoks to hook it himself. When it had fed for a while, he tightened up and went on with another lovely fish that was intent on putting some distance between it and the boat. This was another good fish and took a while to get hold of, but eventually it was also tagged and released.
We made another two turns without a pull so we opted to call it a day. It was an awesome session with 4 fish between 11:15 and 12:30. The Garrick that we kept weighed in at 16,1kg... a real trophy fish.
