Weekend fun fishing...

At 5am on Saturday 1^st Feb, Jannie Jacobs and I launched “Ohana” off Richards Bay. There had been a few cuda around so we were hoping to stock up on our fresh fillets. As per usual, we stopped at the pipe to get bait. A few maasbanker and mackerel later, we were on our way to the ledge to look for bonnies. Despite near perfect conditions, there were no bonnies to be found, so we headed to the 32m area South of Richards Bay.

Rigging a wala in a glassy sea

I rigged up 5 lines and Jannie trolled over a few of his marks. There was a slight reverse current but the water was a great colour and the temp was 25 degrees. Just on the shallow side of out marks, there was a good current rip with a few birds dipping in the white water. As we trolled closer, Jannie saw a cuda clear the water ahead of us. This was definitely a place to spend some time. As we trolled into the area, the surface rod with a dead bonnie went away. I was busy with the rod when the surface livie went away as well. Jannie took that rod while I tried to clear the other lines. I had put my rod in the holder but when I had cleared the lines and picked it up again, the fish was off. On closer inspection, the #9 piano wire had been kinked off. Meanwhile Jannie brought his fish to the boat where I gaffed a 5kg dorado. Lines went out again and before I could get the 3^rd rod out, the surface livie was on. It turned out to be a hammerhead shark.

Again lines went out but by now the current had moved quite a way off of the reef so after trolling along it for a while longer, we worked out way back to our original marks. The wind had dropped off totally and things were very quiet. There were a few boats bottomfishing ner us, so we trolled around them hoping that the movement of the bait / fish being brought up would attract some gamefish. Halfway through the turn, the surface wala-wala went away followed by the surface livie. After clearing the other lines, we fought both fish to the boat and put two 10kg cuda into the hatch, much to the disgust of the guys bottomfishing next to us. After rerigging, the lines went out and Jannie made another turn. In the about the same spot, the surface wala-wala went away. I took the strike and had another cuda in the boat, probably around 12kg. After this fish, the wind swung to the East and everything went dead. Despite trolling for another 2 hours, there was no more action so we headed back.

Cuda in ice water

On Sunday 2^nd Feb at 6:30, Wayne Ritchie and I launched “Da Boys” to look for some cuda. Again we first got some bait before heading to Petingo wreck. There was not a breath of wind but a SW wind was predicted to come through at midday picking up to 20knots. Hopefully we would have a fish by then. We arrived at the wreck and there was only 1 other boat there. The water looked good, but there were a lot of big jellyfish despite the water being a good temperature. I put out 2 wala wala, 2 livies and a bonnie and trolled around the wreck looking for the area with the most life.

After about an hour, the surface livie went away and Wayne brought in a small cuda of around 4kg. We were happy that we had broken the ice and could now relax a bit. I trolled over the same area and on the turn, Wayne said that there was a bump on the surface wala. I checked the bait and true as nuts, the wala had been chopped, missing all the hooks. This sometimes happens when you get a strike on the turn as there is not enough tension on the line to set the hooks… Oh well, that happens.

Cuda Boys

At around 11, the SW slowly picked up. I was hoping that this would switch the fish on. I had just turned to line up the wreck for another pass when the deep livebait went away. The fish shot to the surface making a bit of a commotion on the top before taking quite a bit of line. Wayne fought the fish and after a few nice runs, had a 10kg cuda in the boat. The wind speed was slowly increasing and the rain started to fall. I made another 2 turns but had no more luck, so we upped lines and returned to port with some fresh fish for supper.