On Friday 18th April at 7:30am, my Dad and I launched “ABF” out of Richards Bay. The club was extremely busy due to the Easter Bonanza being hosted there, so we had a late launch to miss the rush. The plan was to stock up on some redeyes for the coming snoek season, so we stopped at the pipeline and quickly had a coolerbox full of redeyes. There were also some big maasbanker in between, so I kept about 10 in the livewell. With the weather forecast being excellent for the whole day, we decided to head north onto the ledge. It was a long way in the small boat, but we hoped it would be worth it.
On arrival, we were met with warm, clean water full of life. There were bonnies and skippies as far as the eye could see. The only problem was that the current was ripping at almost 4 knots. To factor this into the trolling plan, I headed further north than usual so that we would be ready with all the baits before we were swept over the marks. I rigged up four livies, two deep and two on surface. By the time the lines were out, we were already close to the marks. I turned shallower to intercept the reef and as the lines straightened out, the left deep livie was eaten by a fish that absolutely smoked off! I passed the rod to my Dad while I cleared the lines. There was a lot of line in the water so I chased after the fish allowing us to put line back on the reel. The fish made a few good long runs but the current took its toll on the fish and soon the fish was near the boat. I looked over the side and saw a beautiful cuda circling under us. Slowly but surely, the fish circled closer and I got an easy gaff shot in the head. Only when I pulled the fish into the boat did I see the size of it. It was one of those that did not come close to fitting in the hatch. With a good fish in the boat, we headed back to the harbour before the afternoon rush. At the club, the fish weighed in at 27,4kg! Not bad for a quick bait catching session.
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