Big fish on small hooks

On Sunday 11^th May at 5:30, Hannes Duvenage and I launched “Lihann” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to find a cuda or two. We stopped at the pipe and caught some bait before running to the ledge to catch some bonnies.

The best cuda bait!

On arrival, I put out 4 daisy chains and a small halco. Hannes made a turn over the pinnacle and all the rods went on. It was a bit hectic, but when it was over, there were 12 small jube jubes in the hatch on ice. With the bait so thick, I suggested we spend some time stocking up on bonnies cause you never have when you really need them. We made several turns with the same result. The problem was that the daisy chains were so tangled after every full house that it took quite a while to fix them up before we could get going again. Also, with only 2 people to man the 5 rods, it was interesting to say the least.

Kingfish on a 2/0 hook

At one point, with 5 rods on, 3 rods were left in the holders. One of the lines went deep and the reel started running at a constant pace. I told Hannes that something had eaten the bonnies, probably a potato bass or a shark. I reached over and put the TLD 25 onto sunset which slowed the run somewhat. After we cleared the other rods, I took up the rod with the conversion on it. Luckily it was on 50Lbs line, so I could put some serious pressure on it… whatever it was. Hannes was sorting out the tangled daisy chains while I was huffing and puffing with the long rod doubled over. Finally the fish started coming up and 5 minutes later, I was surprised to see a nice kingfish on the surface. It had one of the daisy chains 2/0 hooks on the corner of its mouth, 3 of the other hooks in the gills and the last in its stomach. Unfortunately it could not be released.

By the time we were done, there were enough baits to keep us going for a long time. With all the activity on the surface, we were sure that there would be quite a few kings around but we were not interested in catching them and would rather look for cuda so we ran to Petingo where we fished for the rest of the day. Unfortunately we never got out cuda, but at least we had enough bait.

The king weighed in at 18,6kg.