On Sunday 19th January
I took Louw and Wikus Davis out fishing off Richards Bay. We were hoping to get
some fish for the table as the stocks were running low. At 5:30, we launched “Selfish”
out of the Richards Bay Ski-Boat Club and headed for the pipeline. It did not
take long to get a few strings of maasbanker before we headed off to the 50m ledge.
On arrival, the water temperature
shot up to 27 degrees and the north to south current was flying at around 4
knots. There was a light southerly wind blowing, so the wind against current
kicked up an uncomfortable chop. I rigged up 5 lines and let them out. By the
time I had finished, we had been pushed back close on a kilometre. I tacked the
ledge trolling into the current but moved south at 4km per hour.
 |
| Kasteel Cuda |
I had just gone over a showing on
the shallow side of the ledge when the downrigger rod flicked up then took off.
I passed the rod to Louw and cleared the other deep line. The fish made a few
good runs before I could get a gaff into an 11kg cuda. Not a bad start. We were
close to the end of the ledge, so I suggested we pull up and run to the top of
the reef for another pass. As we were about to clear the 2 surface lines, both
rods keeled over and the reels smoked off. I was sure the two lines had tangled
and was expecting a burnoff any second, but the fish slowed down and the fight
continued. Both Louw and Wikus pulled the fish in which turned out to be a 9kg
yellowfin. This fish had not tangled the lines, but rather eaten both baits!
Talk about greedy.
We stopped at the top of the reef
and set the lines. On the first pass over the reef, the other deep line went
away. Wikus took the strike and had a bit of a tough time with a fish that
turned out to be foul hooked. It gave him the runaround before I could get the
gaff into a 9kg cuda. The rest of the ledge was quiet so we ran up north one
last time and reset lines. Apart from a half hearted strike on the down rigger
bait, it was quiet so we upped lines and headed home with some fresh fish for
supper.
