On Sunday 26th
January, we launched Andre Smit’s new buttcat “Seaduction” out of Richards Bay for
a day’s game fishing. Crew for the day was Jeff van der Merwe, Dewald Smit and
myself. There had been a SW blowing the previous day and the sea was still a
bit lumpy. We decided to launch at around 7am to allow the sea to settle a bit.
Once on the water, we headed out to the pipeline to catch livies. With a hatch
full of bait, we headed for the ledge.
I put out 4 rapalas and a surface
lure while Andre headed for the coordinates. As we went over the pinnacle, 3
reels went away with bonito. These went into the tube and the hatch before
making another turn. We managed another 2 bonnies before things went quiet. At 10am,
we headed shallower to petingo. It was still very early in the season for the
big cuda, but we thought that we would give it a shot, just to see if anyone
was home. I put out 2 livies, 2 bonnies and a wala-wala while Jeff slowly passed
over the wreck. There were no other boats there, so things looked good. At
about 11am, the deep bonnie was eaten by a fish that made a long, slow run. We
followed it for a while to allow Andre to gain line and after a 30min battle, a
blacktip shark came to the surface where we broke the leader. The lines went
out again and 10 minutes later, the big bonnie on the surface was eaten by a
15kg hammerhead which we released…
Things went quiet for a while but
at around 1pm, the bait showings on the sounder started to get better. I had
just checked the last bait when the reel with the wala-wala on it absolutely
smoked off! The fish dumped the reel and we were into the backing in a few
seconds. The lines were cleared in a flash and I turned after the fish while
Andre put line back on the reel. After such a long run, the fish was buggered
and did not put up much of a fight near the boat. When the leader came up, Jeff
gaffed it, but only just through the skin. I ran to the back, grabbed its tail
and helped lift it into the boat. As the head cleared the gunwale, it shook and
grabbed hold of the cushion and took a big chunk out of it. This fish was not going down without a fight. Jeff pried it off
and slid it into the hatch. It was a good fish and only just fitted.
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| Big guys make big fish look small... |
The lines went out and we made
another turn. We were all sitting on the deck talking rubbish when the rod with
the wala bent. Jeff walked towards it to see what had happened. His voice's
pitch changed as he announced that the ratchet was not on! Something had eaten
the bait but we could not tell what it was cause we could not judge by the
sound of the first run. Dewalt took the rod, but the fish never took much line.
He brought it to the boat in a few minutes where it turned out to be another
hammerhead… disappointing! Jeff set the lines while I took a load off and
trolled into the current towards the wreck. As I went over a good showing, the
deep livie went away. The fish made a short run before Dewalt brought it to the
boat where Jeff gaffed a shoal cuda. I liked the captain’s chair, so I left the
deck work to Jeff and Dewald. With the lines out, I made another turn. We were
joking around with Jeff for forgetting the ratchet and asked if he was sure
they were all on. To prove it, he pulled some line off the far surface rod and
yes, it was on. As he let go of the line, that same rod buckled and the reel
took off … Classic! The fish made a fast but short run before coming to the
boat where Jeff gaffed another shoal cuda.
We trolled around for another
hour or so, but the wind had swung around to the east and the fish just
switched off. With no more action, we headed back to port. The cuda that bit
the boat weighed in at 24,3kg. Not a bad fish for this time of the year.
