A day out with the girls

On Saturday 19th April at 8am, we left the harbour onboard “Galavant”. Wayne and I were taking the ladies (Elsa, Candice and Tammy) out for a bit of social fishing. We stopped on the pipe and let everyone have a go at catching bait. It did not take long before the livewell was full to capacity and we were off to the ledge.

On arrival, I let out 2 surface lures and 3 halcos. The lures were not in the water long when 2 reels went away. Candice and Tammy both took a rod and quickly had their fish next to the boat. Tammy had a skipjack which was released and Candice had a small yellowfin which pulled hook when I tried to lift it into the boat. Again the lines went out and trolling commenced. We were about half way up the ledge when another reel went away. Elsa was on strike and brought in a small yellowfin which was bled for sushi. With the strong current, I wanted to get a bit further north before so we trolled a bit longer. I went over a good showing that came up to 20m from 47m. before I could say that we should get a pull, three reels went away. Everyone grabbed a rod and joined the fray. When the dust settled, all three yellowfins were safely on board.

By now we were far enough north to start cuda fishing so I rigged up 4 livies and zigzagged the ledge. Things were very quiet and until I trolled over the same showing where we got the yellowfins previously. This time it was the deep livie that went away. Tammy took the strike and fought a fish that did not take much line. It came to the boat pretty easily so when we saw it, we were all surprised to see a fish of that size. Wayne gaffed Tammy’s first cuda and hauled it aboard. Again the lines went in but despite fishing for another hour or so, we had no more pulls so headed back to harbour. The cuda weighed 14,7kg.

Bait Catching session

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.