On the morning of Saturday 2nd
August, I decided to launch “ABF” out of Richards Bay. There was a small
weather window until 10am so I wanted to make a quick session looking for a Garrick.
I was hoping to find crew at the club, but when I arrived at 6am, there was not
a soul in sight. I went about launching the boat which is not as simple as it
sounds. Eventually I had the boat floating and made my way out to sea. I
stopped at the pipeline and really struggled to find bait. There were thousands
of maasbanker, but very few shad, which I prefer. To make things worse, the
current was ripping and I had to try and keep the boat on the spot and fish at
the same time. After almost an hour I had only caught 3 shad. Time was running
out so I decided to go and fish.
 |
| Big surf crashing on the pier |
After a quick run I was at the
south pier. I rigged up all 3 shad on light spinning rods and trolled along the
outside of the rocks. There was a big swell running. This was a blessing in
disguise as it kept the rock and surf guys away and I could work the area
properly. I had trolled for about 45mins when the far surface rod, with the
biggest bait, went away. I fed the fish for quite a long time before tightening
up. The line came tight and the reel took off with a really nice fish heading
out to sea. I awkwardly cleared the other two rods with my left hand and
managed to clear the deck … within reason.
 |
| My first Garrick of the season |
The fish was quite a long way away
and by then so I went to the controls and followed it while gaining line over the windscreen. When
the fish was about 15m away, I put the boat into neutral and argued with the
stubborn fish for a good 20minutes. In this time I got a pretty good look at it
and could gauge the size of it. There was a Garrick competition at the club,
that I had entered for, so it would be a nice fish to set the benchmark. Also,
I had it on 6kg line, so it could possibly be a record fish. Taking this into
consideration, I decided to take the fish… if I could get it close enough. On
two occasions I had the leader on the rod, but could just not reach it with the
gaff. On the third attempt, I wound the leader right onto the reel , pulled the
rod behind me with my left hand and stretched out to gaff it with my right.
Luckily the fish made no sudden moved and I could get a good shot in and lifted
the Garrick into the boat. I actually felt a bit bad taking it, but this fish
would serve a purpose.
I had drifted about a kilometre
during the fight so had a long run back to the pier. I put the remaining two
baits out and trolled around for another half an hour before the wind started
picking up. Knowing it was going to be a battle to load the boat alone, I upped
lines and headed back to the club. The fish weighed in at 13,2kg and set the
benchmark for the comp and is a possible record fish on the line class. In the
end, it was worth the effort of launching alone, but would have been a lot easier
if there was an extra set of hands.
