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| Dirty water along the pier |
On Saturday 23rd
August, my Dad and I launched “ABF” out of Richards Bay. The mission for the
day was to try and get a world Record Garrick on 1kg line. The conditions were
not great as there had been a strong SW wind the previous day which had built
the swell to over 2.5m. The brown water had pushed in along the backline and
piers from the resultant reverse current. Things were not looking good.
We stopped at the pipe and took
some time to get good live bait before heading off to the pier. There was a
good colourline forming from the outgoing tide and one boat had just boated a
9kg Garrick. There was hope. I rigged up 2 live baits and we trolled the area
looking for a fish. An hour, we had not had a touch so we moved south towards
the backline, working along the colourline. I had checked the close bait and
was busy letting it out when there was a strong pull on the line. I fed some line
out but nothing happened. I decided to check the bait again and while
retrieving, the line came tight and the reel started running… I was on! The
other line was cleared before chasing after the fish, which had ran into the
dirty water. After 10 minutes, the fish surfaced near the boat and I could get
the leader onto the rod. I grabbed the 50Lbs line and tried to pull the fish
into gaffing range, but it was way too green and took off running. We did
however get a good look at it and estimated it at around 9-10kg… the fish we
were looking for! The cat and mouse game went on for about half an hour before
we had the double on the rod again. Due to the big swell, it was difficult to
keep the fish close and whenever the leader came up, the swell would take it 2m
further away without the fish making any movement.
It also seemed like the fish
would stay further away from the boat in the clean water but when we went into
the dirty water, it would come within 3m of the boat… just out of range. Almost
an hour later, in the dirty water, the leader came up infront of the boat. My
Dad kicked the boat forward, then neutral and I got the leader on the reel where I wrapped it
and tried to lift the fish into range. Just as the gaff was going to go in, I
felt the fish pulling away from my and the leader started cutting into my
hands. As I let go, the double line ran through my hand. Almost immediately,
the doubled 1kg line parted and it was game over. We tried to figure out what
happened and came up with two issues. Firstly, I let go of the leader too late
and secondly, the boat was not left in neutral, but in reverse (by mistake) causing
the boat to pull away from the fish. We knew we were 1 crew member short,
relying on the skipper to also gaff the fish, and we had now paid the price. Well,
that’s how it goes…
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| A big swell making things difficult |
I rerigged two baits and
continued trolling. About an hour later, the far bait went away. I fed the fish
while the other line was cleared. I tightened up and went on with another Garrick.
This fish also ran into the dirty water and when it surfaced, we were right on
top of it. The fish was not very big and would only go about 6-7kg. While it
went off on another run, my Dad and I agreed that it would be better to break
the fish off and save an hour fighting a small fish and rather use that time to
look for a bigger one. When the fish surfaced again, the boat was on top of it
and the leader came onto the reel. I wrapped it again and when it took off, the
leader pulled through my hand and the double line broke in my hand as planned.
The lines went out once again and
we continued trolling. The wind was picking up and the colourline dissipated
into a gradual gingerbeer mix. It was time to head back. With the peak of the
season coming up, I am pretty confident that there will be a few more long
battles as the “Cotton Brigade” takes to sea…
