On Sunday 5th October,
At, Pierre, Tammy and I launched At’s 17ft Yeldcat “Mozanti” out of Richards
Bay. We were looking to catch some bait for a fishing trip to Namibia. Popular
word had it that maasbankers were the best thing to use for the kob there so “Operation
Maasbanker” commenced.
We headed to the pipeline and
sounded around. There were not too many showings around and we scratched to
find anything. When we did find the odd showing, it was a mix of maasbanker and
small shad with the odd mackerel in between. There were probably 10 boats
milling around and all were battling. About an hour later, most of the other
boats had left and only a few were still milling around. To make things worse, a
proper rain cloud had pulled in and for 20 minutes, we were drenched. Not the
best time to have forgotten your raincoat…
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| Putting "Pressure" on 1kg line |
I took over the controls and
moved off to one of my other nearby spots. It took a bit of searching, but eventually
I found a proper showing and At, Pierre and Tammy all went on with full strings
as they hit the ground. We sat on top of the shoal for a while, filling the
bait stocks. With a few livies in the live well, it was back to the harbour. As
we come closer to the mouth, the rain and wind abated. The water was a nice
colour around the south pier so we thought it a good idea to pull a few baits
around for Garrick. There were a few boats there that had caught fish earlier
so it was worth a shot. I had brought two of my 1kg outfits with just in case
so I rigged up 2 livies and trolled through the working water. One of the baits
was eaten by a shark so I rerigged and At made another pass. As the baits came
out the rip, one was eaten. I fed the fish and tightened up. The fish took some
line into the middle of the harbour mouth and then out to sea. It felt very
strange to be using this ultra-light tackle after fishing with 200Lbs line for
Bluefin tuna on my last fishing outing. Talk about going from one extreme to
the next! At kept the boat close to it hoping to get a quick gaff shot. I was
on for about half an hour when the line angled to the surface. We moved towards
the fish to intercept it, but just as we were getting close, everything went
slack… the hook had pulled! I could not believe it. It is very seldom that we
pull a hook on a Garrick, let alone on 1kg line. This was a first for me.
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| Small Garrick on 1kg line |
Pierre had some work to do so we
dropped him off at the club and returned to the pier. Most of the shore anglers
and other boats had left as things had gone quiet. We persevered and at around
3pm, I had another pull. After feeding and tightening up, I was on to a Garrick.
The fish took a bit of line then surfaced. At charged it down and we were able
to get a look at the size of the fish. It was one of the smallest Garrick I
have seen off Richards Bay! I put as much pressure on the whispy line as
possible and only on the third attempt, I managed to take a few wraps on the
leader and lift the fish to the surface after only a 20 minute fight. At grabbed
the tail and boated it. After a few pics, I released the roughly 4 or 5kg fish.
It was getting late, so we opted
to head home. This season, I have managed to catch five garrick on 1kg line, unfortunately
none of which have been big enough for the record. Hopefully the next Garrick will
be the right size.
