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| 7kg Queenfish |
On Sunday 28th June,
my Dad and I launched Selfish out of Richards Bay. We were not sure what to
fish for as results had been patchy over the past week. All we did know is that
we were not going to have a very long day. I took a few basic rigs with for the
day including 2 spinning rods and some light cuda rods. We were on the water at
6:45 and made our way to the pipeline to get bait. After sounding around, we
found a big shoal of bait and almost every down I made produced a string of
mackerel or Maasbanker. With no real game plan, we decided to fill up on bait
while the opportunity presented itself. It did not take too long to fill the
bait box and with the live well full, we headed North towards 5 mile.
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| 13kg Kingfish |
There were a few birds dipping in
an area and the sounder showed some bait. We stopped and fished for them,
hoping that they would be redeyes but unfortunately it was also Maasbanker. One
of the strings was eaten on the way up so I rigged up a spinning rod and sent a
livie down. It did not take long before the rod bumped and keeled over, the
reel screaming as the fish took off. The line angled to the surface and a nice
queenfish splashed around on top. It gave me a good go but I could not
understand why it was that strong until I saw where it was hooked… in the tail.
After a while I finally had it on board. We made another drift and again the
rod went away with a strong fish. We both assumed that it was another queenfish
as it was a similar fight. A while later, I had a nice kingfish in the boat.
This was turning into quite a good day considering we had a game plan.
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| 5kg Snoek |
We made another drift and
something small ate the bait. It turned out to be a Rockcod which went onto the
ice. By now the bait had scattered and with no more pulls on the few drifts we
did, we decided to head further north to groenkop and put out some livies for a
cuda. Being in a good snoek area, I also put out a fillet on the surface.
Things were very quiet and at noon, we turned back to the harbour saying that
we would troll until 1 o clock then head home. We trolled into an area where
there was a bit of life. There was some surface bait activity, a few showings
on the sounder and even a lonely whale cruising around. I made a few turns
without a pull so I straightened out and took a course to go home. As I turned
to start clearing the lines, I noticed the surface rod with the fillet bait
bending. I ran to it and wound tight. The fish took a bit of line and I passed
the rod to my Dad. While he kept the fish under control, I cleared the lines
and stowed the rods. I put a gaff into a nice snoek just in time to head home.
In all, it was a really nice day
and considering we didn’t have a plan, playing it by ear seemed to work out.
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