2015 Mapelane Junior Interclub

On Sunday 12^th July, We launched “OHANA” off Mapelane for the second day of the Mapelane Junior Interclub. Fishing with us was one of the Richards Bay U/16 teams of JP and TJ Jacobs and JP Krieg. The previous day’s fishing had not been too good with only a handful of fish being weighed. The 15-20 knot NE wind had blown consistently for the 2 days making the conditions difficult. After losing several fish the first day, we were hoping to get some points on the board.

After catching some livies on the backline, we joined the rest of the fleet fishing home reef. We were limited to the area due to the wind and so we had to make do with what we had. We put out 4 lines, 2 livies, a sardine and a small bonnie. These baits were drifted along the 16m to 25m marks. It was pretty quiet and only a few fish had been reported. To pass the time, JP played around with a sabiki jig catching the odd Maasbanker and a few sand soldiers as we drifted. We had just drifted onto a small patch of reef when the medium livie was eaten. The fish hardly pulled the reel, but no matter, we had a fish on. JP took the rod and quickly had a small 4kg cuda at the boat which I gaffed. Finally, something in the hatch. We drifted off the reef and decided to up lines and do a short drift over the same area. I was retrieving the deep livie and was holding the line, having just removing the sinker, when the line was ripped out my hand! The rod bent and another small cuda went on a run. Before anyone could take the rod, the hooks unfortunately pulled.



Richards Bay U/16 team with their catch

After running up and resetting the lines, we drifted south past the point. Realising we only had half an hour left of fishing, we decided to continue drifting until lines up. We were all pretty much falling asleep when the reel on the bow rod smoked off! Talk about a wakeup call… TJ took the strike while the rest of us cleared the deck. Jannie followed the fish with the boat and after several fast runs, I managed to gaff a 12kg cuda.

The comp came to an end shortly after that and at the weighin there were a few nice fish including two prodigal son of 17kg and 20kg. Congrats to the other Richards Bay team for taking the gold with a great cuda of 24kg on the first day.

I look forward to seeing all the juniors there again next year!