On Sunday 19th April, At, Tammy and I launched “AVANTI”
off Richards Bay. We wanted to catch some bait for the next few weeks. After
stopping at the pipeline and catching maasbanker and redeyes, we headed deeper
and found a few mackerel. With the bait box looking good, we headed to the
ledge to look for some bonnies.
I put out a few daisy chains and trolled over the reef. All
five rode went away on small yellowfins. While we each fought fish, the other rods
in the holders got slack line and the fish pulled hook. At had his fish at the
boat when it turned around and took off. Seconds later a small black marlin
stuck its head out the water! The conversion did not last too long before the
leader parted. I managed to bring in one small yellowfin.
On the next few turns, we found some kawakawa. There was a
good showing on the reef so we stopped to drift over it. Tammy and I each
hooked a live maasbanker on and let them down to the showing. Both of us went
on. Tammy pulled the hook while I fought a big kawakawa to the boat. It was
around 9kg. On the next 3 drifts, we had a few pulls and caught more big
bonnies. It was now 1:30pm so we decided to head for Petingo and try for a cuda
in the afternoon.
On arrival, I let out 5 lines with livies and bonnies. It
did not take long for a pull. The surface livie went away at a medium pace but
the line angle then went deep. Tammy fought the fish for a while before it went
on a run. It all suddenly ended with the leader being cut off. Not sure what
happened there. Trolling continued and a while later the surface livie went
away again. I took the rod while the other lines were moved out the way. We had
just settled when the surface bonnie was eaten and the reel took off.
Unfortunately the hooks pulled quite quickly. I continued to fight and soon had
a 12kg cuda in the hatch. It was getting late so we made one last turn over the
wreck and had a blacktip shark eat a bonnie before jumping and breaking off.
That signalled the end of the day and we headed home with a few baits for the
next few trips.
