Garrick all around

On Saturday 24^th September, Henk, Tammy and I launched “Selfish” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to catch a few of the Garrick that were around. After trying for bait in the harbour for a bit, without any success, we headed out to the pipeline. It didn’t take long to catch a livewell full of shad and soon we were heading back to the pier.

Henk's garrick about to be tagged and released

One of the boats had already caught two fish, so I was pretty confident that we would get some fish. I rigged up 3 livies on spinning tackle and trolled around the point. The close shad was swimming pretty deep and started revving but nothing happened. The line angle came to the surface so we all thought the bait had come off the hook. Henk started retrieving to see what was going on when the bait went mad and there was a strong pull on the rod. Henk opened the baling are on the reel and fed the fish for a while before tightening up. The fish took some line before settling into the typical Garrick fight at the boat. The fish gave a great fight on the 6kg line and eventually I could grab it by the tail and bring it aboard where it was tagged and released. Not a bad start.

Good fight on 6kg line

The lines went out again and I made another turn. As I was approaching the pier, the far bait started revving and then got eaten. Tammy fed the fish and tightened up on another Garrick. The fish gave a good fight and after about 10 minutes, Tammy had her first Garrick of the season on the boat.

Trolling commenced but soon after, the dredger made an appearance and we were forced to move away from the pier towards the backline. The wind dropped totally and the fish went a bit quiet. After about an hour or so, while trolling through a small rip, the far bait revved and was taken. Tammy was busy feeding the fish when a big backline swell rocked the boat and caused the baling arm to clip over. Before it could be opened, the line took tension and the fish spat the bait. That happens... At lease there were still a few fish around.

I rigged up a fresh shad and about 10 minutes later it was eaten. Again tammy fed the fish but when we tightened up, the fish took a bit of line then spat the bait. On closer inspection, the hook had turned back into the bait and would never have hooked the fish. I guess that comes with the R&D of testing a new bait rigging style.

Henk and his garrick

We worked the area for about half an hour without another pull. I noticed that the dredger was packing up so we pulled lines and headed back to the pier. On arrival, the water looked awesome. There was a good rip and colour line formed by the outgoing tide. I quickly rigged up 3 baits and trolled along the colour change towards the pier. A few minutes later, I looked back and saw the close bait revving like mad. I ran to the rod and as I was about to grab it, the trip clip released and the rod flicked back as the reel freespooled. This flick caused the baling arm to bump against the rod holder and clip closed. The rod started loading up as I tried to open it under tension. By some miracle I got it open and the fish was still there. I fed it a bit then tightened up. The fish took quite a bit of the 6kg string against the light drag so Henk turned the boat towards the fish. I gained most of the line and finally had it around the boat. On closer inspection we saw the fish had 2 followers. This meant that the fish I was fighting put up even more of a struggle. The fish looked to be a nice one so I decided to take it for the Garrick Derby that was currently on at the club.

Tammy with a garrick

We each had a fish for the day so anything else was a bonus but knowing that there were a few fish in the water made us confident that we would get another one. Fresh baits went in and I trolled back up the rip. It was no surprise when we had another pull. Henk fed the fish but the line never picked up. He brought in the slack only to have the line suddenly take tension next to the boat. The fish had taken the bait and swam towards the boat causing the slack. Henk went tight and had a nice fight with another shoal size Garrick. He also wanted to take some fish home we boated his fish aswell.

It was about 1:30pm so we decided to fish until 2pm then head back. I rigged up the 2 biggest shad that we had and trolled through the rip again. The close bait revved for a while before being eaten. Henk fed the fish for a while, hoping that the fish would be able to get the big bait down. Unfortunately, it was a small Garrick and when we tightened up, missed the fish. With that, our day was over and we headed back. My fish weighed in at 12,5kg and the others were about 7kg.