Wish you were here

On Sunday 4^th September, we launched “My Wish too” out of Richards Bay. There had been a lot of Garrick around and Rey and Marnus were keen to get into the action. We headed out the harbour at 6am and headed to the pipeline. Every drop resulted in a full string of big mackerel. There were so many mackerel that the shad did not have a chance to get to the bait. Finally, after putting big chunks of bait on, we managed to get a few shad and headed north to groenkop.

The tide was going out and there were some beautiful rips forming. With the small swell, we could get pretty close to the backline and work the rips properly. The baits had been out for about 20mins when there was a big swirl just behind the boat. I ran to the back and picked up the close rod anticipating the strike. Moments later, the line started running off the reel. I fed it for a bit and then tightened up. The fish made a run to the backline taking a bit of line. Marnus took the rod and had a good tussle with his first Garrick of the year. With the first fish under our belt, the pressure was off.

I continued working north, but things were very quiet. After an hour and a half without a pull, we upped lined and ran back to where we had the first fish. The lines went out and about 20mins later, the shad on the spinning rod went away. Rey fed the fish and tightened up to his first ever Garrick. The fish took a bit of line then followed the characteristic Garrick fight at the boat. Eventually the fish tired and I could get a gaff into it. We ran up to the start of the drift and followed the same line. Not long after, the far bait went away but while I was still feeding it, the hook came out the bait and missed the fish. Unlucky. Again we ran up a bit and drifted down the same line. A bit further on, the mackerel on the spinning rod was eaten and again we were on to a fish for Rey. This fish was hooked in the gills and so we put it in the boat. The wind was picking up and the dirty water was being churned up so we decided to up lines. As we were clearing the lines, the far bait went away. Unfortunately, one of the other lines tangled with the line that the fish had taken and so we missed the hookup. Oh well, that happens. In all, it was a great day.