On Saturday 14th May, we left Richards Bay
harbour aboard “Galavant”. We were looking to fish for marlin one more time to
see if they were still around. On the way out, all the anchored ships were
facing the wrong direction which indicated that there was a reverse current…
not a good sign. We pushed on past the ships and in 150m, set the lines.
The water colour was horrible and to make it worse, the
deeper we went, the colder it became. The temp dropped from 23 degrees in the
harbour to 21,4 degrees at 750m. Just before deciding to turn around, far out
to see, we could see a bit of a colour change. Finally there was a break and
the temperature rose to 24 degrees and the colour improved dramatically. There
were a few birds and flying fish around, so we felt a lot better about our chances.
 |
| A feisty Mako Shark of around 70kg |
The day wore on without any action. Other boats fishing in
the vicinity also saw nothing. At about 1pm, I was sitting in the fighting
chair, watching the teaser off the starboard stern cleat when without warning,
a blue and silver shape rocketed out the water with the teaser in its jaws,
landing with a big splash. It was an agro Mako shark that seemed intent on
destroying the teaser. This was like a scene from the Air Jaws documentary. It attacked the hookless lure a few times before fading
off to the left short lure. This was a Marlin Magic Ruckus, so I was not keen
to have a toothy critter bite it off. It popped the rigger and I wound like
hell to avoid hooking it. Luckily the shark faded back to where it smashed the
left long and got stuck. We cleared the lines in a hurry and Willis jumped in
the chair. The Mako didn’t take much line and soon I had the leader in hand. As
soon as I had a chance, I grabbed the lure and slid it up the leader so that if
it did bite off, I still had it. On closer inspection, I saw that the hook was
only through the skin of the jaw and that I small slice with a sharp knife
would free the hook, so I very carefully made a small cut and the hook came
out. The shark took off to parts unknown. It was not a marlin, but it did give us
a bit of a show and made a rather uneventful day much better.
Not long after, we headed back to port hoping that the next
trip would be more successful.
