On Sunday 15th May, At
and I launched “Avanti” out of Richards Bay. We were hoping to get a snoek or
so with the perfect weather conditions. We stopped at the pipeline and caught a
few maasbankers and shad before heading north towards Dawsons. On the way up, I
rigged up a few rods with small rapalas and feathers. When At throttled back, I
let out the lines and we trolled north in the backline.
It was stone dead so we made a
deep turn and saw a few shoals of redeyes on the surface. Knowing that these
primo baits were in short supply, I upped the lines and spent some time filling
the bait box. After a while, the shoals disappeared and we continued trolling.
The radio was silent and no one had seen good fish yet so we sounded around in
the shallows and found a small reef to try for some bottoms. We were in luck
and managed some nice rockcods, including a yellowbelly, and some other
species.
With some fish to eat, we slowly
trolled south and about an hour later, we had a pull on the fillet on japan. I
pulled in a snoek of around 4kg. Great, mission accomplished. I rerigged and At
made another turn. Again we had a pull on the same bait but pulled the hook.
After a few more turns without another pull, we headed shallower into the
backline and were rewarded with another pull. This time it was a good snoek of
around 7kg. It was getting late, so after another turn without a pull, we upped
lines and headed back home with some Lekker fresh fish.
