On Sunday 27th
November, Terence and I launched AVANTI off Vidal. We fished for bait for an
hour and only managed 6 livies. We decided to head south with some lures and
see what was going on. It did not take too long to find a good current line and
tent tight with a small skipjack which we released. There seemed to be some
life on the line so I rigged up 2 livies, one deep and one on top.
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| Terence with his pb cuda |
About 10
minutes later, the deep bait smoked off and Terence fought a good cuda to the
boat. I managed to get the gaff in and hauled a 14kg cuda aboard. Now the
pressure was off so we could relax.
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| A nice Kaakap |
I reset the deep bait and minutes later
went on with a small bonnie which went into the luna tube. I rigged up a heavy
trace on a strong rod with 80lbs braid and pinned the bonnie. The rod was in
the holder for about 2 minutes when the rod revved and then keeled over. The reel
smoked off as on the surface as a marlin made a run for it. I cleared the other
line and chased the fish which was heading for deeper water. Terence put some
pressure on the fish and it made a u-turn and ran flat out shallower right on
the surface, almost stripping the reel. I followed it with great haste and
finally caught up with it. We thought it had settle, but it took off on a long
run again. Eventually it was near the boat but when it took off on another run,
the leader wrapped around the tail and parted off. Unlucky!
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| Fresh fish for supper! |
I headed back to where we hooked
the fish and rerigged. This time it took 20 mins before we got a pull. Terence
battled a stubborn fish to the surface. It was a 7kg kaakap. Unfortunately they
are now classified as a bottom fish so it was put away.
Things went quiet and we decided
to head back early as there was almost no bait left. While I was retrieving the
last line, the rod was pulled flat by a feisty dorado that snatched the bait!
Awesome! It looked like every strike was a lucky dip as we never knew what they would be. After boating the fish, we headed back to shore and enjoyed the rest
of the day on the beach.
