Bait Bycatch

On Saturday 25^th February at 6:00, At and I launched “Avanti” off Richards Bay. At wanted to catch some bait for the upcoming Top 10 Species Tournament at Cape Vidal. We stopped at the pipeline and found a good showing. Both of us went down with jigs and came up with full strings of maasbanker which went into the live well. The current was running strong so we drifted off the spot quickly. I took us back to the numbers, but the shoal had moved so I sounded around to find another showing. Every so often, there was a nice showing and we would get a string of two. In about an hour, we had enough bait, but they were all maasbanker. I suggested we go to the 45m marks to see if we could get some mackerel.

At with some bycatch

On arrival, there was a small showing a bit off the bottom so At went down and quickly hooked a few baits. About half way up. The rod keeled over as something ate the string of bait. While At was rerigging, I took us back to the start of the drift. Being a bait fishing session, we did not have any gamefish tackle or gaffs with us, so when I rigged up a live maasbanker on a small spinning rod, I knew I was looking for trouble. I passed the rod to At and he let the bait out while I sent down the jigs. Just as At wanted to put the rod in the holder, the line flew off the reel. He fed the fish for a bit then tightened up and went on to a strong fish. I cleared my line and sat back to enjoy the show. The fish came in surprisingly easily so we both thought it to be a bonito or small tuna. It had not taken any line and soon we had colour under the boat. As the fish came closer, the shine got bigger and bigger until we could make out the shape of a nice yellowfin. With no gaff, I had some fun on the leader and eventually managed to grip the tail and lift the fish aboard. It was a hefty 12 or so kg fish. A surprise to us both. It was bled and put on ice. After a few more drifts without any more bait, we headed back to the harbour.