Back on the water at last!!!

 On Saturday afternoon at 2:30pm, we left the Richards Bay harbour and headed south towards high point. There were a few fish the previous day so we were hoping to have some action. The water was quite dirty up to about 10km from the reef when the water turned to a clean green colour.

18kg wahoo

At about 3:45pm we were about 2km from the northern pinnacle, we put out 2 trolling lures to see if we could get a tuna or bonito. There was one boat on the reef sitting right on top of the pinnacle. We trolled as close as possible so that we could also work the structure. As the lines went over the bump, both rods went off. Terence and I took the rods and brought in two 5 kg yellowfins. The lines went out again as Hansie made another turn. The lines had just straightened when I saw the far rod get hit, but the fish missed. I ran to the rod and started winding the reel. Almost instantly the rod buckled and the reel smoked off. The fish took probably 100m on the first run and stayed on surface. I managed to get most of the line back when the fish went on another smoking run on the surface, its tail splashing as it went. Not long after, the fish was next to the boat where Werner gaffed it. It was a good wahoo of 18kg. There seemed to be some action on the lures and the other boat slow trolling had not had a pull so we opted to continue trolling. I was busy putting out the second line when the first went away with another yellowfin. Trolling north back up to the pinnacle, we had an on/off and when we passed over the reef, the same rod smoked off. Werner took the strike and had a strong fight with a nice fish but close to the boat, there were a few big head shakes and the hook pulled. There were some new teeth marks on the lure, so we were sure it was a wahoo. It was getting dark so we made one more turn. Again the far lure went away with a smaller fish. This time the fish was a really big Sarda (stripes bonito) of about 6kg.

Terence's 1st Cracker

With the sun down, we sounded around and threw the anchor. We fished for bottomfish for a while with very little success so we moved a bit shallower. With the anchor set, we put down a few baits. It was not long before Terence got a good 7kg Scotsman. Knowing that there had been a few cracker around, we put down some bigger baits. There were a lot of small fish around, but when they went quiet, we knew there was something bigger down there. Terence got the pull on a whole squid and got bent over the gunwale properly. The fish was very stubborn and made big head nods. Finally the leader came up and the fish popped on the surface. It was a lovely fish of 24kg. a first for Terence. Well done

We fished for a while longer, but the peckers and barble took over so we packed up and headed home after a great trip.