First Garrick of the season

On Saturday 1^st July 2017 at 5:45, Tjokkie and I launched ABF off Richards Bay. We were hoping to open our Garrick account for the season and be the first boat at our Club to catch a Garrick this year.

Our first stop was at the pipeline where we were terrorized by big maasbanker. We really battled to find some shad but eventually, by changing the rigs and presentation, we started getting some lovely bait. With about 10 shad, I was about to leave to go fish when a friend called and said they were getting quite a few mackerel just a short distance away. I made the quick run and stopped on a big midwater showing. First drop resulted in a full string of mackerel. They went straight into the ice box. I held the boat on the shoal and Tjoks caught a few strings. The shoal moved off a bit so I sounded around to find them again. I noticed a pod of dolphin moving towards us. That was probably why the bait had disappeared so I packed up and headed to the south pier.

Tjokkie fighting a Garrick

The water was beautiful! I rigged up 3 shad and slowly trolled past the point of the pier. There were a few sock and surf anglers on the pier so I made sure I gave them a wide birth as not to irritate them. After I had turned and straightened out, the deep line went away. We thought it was a false strike as we were surging with the swell and I was in gear when it happened. Tjoks tightened up almost immediately to retrieve the bait and reset it when the rod keeled over and there was a fish on. Unfortunately, the hook pulled due to our confusion. This just shows you that you should treat every false strike as the real thing… just to be sure.

I rerigged the bait and made a turn over the same spot. The close bait revved a bit then sounded very deep. I thought it a bit strange so kept my eye on it. Moments later, the clip tripped and line ran off the reel. I fed the fish for some time then tightened up. There was a solid weight on the rod with the line almost straight up and down. I almost thought it was stuck in the rocks but then felt the head nods and the line angled to the surface where a nice Garrick thrashed around on top. I passed the rod to Tjoks who had a great fight before I brought our first Garrick of the season onboard. Mission accomplished!

A good size Garrick to start the season

I rerigged and worked the area a bit, but after half an hour, the dredger moved into the area and I was forced to pick up lines and head south into the backline. The water was a beautiful colour and there was a strong current line forming on the outgoing tide. I put out 3 lines and had only gone about 100m when the surface bait revved and there was a big swirl and chase on the surface. The Garrick chowed the shad and Tjoks fed it before hooking up. This fish also gave him a great fight and we managed to get our second fish of the season.

I rerigged and worked the colour line a bit but only had 2 big shad eat the live mackerel I put out. The dredger had left so I moved to the point again, but had no luck so at 12 o clock, we upped lines and headed back. It was a great day and I’m glad we have our first Garrick for the season.