The Long Night

On Thursday 14^th September at 8pm, Andre, Terrence and I launched “Good Time” off of Richards Bay. There had been quite a few good size daggas around so we were hoping to catch a few... and while we were at it, stay out till morning and fish for garrick at first light. The sea was relatively calm with a slight onshore wind. There were quite a few boats fishing but none had caught any fish yet. we took our time sounding around until we found some good structure and some bait showings. After throwing the anchor, we could see how we would lie with the wind and current. Unfortunately, the anchor did not hold so we put a second anchor in tandem and threw again. This time it held and we positioned ourselves right on the spot.

Andre got to work catching shad while Terrence and I rigged up our bottom rods. With a good supply of bait, we rigged up 3 shad and sent them down. Things were very quiet for about an hour before Terrence caught a nice rockcod on his live shad. This was a good indicator that we were on some structure so we didn’t need to check the sounder to see if we had moved or not.

Andre had put his rod in a holder and continued catching shad. I kept an eye on the rod and as it would happen, the rod tip bumped a few times then keeled over. Andre dropped the shad rod and grabbed the bottom rod. There were a few good head nods with short strong runs, typical of a dagga. After a good fight, Andre had his first dagga on the boat… a fish of about 17kg. About half an hour later, Terence had a pull with another salmon. This fish was quite small in comparison and was under the 1.1m mark so he could still fish a bit. Things went very quiet for about an hour or two but then at about 2am, Terrence went on with a really strong fish. The head nods were big and it made some good runs. Terrence was convinced that it was a shark but we were not convinced. The fish had Terrence at his breaking point and just when he was about to hand over the rod, the leader came through the top guide. I looked over and saw a beautiful dagga. This was by far his personal best and ended up being 34kg.

The rest of morning passed with only one other missed fish so at 4:45 we pulled anchor and headed back to harbour to weigh the fish. Terrence headed home as he had to work but Andre and I decided to take the few live shad we had left to the south pier and try for a Garrick. There was a competition on the pier so there were a lot of lines in the water. We had to give them a wide berth to avoid any unnecessary conflict. As we made our first pass, a Garrick chased the close bait but never grabbed it. I made a turn over the same area and the far line went away. Andre fed the fish but the line never picked up. The bait came back looking worse for wear so I put on a fresh one. Two passed later and the far line went away. This time the fish fed well and Andre hooked up to his first Garrick. The fish was quite strong and when it got to the boat, there was a lot of blood coming from the gills so we loaded the 7kg fish. 

There were a few fish around as the fishing skis and other boats also got fish so I stuck around the area. Unfortunately the dredger came around the pier and we were forced to move. I headed south into the backline to a nice looking colour line so I put the baits out. One of the rods I was using was the bait rod we used to catch shad the night before. As Murphy would have it, that bait was eaten. I fed the fish and tightened up. The little reel sang as the Garrick went on a run, but it took strain when I put some pressure on it. The gears sounded like they had blown and it took a long time to finally get the fish to the boat. It was a similar size fish to Andre’s. With one Garrick each (and the lack of sleep) we decided to head home after what I would call a successful trip. Anyone interested in booking a bottomfish charter off Richards Bay, contact Andre from Good Time Charters.