On Saturday 12th
August, Wayne, Steven and I launched Wayne’s new boat off Richards Bay for the
first time. We were hoping to catch anything just to break the ice on the first
trip.
We stopped at the pipeline and
very quickly got a few strings of bait before heading deeper to the ledge. The
water was not great and there was a cold reverse current. I put out a few lures
and trolled around for a while without any luck. We tried drifting a few live
baits on the reef for a while, but also didn’t get anything. I noticed that
there was a strong current line a few hundred meters out and moving in quickly.
We decided to wait around until the current and clean water were over the reef.
About half an hour later, the life started appearing. There was a nice midwater
showing and a few small bonnies cleared the surface every so often. Knowing our
jube-jube stocks were running low, I suggested we pull a few daisy chains for
them. I put out 3 chains and made a turn on the reef. All 3 rods went on and we
hauled in a few beautiful baits and set the lines again. Every time I went over
the reef, we would go tight with bonnies. At one stage, Steven was bringing in
a few bonnies when a big dorado of around 15kg charged in and grabbed one of
them. Unfortunately, it didn’t get hooked and swam off before I could get a
live bait to it.
With the jube-jube stocks on a
high, we rigged a few livies and drifted over the showings, but after 45mins,
we still didn’t have a pull so we decided to head back to the harbour and try
for a Garrick around the pier.
The water at the pier was
beautiful with a good current line formed by the outgoing tide. I rigged up 2
shad and a maasbanker while Wayne held us in position on the rip. About
20minutes later, I saw the one shad jump out the water. As I ran to the rod, a Garrick
exploded on the bait and the reel took off. While I was feeding the fish, it
slowed down to nothing. I waited, hoping that it would come back, but nothing.
I started retrieving the slack line and noticed that the line was arcing
towards the nose of the boat. The line came tight perpendicular to the boat and
we were on to a nice fish. I handed Wayne the rod and cleared the deck. After a
great fight, I lifted the fish into the boat and tagged it before Wayne set it
free.
We had drifted a fare distance
from the area and had to ride back and set the lines. I had the far and deep
baits out and was busy rigging the third when I noticed the deep bait revving.
I picked up the rod just as something ate the bait. Mindful of the sinker on
the line, I fed the fish for the shortest time before tightening up. The fish
went on a run and I passed the rod to Steven. This fish also gave him a great
fight before I managed to tail it and insert a tag before Steven released it.
We went back to the same spot,
but unfortunately the dredger had moved in and the water had gone to mud so we
made the call to pack up and head home after a great first day on the new boat.
