On Sunday 20th August at 6am, At, Hendry and I
launched “Avanti” off Richards Bay. There had been a few Garrick around so we
decided to give them a try. Our first stop was at the pipe line to catch live
bait. We managed to get a few maasbanker and shad before heading to the South
Pier. When we arrived, the dredger was working there so the water was a bit
brown so we moved into the bay where the water was cleaner.
The outgoing tide caused a nice colour line to form so we
trolled along it. Hendry had rigged a fresh shad on his light spinning rod and
was busy letting it out when Hendry announced that something had eaten the
shad. After a long feed, he tightened up to a nice fish. It took quite a bit of
line and gave Hendry a good pull. Around the boat, it did as all Garrick do and
stayed just out of reach until finally I could get it on board. It measured out
to 10kg. Not a bad start.
The baits went out again, but there was no further action
along the colour line. The dredger had left so we headed back to the pier. We
worked the area for quite a while without success so we decided to try on a rip
forming by the incoming time. As we entered the rip, the deep bait went away. After
a short feed, Hendry hooked up and had a short fight with a smaller fish of
about 7kg.
That was the last action we had despite putting in a long
day.
