Kings of the reef!

On Saturday 28^th April at about 6am, Jurgen Putz and I launched “ABF” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to find some of the amberjack and kingfish we had caught the previous weekend. Our first stop was on the pipeline to catch some bait, but there was nothing to be found. After puzzling around on a few spots, we managed to find about 10 maasbanker. With a few livies in the well, we headed out to the reef.

GT released (100cm)

When we arrived, the water was a dark green colour and 23 degrees. Not exactly ideal, but I slowly drove over the reef and saw a really good showing. The other boats were trolling around and none of them had any action, so I quickly rigged a livie and put it out. I passed the rod to Jurgen and was still busy explaining what to expect when the rod was almost pulled out of his hands by a fish! He locked up and the heavy jigging rod buckled over. The reel was set on 12kg drag and it made little impression on the fish’s first run. Jurgen had to thumb the spool to eventually get the fish under control. I positioned the boat on top of the fish to keep the line vertical to prevent being cut off. The big head nods continued for most of the fight and after 15 minutes of extra heavy pressure, the fish was next to the boat. It was a beautiful GT of about 20kg. After a few pics, we speared the fish back into the water and it swam off strong. Not a bad way to start the morning!

Jurgen with another GT (109cm)

A good GT being tagged

I rigged another livie and drove to the same spot. No sooner had the bait hit the water, another GT grabbed it and the fight was on again. During the fight, I scratched around in my fishing bag and found my ORI tag kit. When Jurgen had the fish on the boat, we measured the length and inserted a tag before releasing another good fish. Again I rigged up a livie and stopped on the mark. This time, when Jurgen hooked up, the fish took a strong, sustained run and I had to chase after it a bit to get the line vertical. The fight was a bit different to the first two and when the fish was next to the boat, we saw why. It was a good Amberjack of about 14kg… Jurgen’s first. Stoked with this good fish, we headed back up to the mark. Two other boats were vertical jigging on the spot so I pulled in next to them. I was busy talking to Terence, the skipper of one of the boats, when Jurgen’s rod keeled over again. I took chase. It was another good amberjack. This was turning out to be a great morning! The other boats had not had a pull yet, so I assumed the bite was slowing. I moved in between the other boats and put a bait out myself while Jurgen took the controls. To the disbelief of the other boats, it took only a few seconds to hookup again! I put on as much pressure as I could and just before my back started to give out, the fish was next to the boat. Another great GT which we tagged and released.

25kg being released (113cm)

It was only 8:30 and we had 5 decent fish. I expected the bite to start slowing but every time we put a bait on the showing, we hooked up. By 10am, we had 4 GTs and 5 Amberjack. A few other boats arrived on the scene and with all the transducer pinging and vertical jigs banging on the reef, the fish became a bit shy. I suggested a slightly different approach to the situation, just to see what would happen. Sure enough, the subtle change saw us hooking up on every pass over the showing. When I finally felt strong enough to take another strike, it was my luck that I hooked a big potatoe bass!

Big pressure on an Amberjack

At about noon the bite finally slowed. The fish had scattered a bit the other boats started moving off. We had almost no bait left so I scrounged a few livies from Jorrie on his boat “Frigate”. I rigged up a tuna trace on a small spinning rod and pinned one of the livie. The showing had moved a bit so it took a while to find it but when I finally did, Jurgen put the bait out and quickly went on with a small yellowfin the we bled for sushi.

At about 1pm, we were the only boat left on the reef. Slowly but surely the life returned to the are with small bonnies on the surface and a proper showing. I put out another livie on the big rod and went on immediately! Jurgen was back in action again. I called Terence and suggested he come back to the area as it had switched on again. The two boats made turns swimming baits and fighting fish off the shoal. Terence had hooked up a fish and were spending a lot of time in it. We had managed 2 more released in that time, so it was obviously a decent fish. Eventually he called me on the radio and told me they had released a GT that measured 129cm… equivalent to 41kg… an excellent fish.

Jurgen's 100lbs GT (133cm)

It was getting late, so I suggested we make one last drop. The bait was in the water for only a few moments and Jurgen hooked up. Immediately we knew this was a bigger fish as it was fighting in a different league. It took us close on 20 minutes to turn it for the first time and from there it was another 10 minutes to get it to the boat. When we saw the GT, we were shocked at the size. It was quickly tagged, measured and released. The equivalent weight was 45.7kg! The tally for the day was 8 GT’s released (All over 100cm, biggest 45kg), 11 Amberjack (biggest 26kg), 2 kawa-kawa, a yellowfin and a potatoe bass. Talk about an epic day!