First cuda for the season

On Friday 8^th June at 8:30am, Zander and I launched “ABF” out of Richards Bay. The SW wind was supposed to improve in the afternoon, so we decided to take the punishment in the morning and head south into the wind and come back with it in the afternoon.

We first battled for about an hour to get live bait before making the 18km trip. This took us quite a while in the small boat as we headed straight into the wind and waves. It took over an hour to get there and to say we were wet and shaken was an understatement. To make things worse, as I slowed down on arrival, the one motor died and would not start for the love or money. A bit frustrating considering it had come back from a service the previous day! We decided to fish on with one motor and later when the weather settled, we would try to fault find. In the meanwhile, it was time to fish. Zander put out 4 rods and I trolled around the wreck looking for a cuda. There were some good showings but no action on the baits.

Time passed and at about 3pm, I trolled over a good showing. I suggested that Zander put down a bucktail on the spinning rod to see what it was. On the second flick, he went on with a fish. While he was tussling, I noticed the one rod with a big bonnie on it bump a few times. I wound the reel a bit and I could still feel the bait there. The leader was on the rod so I stopped winding. Suddenly a long black shape came speeding in and hit the bait. I freespooled and let the fish start moving off before I tightened up. The line melted off the reel as the fish went on a long fast run. We were in a bit of a pickle and Zander was still fighting his fish and I needed to chase after mine! Zander put max drag on his fish and managed to land a blacktip kingfish which was unceremoniously released. With the lines cleared, Zander followed the fish and I put line on the reel. The fish came up to the surface where Zander put the gaff into a good size cuda. It was a great fish, but unfortunately had no condition.

A late weigh-in of cuda

With high spirits, the lines went out again. The sea was improving and there was a bit more surface activity around. As I was approaching the marks, the deep wala had a quick pull, but didn’t stick. Normally a sign of a smaller fish. I worked the area a bit more but it was quiet. Zander changed out the live bait to bigger, fresher one and on the next pass over the mark, that rod keeled over as another good fish ate the bait. The fish made an incredible run, so I had to chase it down while clearing the other lines. Finally things settled and Zander could fight his fish. The fight had changed however… there was not much tension and Zan had to wind like mad to keep a bend in the rod. The leader came up and we both expected to see just a head or possible a smaller fish, but we got a surprize when the fish popped up next to the boat. It was another good one which I gaffed and loaded. It was a similar size fish, but it had swallowed the bait and one of the hooks was around a gillraker so the fish could not breathe once it had finished its long run, so it didn’t fight after that.

It was after 4pm and knowing that it would get dark soon, I suggested we try to sort the motor out. With the jumpers connected, we tried to start it, but no go. After pull starting and trying every other trick we knew, it would not start so we upped lines and made the long trip home on one motor, returning well after dark. At least we were safe. The fish weighed in at 25kg and 27kg. Not bad for our first cuda for the season.

Just FYI, the motor was sorted the next day. It was a plug that was not reconnected, causing the battery to drain to a point where the computer could not start up…