2018 Garrick

On Friday 14^th September, Wayne and I launched “Galavant” off Richards Bay. The fishing had been sporadic the past few weeks, and the weather was also unstable, so we were not sure what to do. We headed to the pipeline to catch some bait but battled to catch shad. After an hour, we only had 2 but the hatch was full of big maasbanker.

There were already 5 boats around the pier, so we opted to head up north. There was hardly any swell and the wind was less than 5 knots. I rigged up 3 livies and Wayne slowly trolled north. It did not take long to get a pull. The close bait went away and after feeding it a bit, I tightened up to my first Garrick of the season. It gave me a great fight on the light line and when it was tired, Wayne grabbed the tail and removed the hook before taking a few pics.

1st Garrick for 2018

Wayne's Garrick

The baits went out again and apart from a missed strike it was quiet. Wayne turned back and headed towards where we started. We had a pull on the mid distance bait but unfortunately it was a shark. Not long after that, the close bait went away. Wayne fed it and tightened up. The fish just started taking line when the main line broke. On closer inspection, it looked like something had nicked the line. Just bad luck I guess. There seemed to be some life in the area, so we turned around and worked the area. I rigged up a shad and just after putting the rod down, the reel went away. I fed it for a bit, but there was nothing, so I started retrieving the line. About half way back, the line took tension and I tightened up on a fish. I passed the rod to Wayne who had a great fight with his first Garrick for the season. There was a second fish swimming with the hooked one, so we made quick work of unhooking, photographing and releasing the fish. With a fish each, we decided to head deeper to the ledge to look for a tuna.

On arrival, I saw some bonnies and threw a spoon into them. On the second cast, I hooked a bait size bonnie and rigged it up. Unfortunately, after 45minutes, a shark ate it and Wayne was the lucky one to fight it to the boat where we broke it off.

At the end of the ledge, we upped lines and headed home after a great day on the water.