Sunday, December 2, 2018

Shell Shock

On Sunday 2nd December, At and I launched “Avanti” off Vidal. The surf was terrible and a few boats ahead of us took some punishment going through. After waiting about an hour for the tide to turn, we managed to find a gap and get through the waves.
There had been a big storm the night before and the lightning didn’t help the fish’s shell shock. It was going to be a difficult day.
On the bait marks, there were shoals of mackerel and maasbanker on the surface, but they were very skittish. It took about an hour to get a handful of livies. We decided to put out some lures and cover ground just looking for some life. Near the lighthouse, we found a few bonnies and caught a few on the spinning rod. With no further action we headed north to the greens and put out a few livies. There were a few nice current lines so we spent some time working them. In about 22m, the deep bait went away. The fish made a few short runs then came to the boat where At gaffed a 8kg cuda. I rerigged and At trolled over the deeper current line. As we finished the turn, there was a splash on the far bait. The rod keeled over and the reel smoked of. We needed to follow the fish to stop the run and eventually I managed to get the fish on the leader. It was a kawa-kawa of probably 9kg. One of the fattest ones I’d ever seen. After releasing it, I rerigged and set the spread again.
A good cuda for vidal
It was pretty quiet for a while but eventually on the same line we had the cuda, we went on with another fish. It came to the boat without taking any line but when the leader came up, the fish turned and smoked off about 200m right into the backing. At chased after it while I put line on the reel. Finally, the leader came out the water but at that moment, a massive Zambezi shark appeared right next to the fish and all hell broke loose. The fish took off under the boat between the motors I freespooled the reel and tried to get the line off the motor. Luckily the prop did not touch the line and we could free it. Again there was a lot of line out and when the fish slowed down, At followed it and I pulled as hard as I dared. The leader came up as well as a very tired cuda. At gaffed the fish and lifted it to “safety”. It was a really good fish for Vidal standards, probably about 16kg.

Over the next hour, a few boats arrived and the fish went quiet. After trying for a few hours, we headed south trolling on the current line. I had just finished checking the baits when the close livie went away and we hooked up to a dorado. It gave us a bit of a run around but eventually we loaded it. By now it was 3:30pm and we were tired so we pulled in the lines and headed back to the beach.

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