On Sunday 29th April, I
launched with Dewald and Andre Smit, and the boys on “Seaduction”. We were
hoping to get a few of the GT’s that were around. The SW wind had blow through
the night and the sea was pretty uncomfortable. We battled to get livies, but
eventually had enough to fish with. The ride out to the reef was bumpy so we
took it slow and after about an hour, we arrived.
There was still a good showing
like the previous day, so I was confident that we would get a few fish, despite
the big swell.
I rigged up a bait and explained to Dewald what to expect on the
strike. No sooner had we started marking the fish on the sounder, the rod
bumped and pulled down. Dewald fed the fish and tightened up. He was on to a
fish, but it was not pulling like the previous day’s fish. When he had it at
the surface, we saw why… it was a small GT of only about 10kg.
We headed back up to the mark and
rigged another livie. Almost as soon as it hit the water, Andre went tight with
a GT. This fish gave more of fight and after about 10 minutes, we had a fish of
about 15kg. Dewald and Andre took turns on the rod and the next 2 fish were a
bit better size, about 20 and 25kg each. 
As the day went on, the sea
settled beautifully and the showing on the sounder just got bigger and bigger. There
were about 8 boats on the reef and most were getting pulls, but these strong
fish were testing their tackle to the max. I witnessed a few rods snap, reel
handles break, and countless knots pull. We were lucky as the only fish we lost
were due to pulled hooks or being reefed. It was amazing that the bite could be
so consistent. Every time the bait was positioned correctly, we had a pull
within 30 seconds! It was however very concerning to see a lot of these fish
being gaffed and boated.
By the end of the day, we had
caught 15 good size GTs. The average size fish was however smaller than the previous
day, but still respectable at around 16-20kg.
Over the next 2 days, the SW blew
20 knots and the conditions changed. The strong reverse current came in and the
fish faded away. We launched "Ohana" With Jannie and Andre on the Tuesday the 1st and only caught
1 GT and got reefed by another.
