On Friday 14th
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.
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| 1st Garrick for 2018 |
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| 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.
