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.
