Not all plans are cast in stone

On Saturday 21st September at 13:00, Johan de Jager (aka Patat), Angie and I launched “Joy Toy” out of Richards Bay. The rugby was not really worth watching so we decided try for a snoek or two. The boats had caught them in the morning so we were hoping that they were still there.

As we left the harbour, we saw a lot of birds working off the point of the south pier. We headed over to investigate and found a big shoal of sprats that the birds were picking off the surface. We drifted there for a few minutes and saw the water erupt as a Garrick smashed into the shoal. Despite throwing a few lures at it the fish ignored our offerings so we headed north to join the fleet that were seeing a few snoek jumping.

Patat with his first garrick of the season

When we arrived, there was quite a few bait balls on the surface. There were a few blacktip kingfish amongst them, but not many snoek. Every now and again there would be a bit of a bust but so spread out and short lived that it was almost not worth chasing them. This carried on for about an hour. We could see that we were flogging a dead horse so I headed into the backline to a patch of birds working a bait ball. I stopped next to it and the sounder went solid red from the showing. Patat and Angie both threw spoons and went on immediately. Each of them landed a nice side shad which went into the live well. In the meantime I sent down a set of jigs and before the last one dipped below the surface, I was on with a string of shad. The water around the boat went black as a massive shoal of shad chased the sprats to the surface. At that stage we were dipping the shad, hanging the lure over the side and lifting a shad out, without using the reel, shot for shot. In minutes, the live well was full of big shad. We caught and released about 50 shad before focussing out attention back to snoek. 

I suggested that we make the short run south of the harbour and look if there was any action there, away from all the other boats. Passing the point of the south pier, the water was a beautiful colour with a rip formed by the incoming tide. I could not resist and stopped to pull a livie just to see if there was anything there. The lively shad had just been put out when the reel went away. Patat hooked up and fought a lovely Garrick to the boat. There was heavy blood trail from its gills, so we loaded the fish. 

Angie enjoying close range combat with a garrick

We rerigged and made a few more turns without any success so we pushed on south to look for snoek. We had not seen any activity all the way to New Mouth so we gave it up as a bad call and went shallow into the backline where we pulled for Garrick. Unfortunately, apart from a small shark there was no action. After an hour we ran back to the pier and shortly after setting the lines, we went on with a nice Garrick. Angie was on the rod and fought the fish to the boat like a champ. I was reaching out to grab the leader then the leader parted. On closer inspection, you could see that the leader was nicked. Probably from the small shark that had eaten the bait earlier. Oh well… 

The skipper taking his time on the rod

The conditions were text book perfect and as I trolled into the area, the far line went away. This time Angie evened the score with her first Garrick of the afternoon. I made a turn over the same spot and saw a mid water mark on the sounder. No surprise when the surface line went away and I caught my first Garrick of the day. We had drifted a fair distance so I trolled back to the point. As I got there a Garrick chased a baitfish on the surface. Almost immediately we went away and Patat hooked his second fish. While he was fighting, another rod went off. Angie hooked up and we found ourselves fighting a double. After some fun and games around the boat we managed to get both fish. One was a good one of around 11kg.

There were obviously a few fish in the area so I put the boat on the mark and stemmed the tide, holding the boat in one spot, giving the baits more time in the zone. It didn’t take long for a pull but unfortunately the fish spat the bait. Patat brought the bait in to check it and a Garrick chased it to the boat but didn’t eat it. He rigged a new bait which was barely in the water when it was eaten. After hooking up, Patat handed me the rod to fight the fish. While I fought, the boat drifted along the rip. As luck would have it, we had another bite but pulled the hook after a short run. My fish in the meantime had me hanging over the side trying not to be cut off on the keel strips. The fight ended in my favour.

There was not too much light left so I made one last pass on the point. We had a half-hearted pull but were left with a squashed shad. With that, we packed up and headed home. Our game plan didn’t go as expected, but it turned out great in the end.