Rock beats nylon every time

On Saturday 5^th October at just before 6am, Patat, Natasha and I launched “Joy Toy” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to find those illusive snoek but had a plan b just in case.

Patat with a monster

We headed straight for the pipeline where, in a short time, we filled the live well with maasbanker and a few mackerel. The water was spectacularly clean so that meant we could start fishing close to home. We made a b-line for the backline, put out a few snoek lures and headed north in the shallows. It didn’t take too long before we caught a shad on a rapala. It was closed season, so we Patat released it.

'Tasha with a GT

Sometime later, we caught probably the smallest snoek of the year. From what the other boats were getting, it seemed like snoek fishing was a bust so we changed up the rigs to try for a Garrick. The surf was very small so I could get the boat right into the shallows. There were a few good rips around and as we went through one of them, two reels smoked off. These were definitely not Garrick so Natasha and Patat tightened up immediately and both went on to strong fish. I headed out the surf zone to try and pull the fish away from the rocks but unfortunately one cut us off. Natasha bullied her fish and managed to get a 13kg GT to the boat.

The lines went out again but things were very quiet. I made a deeper turn when the close line went away. Patat hooked up but a strange erratic fight. After quite a good tussle, a huge shad popped up next to the boat. It was in the region of 6kg! Just before I could get hold of it, it made another run and as it turned, it bit through the nylon leader. 

Trolling in shallow water

Patat and Natasha checked all the baits again. With fresh lively baits out, I trolled through a strong rip. The deep line went away and Natasha hooked up to a Garrick. It gave her a great fight and after several minutes, she had caught her first Garrick of the year. I made a turn and trolled through the rip again. This time the far surface bait went away. Patat hooked up and managed to get another nice Garrick which was unfortunately hooked badly. There seemed to be a fish or two in the rip so I made another pass through it. As the baits came into the clean water, the far one went away at a hell of a speed. This was no Garrick so Natasha tightened up immediately. The fish made a strong run and quickly cut us off in the rocks… obviously another GT.

'Tasha fighting a garrick

Patat made up a new double and leader and put out a fresh bait. As he was letting it out, a Garrick smashed it. After a short feed, the fish spat the bait for some unknown reason. It was good to be getting a few pulls, but the strike to landing ratio was not looking good. This worsened with the next strike when I hooked another smoker that ran out to sea and despite having the drag over the button and me thumbing it, I was still reefed.

On the next pass through the same area, the far surface livie was eaten. When Patat hooked up, the fish swam straight to the boat and past the nose before taking some line and putting up a bit of a fight. We were all very surprised when a 4kg sarda sarda came up next to the boat.

The action was pretty consistent, but all of a sudden, it went stone dead. Only after 3 passes without a touch did we notice that the dreaded easterly wind had started. It was a unanimous call to up lines and head back home.