On Saturday 7th September 2019, At
and I launched “Avanti” off Richards Bay. Our club was hosting the annual
Garrick derby and it is a tradition for the two of us to compete. The sea still
had quite a choppy swell from the previous few day’s cold front so it was a bit
uncomfortable.
We had just started running out the channel
when I noticed a big showing on the sounder. I kept an eye on it and it
continued for a while. Curiosity got the better of me so I throttled down and
quickly sent the bait jigs down. Before I hit the bottom, I was on with a full
string of bait, half big maasbanker and half mackerel! The Garrick plans went
out the window and we went into bait catching mode with me focusing on mackerel
and At on maasbanker. When the ship traffic started, the water became dirty and
the bait moved off. We were pretty happy with the full coolerbox of bait and
headed out to the pipeline. There was a massive showing on the bait marks and
soon we were pulling up full strings of huge redeye sards which went straight
into the ice.
When the sards went off the bite, we were in
two minds what to do. There was a rock and surf competition on the south pier
and quite a few boats there too so we opted to head north and come back with
the wind. It was a long run so we decided to head to the ledge and pull some
lures as we headed north, hoping for a wahoo or yellowfin. I had just put the
lures out when 3 rods went on with yellowfins. One pulled hook and the other
two were bled and put on ice. We continued north and every 20 minutes or so we
caught another tuna. We had 2 in the hatch so we released all but 1 which was
in the gills. We finally arrived at Dawsons at around 11am. The water colour
was not great but we rigged up for garrick and persevered regardless.
 |
| Fresh Mackerel |
The tide had turned and there were a few rips
forming. At trolled through them and the deep bait went away. Unfortunately the
fish spat the bait before I hooked up and all I got back was a slightly roughed
up shad. The next rip produced another pull but the result was the same as the
previous one. Avanti 0 garrick 2. The NE had blown the brown water into the
backline and the conditions were terrible. At suggested we up lines and head
towards the harbor and see if we could find some better water. Off groenkop,
there was a small patch of less dirty water with a nice rip. We stopped to try
it and I was busy putting the last line out when there was a commotion on the
surface. There was a fish chasing the close bait. I thought it was a shark as
there had been a few chopping the baits in the dirty water. When the fish
finally caught the bait, I fed it a bit hoping that it would bite the leader
off. When I tightened up, the fish came to the surface and splashed around. I
was confused as sharks don’t do that… garrick do. The fish gave me a run for my
money and eventually came close enough to where At could gaff the 9kg fish.
Unfortunately, the rules dictated that the fish needed to be weighed, under
normal circumstances, it would have been released.
 |
| Sushi and a contender for the comp. |
The water colour again went muddy so we headed
towards the harbor mouth. At noticed that the water was a better colour on the
point of the south pier so he stopped there for the last 30 mins before lines
up. The wind was doing 20 knots and steering was a full-on job, especially with
clears on and trolling at such a slow speed. At did a great job at the wheel
and put the baits in the right spot. Just as the baits passed through the ‘hot
spot’, the deep one went away. I fed it and hooked up to a fish that took quite
a bit of line before we could clear lines and follow it. With the clock
ticking, I put as much pressure as I dared and had the fish near the boat where
At managed to get a gaff into it. It was a really nice one! We headed straight
back to the club and made the weighin just in time.
Our perseverance paid off as our fish was the
biggest Garrick for the comp at 11.2kg. There were a number of fish weighed and
this attracted some negative publicity. I would like to suggest that the event
change to a release format. Lets hope next year will be another successful
event.
