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On Saturday 26^th at 10am Andre, Terence and I launched Good Time off Richards Bay. There had been a few cuda at Highpoint so we decided to try our luck. We managed to get a few big maasbanker and headed south for 40 odd kilometers into a 15knot SW wind. On arrival, the water was a bit green with no current, but there was a big showing.

Terence and I rigged a few baits and Andre trolled over a few of his numbers. Things were exceptionally quiet apart from a small yellowfin tuna I caught on a bucktail jig. While we were working the area, we could see the current moving in, bringing with it cleaner water and some bonnies. We were sure things would pick up soon. No sooner had the current pushed over the reef when the deep livie went away. Andre fought the fish but halfway to the boat, it was converted and the line was bitten off. On the next turn, the wala-wala was bit and we were on to a 12kg cuda. Unfortunately the hooks pulled right next to the boat and we were still left without a fish in the hatch. Things had to change.

We put out a few small lures and soon went on with 2 bonnies that we rigged up live and a small yft that we bled for sushi. It wasn’t 5 minutes and we had a big shark eat the deep bait, followed smartly by the surface bait. The sharks had obviously also come in with the current. As quick as we could catch the bonnies, the sharks ate them so we changed back to live maasbanker and held our position over the showing. Terence worked a vertical jig while I worked a bucktail. We both had action on the jigs, with Terence getting a tropical yellowtail and me getting a much sought after cuda of about 7kg.

It was getting late and as the sun dropped over the horizon, the deep livie smoked off. Andre battled to get the rod out the holder under heavy drag but eventually settled down into a strong fight. The fish came to the surface and made a few fast runs, typical of a big cuda, and finally came close enough to where I could reach out to remove the sinker. I was about to grab it when the fish smoked off, making the 16oz sinker look like a ruckus as it smoked along the surface. The line angled down again and that’s when our fears came true. There were a few big bumps on the rod followed by a heavy weight that was unmovable. After a while, we had no option but to part off. !#@$!#@

Back on the showing, Terence hooked up on a jig and was pinned to the gunwale with a heavy drag. 10 mins later Andre gaffed a 15kg yellowfin in almost complete darkness.

This was the end of our gamefish session so we packed up and headed shallower to the salmon marks. On the first down, we all hooked keeper size salmon. Andre then showed us how its done with a 12kg daga, just to end off the session. Thanks again to Andre for a great trip. For those of you wanting to book a trip, contact Andre at Good Time Charters here off Richards Bay (+27 (0)72 639 9366). He really goes out of his way to find fish for his clients and I can highly recommend his services. 

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