On Thursday 30th July 2020, At and I
launched “ABF” off Richards Bay. Again, the target species was snoek as the
previous day, there were a few nice ones caught. Unfortunately, news travels
quickly and half the town was on the water even though it was a week day. We
trolled up north looking for some life, but it was pretty dead. There were a
few patches of bait but only saladfish were eating them. To make things worse,
the swell had increased over night to close to 4m so there was a huge ground swell.
We pushed north regardless and just as we
arrived at nHlobane, a friend phoned me to say that they had found a few fish
to the south. He sent me a coordinate and it was 35km away! It was now or never
so we made the executive decision to up lines and make the long run to try and
salvage the day. As we ran South, I kept in contact and got a running commentary
of their tally. Luckily, when I arrived, the fish were still feeding and the
first pass with the wire lines produced a nice snoek. At turned to make another
pass and we went on again. Luckily, with the wire lines, we could continue
trolling while fighting the fish, and this helped us get a few more pulls in a
short while.
 |
| At with a nice snoek after a long ride |
When the birds stopped diving, the fish became
a bit weary of the boat and the only thing that got pulls was a wireless rapala
fished way back. In all, we were in the action for about an hour and we managed
9 snoek. Much better that what we would have done if we had stayed up north.
Thanks to my mates for calling me when we
needed it. I will remember you guys that called me the next time I find them…
and forget about those that didn’t.
