Beasterly Easterly

On Sunday 8^th November, my Dad and I launched “Selfish” out of Richards Bay. After the exceptionally strong winds that we experienced during the past week, we were pretty sure the water would be cold and unsettled. The plan for the day was to look for a bonito on light line. It didn’t sound like much of a challenge, but having tried it before, I knew it was quite challenging.

As usual, our first stop was on the pipeline to catch live bait. There was a strong reverse current but the water was relatively clean and 23 degrees. There was a lot of bait around and it did not take long to fill the live well. I had been requested to bring back a Rockcod for Tammy so just before leaving the pipe, I rigged up a dead maasbanker and sent it to the bottom. It didn’t take long to get a pull and brought up a nice catface rockcod that went straight into the ice.

With something for the pot, we headed to the ledge to look for a bonito. As we headed deeper, the water temp kept dropping. 14km later, the temp was 21 degrees. Not exactly ideal. On the positive side, there was little current and there was a good showing. I rigged up a 2kg outfit and pinned a maasbanker. I was busy letting it out when the reel took off in my hands. I fed the fish a bit and tightened up. The fish went on a bit of a run but nothing spectacular. I managed to lift it about half way before it made a second run to the surface. With the fish up on top, we chased after it and got some line back. A short while later, we had colour on a small tuna species. Only when it was on the leader did we see it was a striped bonito. Not what I had expected. We made another drift and sure enough went tight again. This time the fish gave a few head nods before the line parted under minimal pressure. Looking at the big showing on the sounder I guessed that another fish had swum into the line. On the next drift, I waited a while before getting a pull but finally went tight. This time the fish came straight to the surface and I could get a lot of line back. The leader was on the rod when the fish turned around and took off back down. I got a glimpse of the fish and it was also a striped bonito. 

Not long after, the fish was lifted into the boat. I wanted to take the opportunity to try catch one on 1kg line so rigged up a rod. As luck would have it, the showing had vanished so we moved around looking for them. After a while, a good showing came through so I put the bait out. It was only a few seconds before the bait was eaten and I was tight onto what felt like a nice fish. This fish made a few long runs and I could not gain an inch of line. After chasing it around the ocean for a while, it made another fast run but with quite a bit of line in the water, even with the reel in freespool, the line parted. I was pretty sure it was a bigger kawa kawa that had eaten the bait and not a smaller sarda. My Dad sounded around a bit more, and found another showing. Unfortunately at the same time, the wind changed to a direct easterly wind. It was like a switch going off and the fish stopped feeding. We made about 4 more drifts over the thick showing but could not get a pull.

This was enough for us to call it a day and head back home. The two fish weighed 2,8kg and 2,4kg respectively. Not spectacular, but still pretty challenging.

Big Bonnies!

At 5:30 on Sunday 14^th September John and I launched “Drifter” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to catch some small tuna on the new spinning rods that John had bought. As always, we stopped on the pipe to look for bait. On the first few downs, we caught mackerel  and shad. We spent some more time getting a few Maasbanker and then headed to the ledge. The SW wind was blowing about 5-10 knots but this was enough to keep the occasional rain squall passing over us. With the squalls, there was a stronger gust of wind that made a constant drift pattern very difficult. On the first 2 drifts, we never had a touch but finally on the 3^rd attempt, we had a pull but the leader was bitten through.

John with a 10.9kg Kawa-Kawa

The showing was very good near the bottom, so I set a bait with an 8oz sinker and as we neared the pinnacle, the rod keeled over. I fought a strong fish to the boat and after a good tussle ad a big kawa-kawa of around 9kg on board. The next drift was a carbon copy of the previous one and I soon had a second big kawa. I switched my rod to a surface bait and put John’s deeper down. Near the end of the drift, his reel took off and he had his hands full with a really strong fish. After a while the fish was near the boat when it took off and there were those dreaded bumps as a shark ate the fish. John retrieved the head of a nice amberjack. I slowly headed back to the pinnacle and put out a daisy chain to quickly catch some bonnies. It did not take long to go tight. John had the string of bonnies ear the boat when another shark grabbed them and the chase was on… Eventually it bit the leader off.

Whats left after tax...

On the next drift, John went on again with a strong fish. We both thought that it could be an amberjack, but after a long fight, a huge bonnie popped up next to the boat. It was one of the biggest that I had ever seen so I gaffed it to weigh. On the trip up to start the drift, we picked up a small bonnie that went into the bait box. The last drift never produced a pull so we upped lines and headed to the south pier. We tried there for a while around the south pier, but had no luck. When an ominous rain cloud was looming, we headed home to prevent being soaked.

The bonnie weighed 10.9kg, 100 grams off the current All Tackle South African Record.

Ripper of a day

On Sunday 30^th August, we launched John Farndell’s “Drifter” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to find a few Garrick as John had not yet caught one off Richards Bay. We stopped at the pipeline at around 6am and sounded around until we found a good bait showing. There were a lot of maasbanker, but it was shad that we were look

ing for. After searching the area, I found a spot where we managed to catch about 10 shad. With enough bait in the well, we headed north to Nhlobane.

Drifter in the backline fighting a garrick

We were the first to arrive and I quickly rigged up 3 shad. Two on surface on spinning gear and one deep on conventional gear. There were a few rips around so when we pulled the bait through the churned up water, it was no surprise when the far surface bait went away. I hooked up and passed the rod to John who had a good fight with his first Richards Bay Garrick. Great stuff!

I set the lines again and worked the next rip. Other boats had also arrived and were in the same area but were not having much luck. As the baits came out of the rip, the close surface bait revved before being eaten. John fed the fish and tightened up to his second Garrick of the day. This fish was turbo charged and gave him a run around before being boated.

With a bit of congestion from the other boats, we decided to head back south, slowly working the rips that were fading as the tide started to turn. Things were very quiet for a while but eventually the far surface bait went away and after hooking up, I passed the rod to my Dad. He had a good tussle with a similar size Garrick. When the fish was on the leader, it gave a last head shake on the surface and spat the hook. I suppose that happens.

John with his first R/Bay Garrick

We continued on out south bound route and saw a few fish chasing in the shallows. A short while later, the far bait was eaten again and when I tightened up, the rod took tension but then the bait came flying back. The leader had wrapped around the hook and then pulled the hook into the bait. This made it easy for the Garrick to spit the bait. By now the NE wind had picked up and the sea was getting bumpy. This combined with a slow bite let us to up lines and head back to harbor.

2015 Garrick Season begins with a bang!

At 6:30 on Sunday 23^rd August, Tammy, Terrance and I launched “Selfish” off Richards Bay. We were hoping to get our first Garrick for the season and if we were lucky, a snoek or two. Our first stop was on the pipeline to look for live bait. I sounded around for a while and found big shoals of Maasbanker and mackerel. I tried hard to find some shad but after an hour and a half that we tried, we only found two. 

11.8kg garrick on 6kg line

Terrance's first garrick

It was getting late so we headed north past groenkop. There were quite a few boats looking for snoek so I rigged up two fillets and two lures and trolled around. There was a lot of life in the water with whales, dolphin, diving gannets and shoals of redeyes. Closer to the backline, there were a few boats working a small area. I headed in that direction and started to see big bait showings on the sounder. Only then did I look back and see all 4 rods with a slight bend in them. Tammy and Terrance retrieved the lines and to our surprise, each one had a small shad on them. Realising that the showings were shad, I drifted the area while Tammy and Terrance cast spoons at them. Every cast was a shad and when they were near the boat, they were followed by hundreds more. It was amazing to see! This also meant that we now had an excellent supple of livies.

Terrance's second garrick putting up a fi

The snoek fishing was abandoned as everything that we put out resulted in a shad so the snoek had no chance to get to the lures. I rigged up four rods, one 6kg spinning rod for Tammy and three conventional 10kg rods for Terrance. All four were rigged with live shad and once set, I putted into the backline. The water had quite a few dirty patches and it took a while before it cleaned up with the outgoing tide. After about an hour and a half, and several position changes, we found a spot where the bait was being smashed in the breakers. It did not take long before the close surface bait on the spinning rod was eaten. Tammy fed the fish and tightened up. The fish took quite a bit of line so we cleared the other lines and followed after it. After a strong back and forward fight, the fish was gaffed and hauled aboard. It was a nice size Garrick considering the line class it was on.

With the first fish under our belt, the pressure was off and we could relax a bit. While the lines were out, I headed back north to where we started and set out 3 rods to look for Terrance’s first Garrick. It did not take long before the close surface bait revved. I picked up the rod and felt the bait get eaten. I let it run and passed the rod to Terrance. When it had fed enough, he tightened up and tussled his first Garrick to the boat. In true Garrick style, the fish put up a fight at the boat but I finally managed to grab it's tail and haul it on board. It was quickly measured, tagged, weighed and photographed before releasing the 7kg fish. Great!

Again I headed back to the starting point and set 3 more baits. There was a swirl in the breakers, so I made a sharp turn to try intercept. When I came back in line and we had not had a pull, I retrieved the close surface bait and saw that it had tangled with the far line. While I was undoing the tangle, a Garrick came up just behind the boat and tried to eat the bait. What a cock up! I bit the tangled leader off and let the other line go so that I could feed the fish, but it was too late and I was left with a squashed bait. We regrouped and continued trolling with three tangle free fresh baits. I was busy heading deeper along a colour line when the reel with the far bait gave a short burst. I fed the fish and came tight to another Garrick. I passed the rod to Terrance who released his second Garrick for the day.

Tammy on her second fish before releasing it

By now the pattern was clear and it was just a matter of following the same routine. Run up to the northern point, set 3 baits and troll past the shoal of bait and you were almost guaranteed to get a pull. On the next pass over the spot, I went tight on a fish and managed to tag my first garrick of the year. 

The next fish Tammy hooked up and had it at the boat in a few minutes before it was released. It seemed too easy but again we ran to the start and set up. This time, it was near the southern end of the marks when the far bait revved. I put the reel in freespool and waited for the pull. After a short feed, I tightened up and fought my second Garrick of the day. It was also weighed, tagged and released. It was getting late so we opted to make one more turn and if we didn’t get a pull, head home. Apart from two good chases in the backline near our baits, it was quiet so we upped lines and ran home. Tammy’s fish weighed in at 11,8kg and set the benchmark for the Club’s Garrick Derby. In all it was a great day that won’t soon be forgotten.

Time and Tide...

On Saturday 15^th August, Jurie, Kobus, Gert and I launched “Avanti” off Cape Vidal. We were there for a At van Tilburg’s 60^th birthday and were hoping to get some fish for a paella later that night. After an interesting launch, we stopped behind backline and filled the livewell with Maasbanker and mackerel before heading to Oscar. 

I put out four big rapalas and trolled north into the current. The swell was big due to the upwelling created by the strong current and it made trolling uncomfortable. I trolled over the southern marks and saw a good showing on the sounder. Moments later three of the reels went away with small yellowfin. The fish were bled and put on ice before I continued trolling. Things were quiet and after passing over the northern pinnacles a few times without a touch, I headed back to where we had caught the yellowfins on the southern marks. As I trolled the lures over the spot, again three reels went off. One pulled hooks but the others were bled and put into the hatch.

I was pretty over catching small yellowfins so put out some live baits and slow trolled over the bumps. The current pushed us back quickly and before long we were near the point. I put on fresh baits and tacked over the bait showings but to no avail. The tide was pushing and with a big sandbank in the bay, it meant that we either had to beach on the low tide or on the full high, nothing in between. We decided to head home and as we were about to retrieve the last line, the rod keeled over and the reel smoked off! Kobus took the strike and after a good tussle had an 8kg cuda in the boat. What a bargain! With that, we headed back to the beach.

Remember the good old days...

On Sunday 19^th July, Tjokkie, Tammy and I launched “Selfish” out of Richards Bay. We were hoping to find a Garrick or two. We launched at 6:30 and headed to the pipeline. There were big showings of bait and every down with the bait jigs resulted in full strings of Maasbanker. I was hoping for a few shad so I put on some bait and soon had about 10 shad in the live well.

Tammy with a 6.4kg Snoek on 3kg line

We headed for the south pier and on arrival, I saw a Garrick smashing bait on the surface. Quickly the lines went out and I worked the area. There were about 5 other boats there and 2 fish had come out already. I trolled a bit further south into the backline and saw a few more chases but we just could not get a pull. I turned back to work towards the pier again and as we were getting close, the deep bait revved and was eaten. Tammy fed the fish but when she tightened up, the hook turned into the shad’s head and we missed the fish. We continued trolling but things went totally dead. I received a phone call from a friend fishing up north and he suggested I move up that way as there were a lot of snoek around. We quickly upped lines and ran a few kilometres north. It did not take long to see where the fish were as several boats were working an area where the birds were dipping and the snoek were smashing. I headed to a patch of fish that had no other boats around and Tjokkie and I threw spoons into them. Both of us went tight but unfortunately another fish swam into my line and bit it off. Luckily Tjoks got his fish out. The fish were pretty stationary so it was easy to move between the shoals. I rigged up 2 fillets and trolled them around. When we came within casting range, I would drift and see if we could get a fish. If not, I continued trolling. We had a few fish on the flick sticks, but pulled a lot of hooks and had several bite the swivels off.

9 Snoek for the day on "Selfish"

I made a big turn around the shoals while I was making up some tackle and one of the fillets went on. Tammy took the strike and fought a nice snoek on 3kg line. After about 10 minutes I gaffed the fish and marked it. The current ladies records are vacant so I didn’t want to mix the fish up, incase we caught more. The action continued for quite a while. The fish were gorging themselves on small sprats. These sprats would shelter under the boat as soon as we stopped near them. The snoek would just lazily swim through them with their mouths open. At any one time, there were 30 fish under the boat and there were snoek jumping as far as you could see. It was amazing to see and reminded me of the good old days of snoek fishing. The problem was that the fish were so full that they didn’t chase the lures and just hung with the shoals of bait. Every now and again, there would be a stupid greedy fish and it would swallow the lure.

We did not want to get home too late as there was still a lot of work to be done so at 3pm upped lines and headed back with 9 snoek. Tammy’s fish weighed 6,4kg and a record claim will be submitted for an SA and All Africa Record.

2015 Mapelane Junior Interclub

On Sunday 12^th July, We launched “OHANA” off Mapelane for the second day of the Mapelane Junior Interclub. Fishing with us was one of the Richards Bay U/16 teams of JP and TJ Jacobs and JP Krieg. The previous day’s fishing had not been too good with only a handful of fish being weighed. The 15-20 knot NE wind had blown consistently for the 2 days making the conditions difficult. After losing several fish the first day, we were hoping to get some points on the board.

After catching some livies on the backline, we joined the rest of the fleet fishing home reef. We were limited to the area due to the wind and so we had to make do with what we had. We put out 4 lines, 2 livies, a sardine and a small bonnie. These baits were drifted along the 16m to 25m marks. It was pretty quiet and only a few fish had been reported. To pass the time, JP played around with a sabiki jig catching the odd Maasbanker and a few sand soldiers as we drifted. We had just drifted onto a small patch of reef when the medium livie was eaten. The fish hardly pulled the reel, but no matter, we had a fish on. JP took the rod and quickly had a small 4kg cuda at the boat which I gaffed. Finally, something in the hatch. We drifted off the reef and decided to up lines and do a short drift over the same area. I was retrieving the deep livie and was holding the line, having just removing the sinker, when the line was ripped out my hand! The rod bent and another small cuda went on a run. Before anyone could take the rod, the hooks unfortunately pulled.



Richards Bay U/16 team with their catch

After running up and resetting the lines, we drifted south past the point. Realising we only had half an hour left of fishing, we decided to continue drifting until lines up. We were all pretty much falling asleep when the reel on the bow rod smoked off! Talk about a wakeup call… TJ took the strike while the rest of us cleared the deck. Jannie followed the fish with the boat and after several fast runs, I managed to gaff a 12kg cuda.

The comp came to an end shortly after that and at the weighin there were a few nice fish including two prodigal son of 17kg and 20kg. Congrats to the other Richards Bay team for taking the gold with a great cuda of 24kg on the first day.

I look forward to seeing all the juniors there again next year!

Slim Pickings

On Sunday 5^th July, Ray, Marnus and I launched “My Wish” out of Richards Bay. There had not been too many fish around the last while but we were hoping to at least hear a reel or two during the day.

We stopped off at the pipe line and caught a few livies before heading towards 5mile. The swell was pretty big so we could not get too close to the backline but the small reef that I have been fishing the past few days was fishable. I rigged up a few livies and trolled onto the showing. It did not take long for us to get a pull and after a bit of a stubborn fight, Marnus had a blackspot kingfish in the boat. At least the ice had been broken.

Bonnie and kingfish

We rerigged and I trolled over the showing again. This time the bait just revved a bit followed by a slight bump on the rod. Marnus checked the bait and found that there were a few teeth marks on it and it had been squashed slightly.
A fresh bait was rigged and I made another pass over the reef. Again the bait revved and the rod tip bumped a bit before going quiet. The bait had the same marks on it as the previous one. I could still not make out what they were so we tried once more. As I was nearing the mark, a shoal of redeyes popped up on surface so I lowered the sabikis into them and caught a few snoek baits. While this was going on, the deep bait went away. Marnus passed the rod to Ray who had a good tussle on his hands. I moved the boat away from the structure just in case it was a kingfish that wanted to cut us off. The fish fought deep and there were constant tail beats so we all assumed it was another king, but when it came into view, it turned out to be a big kawa-kawa.
I made a few more passes over the marks, but there was no more action so we upped lines and ran a bit further north and put out a few baits for snoek / cuda but after a few hours with no luck, we headed back to the harbour. The water looked good around the pier so we pulled some livies around hoping for a Garrick, but despite there being a lot of baitfish activity, we never had any pulls and headed home.

Play it by ear

7kg Queenfish

On Sunday 28^th June, my Dad and I launched Selfish out of Richards Bay. We were not sure what to fish for as results had been patchy over the past week. All we did know is that we were not going to have a very long day. I took a few basic rigs with for the day including 2 spinning rods and some light cuda rods. We were on the water at 6:45 and made our way to the pipeline to get bait. After sounding around, we found a big shoal of bait and almost every down I made produced a string of mackerel or Maasbanker. With no real game plan, we decided to fill up on bait while the opportunity presented itself. It did not take too long to fill the bait box and with the live well full, we headed North towards 5 mile.

13kg Kingfish

There were a few birds dipping in an area and the sounder showed some bait. We stopped and fished for them, hoping that they would be redeyes but unfortunately it was also Maasbanker. One of the strings was eaten on the way up so I rigged up a spinning rod and sent a livie down. It did not take long before the rod bumped and keeled over, the reel screaming as the fish took off. The line angled to the surface and a nice queenfish splashed around on top. It gave me a good go but I could not understand why it was that strong until I saw where it was hooked… in the tail. After a while I finally had it on board. We made another drift and again the rod went away with a strong fish. We both assumed that it was another queenfish as it was a similar fight. A while later, I had a nice kingfish in the boat. This was turning into quite a good day considering we had a game plan.

5kg Snoek

We made another drift and something small ate the bait. It turned out to be a Rockcod which went onto the ice. By now the bait had scattered and with no more pulls on the few drifts we did, we decided to head further north to groenkop and put out some livies for a cuda. Being in a good snoek area, I also put out a fillet on the surface. Things were very quiet and at noon, we turned back to the harbour saying that we would troll until 1 o clock then head home. We trolled into an area where there was a bit of life. There was some surface bait activity, a few showings on the sounder and even a lonely whale cruising around. I made a few turns without a pull so I straightened out and took a course to go home. As I turned to start clearing the lines, I noticed the surface rod with the fillet bait bending. I ran to it and wound tight. The fish took a bit of line and I passed the rod to my Dad. While he kept the fish under control, I cleared the lines and stowed the rods. I put a gaff into a nice snoek just in time to head home.

In all, it was a really nice day and considering we didn’t have a plan, playing it by ear seemed to work out. 
 
 

Losing baits chop chop...

On Saturday 20^th June, At, Tammy, my Dad and I launched “AVANTI” out of Cape Vidal. We were hoping to get a sailfish for Tammy. We caught a few livies before putting out the sailfish spread… just incase.

Sunrise at Cape Vidal... Beautiful!

I had a similar setup as we used in Angola with 4 spinning rods and 4 halfbeaks. Two behind the teaser and two off the riggers. All were rigged with circle hooks and fluorocarbon leaders. There was an exceptional amount of bait in the water, from red eyes, maasbanker and mackerel to frigates and jube-jubes. The sounder was packed with bait showings. There was a current line at 45m so we focussed our efforts between 50 and 30m. It did not take long before there was a strike on the close bait. It was a wahoo that smashed the halfbeak then doubled back towards the teaser and picked up the main line in its mouth and then bit us off while still in freespool. Several turns later resulted in two more wahoo smashing the baits and neatly slicing the hooks off before the riggers even popped. Pretty frustrating… Luckily I had rigged several spare baits and leaders and could replace them as soon as they were lost.

Pre-rigging a few sailfish baits

At made a shallower turn and both close baits were eaten. Unfortunately both baits returned neatly sliced off behind the heads. I assumed that they were cuda but who knows. We made a few more turns but things were quiet. I decided to check the baits and found that both rigger baits were chopped. This was getting ridiculous…

We decided to stick to the current line to avoid the cuda and were rewarded with a dorado of around 6kg that found its way into the hatch… Finally! Trolling continued but it went very quiet, apart from a small yellowfin that crushed one of the long baits. With the fish being pretty shy due to the abundance of bait, I put the one long bait 50m back. At around 3pm, this rigger popped and Tammy fed the fish. When she tightened up, the line ran off the reel at a medium pace. All of us were looking back when the fish went on an exceptionally fast run on the surface. Through the white water it was making, we could see that it was a billfish, but we could not id it as a big sailfish or a small marlin. At had slowed the boat and we were bringing in the other lines when the fish went even faster! Before the drag could be slacked off, the 10kg line unfortunately parted. Not great…

We rerigged and trolled to the point before heading in. We had tried our best, but unfortunately that’s how it goes. I'm sure we will try again and hopefully be more successful.