Our first stop was at the end of the pipeline where we normally catch bait. Divan and I went down with sabiki jigs hoping for shad, but instead came up with full strings of maasbanker. I am not personally a big fan of a maasbanker as a Garrick bait so we continued looking for better bait. After moving around a bit, we happened upon a shoal of mackerel. I handed the bait rod to Heindrich so that he could fish for a bit. While they were loading the mackerel, I rigged up a game rod with a bottom trace, pinned a live mackerel and sent it down. At the end of the first drift, I retrieved the bait to find it had been chopped. I rigged another bait and sent it down on the next drift. After a few minutes, the rod bumped and I fed the fish for a short while then struck. The fish ripped off line at a fast speed before I turned it. We all thought it was a shark, but the deep hard fight with constant tail beats suggested otherwise. I got the fish to the boat where Michael lifted it into the boat. It was a yellowfin tuna of about 5kg which we released. After catching quite a number of mackerel, we decided to head shallower to look for bait at a different spot. In 12m off the caravan park, I sent down the sabiki. It had just hit the bottom when I hooked something that felt like a shad. I quickly lifted it into the boat and saw that it was a tiny cuda of around 35cm, probably the smallest I have ever caught. I kept this as a pitchbait for the coming marlin season. We managed to catch several large pinky’s and then headed for the south pier to look for Garrick.
We rigged 2 mackerel, 1 maasbanker and a pinky and slow trolled along the backline toward new mouth and then turned back towards the pier. By 12:30 we had only had 1 half hearted strike on a mackerel so the decision was made to up lines and run north between 5 mile lighthouse and groenkop hoping that there would be a few fish holding in the rips. The baits went out and the trolling continued without a touch. After checking the baits, Divan opted to change his bait to a sand mackerel hoping that this would trigger a strike. About 15mins later, I saw a big swirl between the lines. Divan’s scarborough reel started spinning as something ate the sand mackerel. Divan fed the fish for a while before setting the hook. The fish headed straight for the backline which was a sure indication that it was a Garrick. The fish came to the boat where I gaffed Divan’s first Garrick of about 5kg.
The lines went out again and we trolled slowly north. At 16:15 the deep line with the pinky had a strike. I fed the fish but the line didn’t pickup. After a few moments, I put up the drag and wound the reel to check what had happened. The line started cutting through the water to the front of the boat and I realised the fish had taken the bait and swam toward me. I set the hook and passed the rod to Heindrich. The fish gave us a hard time around the boat, but eventually we managed to load the 7kg Garrick.
The lines went out quickly again to use what light was left and not 10mins later, the deep line with a pinky was taken. Divan fed the fish and hooked up. Michael took the rod and fought a 6kg Garrick to the boat where Divan gaffed it.
We were hopeful to get a fourth fish so that we all could have caught one, but it was not to be. At 17:00 we upped lines and headed for the harbour. After a slow start to the day, it ended off with a bang. We are all looking forward to the next day’s Garrick fishing.
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