Rainbow without rain

On Saturday 20^th April 2019, the bonanza had been called off due to strong NE winds in the morning but there was a SW predicted for later in the day. We decided to take the opportunity and fish socially during the lull.

At 11am Hansie, Ruben, Terry and I launched headed to the pipeline and managed to get some nice livies. We then headed to the ledge to look for bonnies. The sea was surprisingly flat and we were a bit disappointed that we had not launched earlier. Be that as it may, we set about looking for bait and within a short time, we had some bonnies in the tubes and some spare in the bait box. The SW was already on the horizon so we didn’t have too much time and high-tailed it to Petingo.

On arrival the water looked great, there were no boats and the garfish were everywhere on the surface… things had to happen. I quickly rigged up 2 bonnies, a wala and a live maasbanker while Hansie trolled over the wreck. We were expecting a pull at any moment… but nothing. After several passes over the wreck the SW wind came through. It was about 15 knots so we continued fishing.

We had just gone over a good showing when the deep live bait went away. Ruben fought a small blacktip kingfish to the boat where it was released. The bait was quickly reset and on the next turn, it went away again. The fish gave Ruben a better pull and soon he had his first rainbow runner on the boat.

The bonnies were very quiet and just as we were ready to pack up, one was eaten by a hammerhead shark. At 4pm we upped lines and headed home.

Bonanza

On Good Friday 19^th, over the Easter weekend, Hansie, Ruben, Terry and I launched Mitsu-Fishi off Richards Bay. We were competing in the Richards Bay Ski-Boat Club Bonanza. The weather looked good for only one of the days so we needed to have a game plan. We opted to head north to look for some snoek as there had been a few nice ones the previous week.

On the bait marks, we managed to get about 10 redeyes and a bunch of maasbanker. With bait in the well, we headed north and put out a spread of snoek lures. Hansie trolled over all our favourite numbers without even a hint of a fish. By 9am, we made the call to switch over to bait so I put out fillets, redeyes and two cuda baits, just in case. While working the area, there were a few birds fluttering about. We slowly followed them around hoping they would lead us to some fish. Eventually one of the birds started working and as we came within range, Terry and Ruben fired out 2 spoons. Both were chased by snoek, but none hooked up. Shortly after, the surface redeye went away. Ruben fought the fish to the boat where we saw it to be a small cuda. Just as we were about to gaff it, the hooks pulled. No worries, we had snoek to chase.

We upped lines and closed the gap between us and the birds which were now all diving. There were fish on the surface and were feeding on small sprats. Both Terry and I cast into the shoal and both hooked up. Almost immediately, two big sharks chased after my fish and managed to eat it despite freespooling for a while. Terry managed his fish. The chase continued and luckily we were by ourselves so we could get a few fish before the rush. Eventually, we were spotted and about 10 boats surrounded us. The fish became very skittish and eventually sounded.

We headed home with 8 snoek and 2 kingfish for the scales. The rest of the comp was blown out and Ruben managed to end up with the 3^rd biggest snoek prize.