Just to give the vaalies a bit of hope for the coming summer holiday... yes there are still some fish in the sea!
So come this Saturday past, I wake at 03:30, get my tackle ready and wait for my lift... come 04:00 no sign of my lift... I use the 10min rule and at 04:10 I send a whatsapp message... no blue tick...
At 04:15 I phone... phone is off... I go chill o my coach till 04:30, but by that time realise this ship isn't going to sail. So throw everything in my bakkie and decide to go fish on my own, something I seldom do. I drive past some promising spots close to home and with a twitch and nudge decide to stick to my original plan. Easier said than done, because the guy with the bait didn't pitch up. So armed with a cast net and a few paddle tails, just for in case, I get to my destination... and the water is looking unbelievable! I admire the sunrise for a couple minutes and then set off down the beach to search for good looking spot.
With no bait and the sun sitting at an awkward level I decide to rather work a few promising spot with the paddle tail. My thoughts being that I would persist with this until I see some mullet in the surf. Maybe half an hour passes without success when I decided to go fetch my cast net and get the show on the road. After a few dismal attempts (my cast net skill seems to weaken after the winter season) I netted three perfect size mullet, those 25cm guys. I quickly rig up my two rods (Pentagon medium and Poseidon medium heavy, trini 40 and trini 30 for the "what tackle" guys ). The one mullet I rig up with a 8/0 circle slide and 1mm line, dacron through the eyes and of it goes. The other goes out with two 7/0 Bandits on 90lb steel . I slide the mono rig on the bank and the steel at the back of a hole, thinking there might be a raggie in there. Rods set I go off with the paddle tail again... no luck. When I get to my bag my friend rings me up... poor guy has had it rough with a new born and end of year work madness so I cut him some slack and tell him to drag his ass over because the water is looking on! Whilst waiting for him to arrive I go off to net some more mullet. After a while find nice shoal, net a couple and start strolling back to my rods. This is when I see my one rod bobbing up and down. So the walk turns in to shuffle jog, to the live bait drum where I quickly release the baitfish. Get to my rod and the fish is just going in to the braid. I tighten up the drag a bit and lean back, feels like shark. I decide not to rush things and let it do its thing. After about 10minutes in to the fight I spot my buddy walking up the beach, leisurely strolling and deciding to have a chat with a local first. I'm thinking, can't this guy see I'm on here, but apparently it looked like I was trying to loosen my slide sinker... anyway.
So eventually he appears and I tell I think it's a big hound shark, no head shakes, but I'm going to take my time because last year I also thought it was a hound and well it wasn't. Another 5minutes or so after a few strong runs I starting to think maybe it a small duckbill or something, I'm not winning here. Eventually the fish comes on to the bank and then ends up wrapping on my other slide rod. We manage the two together and after a while we see a glimpse of the thing... the sun is shining directly over it so we see only fin. I'm sure it's a shark pectoral, but the engelsman with me swears he saw a "gewebde vin" we crack a few mermaid jokes and I tell him if this is kob I'm going to flip, because whatever it is isn't small. And then we see is, that unmistaken golden pearl brown colour and the webbed fins! I ask my friend to put the other tangled rod in the stand and fetch the tape and camera whilst I beach the fish. If she was out of the water for a minute it was a lot, but I knew that I had to get her back in the water asap. So after measuring her, I grab her by the mouth and pulled her back. I asked my friend to take photo's the whole time as revive her, so after a couple snap he decided to make a video that ended up being a whole 1 sec long... apparently it wasn't recording. It took about 10minutes to revive and for some time it was touch and go but I decided to swim out bit deeper with it which seemed to do the trick and with a strong swipe of the tail she swam off.
She measured 166cm, my previous PB being 43kg and just shy of that magical 100lb mark. So I was over the moon when I found out she was 47kg a full 104lb!
So come this Saturday past, I wake at 03:30, get my tackle ready and wait for my lift... come 04:00 no sign of my lift... I use the 10min rule and at 04:10 I send a whatsapp message... no blue tick...
At 04:15 I phone... phone is off... I go chill o my coach till 04:30, but by that time realise this ship isn't going to sail. So throw everything in my bakkie and decide to go fish on my own, something I seldom do. I drive past some promising spots close to home and with a twitch and nudge decide to stick to my original plan. Easier said than done, because the guy with the bait didn't pitch up. So armed with a cast net and a few paddle tails, just for in case, I get to my destination... and the water is looking unbelievable! I admire the sunrise for a couple minutes and then set off down the beach to search for good looking spot.
With no bait and the sun sitting at an awkward level I decide to rather work a few promising spot with the paddle tail. My thoughts being that I would persist with this until I see some mullet in the surf. Maybe half an hour passes without success when I decided to go fetch my cast net and get the show on the road. After a few dismal attempts (my cast net skill seems to weaken after the winter season) I netted three perfect size mullet, those 25cm guys. I quickly rig up my two rods (Pentagon medium and Poseidon medium heavy, trini 40 and trini 30 for the "what tackle" guys ). The one mullet I rig up with a 8/0 circle slide and 1mm line, dacron through the eyes and of it goes. The other goes out with two 7/0 Bandits on 90lb steel . I slide the mono rig on the bank and the steel at the back of a hole, thinking there might be a raggie in there. Rods set I go off with the paddle tail again... no luck. When I get to my bag my friend rings me up... poor guy has had it rough with a new born and end of year work madness so I cut him some slack and tell him to drag his ass over because the water is looking on! Whilst waiting for him to arrive I go off to net some more mullet. After a while find nice shoal, net a couple and start strolling back to my rods. This is when I see my one rod bobbing up and down. So the walk turns in to shuffle jog, to the live bait drum where I quickly release the baitfish. Get to my rod and the fish is just going in to the braid. I tighten up the drag a bit and lean back, feels like shark. I decide not to rush things and let it do its thing. After about 10minutes in to the fight I spot my buddy walking up the beach, leisurely strolling and deciding to have a chat with a local first. I'm thinking, can't this guy see I'm on here, but apparently it looked like I was trying to loosen my slide sinker... anyway.
So eventually he appears and I tell I think it's a big hound shark, no head shakes, but I'm going to take my time because last year I also thought it was a hound and well it wasn't. Another 5minutes or so after a few strong runs I starting to think maybe it a small duckbill or something, I'm not winning here. Eventually the fish comes on to the bank and then ends up wrapping on my other slide rod. We manage the two together and after a while we see a glimpse of the thing... the sun is shining directly over it so we see only fin. I'm sure it's a shark pectoral, but the engelsman with me swears he saw a "gewebde vin" we crack a few mermaid jokes and I tell him if this is kob I'm going to flip, because whatever it is isn't small. And then we see is, that unmistaken golden pearl brown colour and the webbed fins! I ask my friend to put the other tangled rod in the stand and fetch the tape and camera whilst I beach the fish. If she was out of the water for a minute it was a lot, but I knew that I had to get her back in the water asap. So after measuring her, I grab her by the mouth and pulled her back. I asked my friend to take photo's the whole time as revive her, so after a couple snap he decided to make a video that ended up being a whole 1 sec long... apparently it wasn't recording. It took about 10minutes to revive and for some time it was touch and go but I decided to swim out bit deeper with it which seemed to do the trick and with a strong swipe of the tail she swam off.
She measured 166cm, my previous PB being 43kg and just shy of that magical 100lb mark. So I was over the moon when I found out she was 47kg a full 104lb!
