Maak ‘n draai in die Baai

Dit was die 22ste October toe ons drie hier in Johannesburg die Rooi Monster ingeklim het en pad gevat het Richards Bay toe. Ek. Theuns en Branden is op pad om by my seun, Donovan, te gaan kuier in Meer-en-See. Na ‘n redelike goeie rit is ons toe Vrydag net na Tweeuur daar. Theuns het ons afgelaai en hy is verder na sy seun is Pinetown wie vir hom die bakkie so bietjie sou paneelklop en verf aan sit om die roes van ons probeerslae reg te maak. Die Vrydag agtermiddag het ons uitgepak en begin sweet voordat Donovan vir ons van sy gereedskap uitgehaal het om te gebruik. Sjoe maar dit was omtrent bedompig en warm vergelyke aan Johannesburg.

Saturday morning dawned with overcast and drizzly conditions and Branden and I went to the Commercial Slipway where we started the holiday/fishing trip in earnest. After a fairly quiet morning with not too much happening I had put a ribbon of squid onto a little hook to try a change of bait. With the light tackle and line I was using I managed to get a fair cast and put the rod onto the handwashing bucket while I filleted some more sardine for Branden to try a ling thin fillet. I had just washed and dried my hands when i noticed that the trout rod was trying to escape into the water. As it moved onto the bucket I got hold of the reel and when I lifted the rod the fun started. Needless to say it felt as if I had mistakenly hooked one of the Harbour Tugs. I applied a bit of drag and after watching the line being stripped off of the small reel till the aluminium showed through I was getting a little worried that I might lose all the line on the first run. At last the fish turned and headed for the causeway with me holding the rod upright and calling the guys on the narrow section to hold the line above the concrete and railings. I walked around and had a lot of fun with several runs and retrievals where the fish again stripped the line with great facility. Twice the fish stopped and this led me to believe that I had hooked a skate of some size. While all this was happening Branden had a good bite on his rod and when he had a good fish on. After a fairly short fight he ended up on the beach area with several advisors yelling instructions. I must comment here that although he has been on three fishing trips with us he is still not too used to catching big fish. The advice I should have been giving I couldn’t because I was too far away and busy with my own fish. Because of this the big grunter broke him up when he tried to drag it onto the beach following the advice of the small crowd who had by this time collected to see the fun. I knew it was a good sized grunter from the comment of an old Indian fellow who came around to me afterward. After two hours of “Trek en Stoot” I was tired and was about to snap the line when a small SemiRigid boat with two Samaritans approached the Slipway. I jokingly asked the guy who stayed in the boat to try and lift the fish while his friend got the trailer. This took a further hour with the boat going from just in front of the slipway to where the tugboats berth to the green bouy indicating the turn of the deep channel around Naval Island and backing up to the beach to collect his partner. After the heroic try and going out of his way I would like to extend my sincere thanks to those two guys who got wet and tried so hard and then after the line eventually snapped apologised profusely to me for losing the skate. 

We left there at about lunchtime and then proceeded to tour and see where we could get a spot, seeing that it was Saturday and the weather was fairly good. We ended up on the short pier, dolosse, and were lucky to be in time for the afternoon Shad and Kingfish frenzy. What great fun it is to catch those awesome fighters on a light tackle setup using a 9 foot 8 weight trout rod with a small spinning reel and 8 pound line. (Sorry, I haven’t caught up to the Metric system yet and the line was in poor condition following the skate episode) Naturally all the undersized fish were returned and that left us with a bag of nothing to show except huge grins.

Dit het die toon gestel vir meeste van die ander dae wat begin het met hengel an ge-eindig net met hengel. Daar was wel  dae wat ons beter gedoen het as ander maar in die algemeen het dit maar swakkerig gegaan met die hengel. Ons het Theuns die Maandag oggend terug verwelkom net om te sien dat die weer nie saamgespeel het en die bakkie se roes nog gepryk het.

Thursday we had set aside to go to Goedertrouw Dam. (Lake Phobane) Bright and early we got up and in rainy overcast weather we drove up to the Dam and got there before Seven. Swiftly we selected lures and got busy trying to land some Bass. After trying several worms and other plastics Donovan got one of about 750 grams and then got a reasonable Bass of about 900 grams. Later I got one of about 1.1 kg and that was it for the day. The weather stayed overcast and we didn’t get too burned. We returned to Meer-en-See and ended up on the Dolosse for the afternoon Shad and Kingfish frenzy.

Die res van die week het nie juis veel vis opgelewer nie, behalwe vir die daaglikse tog na die dollosse vir die Shad en Kingfish middag, maar dit is seker nie te erg as jy DIE gesegde in ag neem. “The worst day’s fishing is better than the best day’s working”

Story by: Uncle D.

(More of the trip to follow.)