Re: Back from Angola
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2019 8:15 pm
We decide to head back to the comforts of base camp, about 3 hours away. The sea is too clean, and the kob are not active. We arrive after dark, have a well-deserved shower, prepare dinner and hit the sack early. Tomorrow is Saturday - day 6 of the 10-day trip.
We are on the beach by 8am, no mullet visible.. we struggle for an hour to get 5, head back to the river mouth and drop them for Garrick. Fair wait and hammerheads again. Lines up and head further north casting artificials. I think one or two tailor came out. After lunch the guides don their wetstuits. They go off in search of the enormous crayfish this place is known for. We get the barbie going and have lunch.
They return a while later with no crayfish but a good catch for dinner.
We head back to camp and have a mega fry up of fresh fishcakes.
Next day rolls round. Sunday. We head towards the lodge to check for mullet. Shawn immediately has 12. We head back to the river mouth. The sea is almost dead calm, and I can see schools of mullet shallow and deeper as we go along. Excitement is building!
Conditions look absolutely mint.
Live mullet is dropped at a range of about 150-200m. The first drops goes in, as the drone returns, that rod is grabbed by a garrick, and that angler commences his fight. The next rod goes in, and another garrick is on that one before the drone has landed. And so it goes for each rod.
MANIC fishing. The bait runs out very quickly, and Shawn races off in the vehicle to get more. We spend more time waiting for him to bring bait than actually fishing. There is a massive school of Garrick out there and they are HUNGRY
My first fish is 13kg
The next 15kg
Next I have a 21kg. And a great fight
Then a 19kg
Shawn is off to get more bait. We have a barbie and wait. Suddenly one of the guys shout and point. In the distance we can see massive Garrick smashing into bait fish. Big splashes and birds reeling above. Just an amazing sight.
Shawn arrives back with more mullet. He drops mine at around 80m.
The wait is on. Not for long. 10minutes later everyone’s on again, except me. Suddenly my rod tips bounces, a heavy thud! And again, and then the rod arches over alarmingly and the reel screams! I struggle to get the arching rod out of the holder, turn up the drag, and it takes off. This is something else. The power!
It just keeps going and more than a hundred metres of line peels off the big Penn. It swims to the right and I follow, gaining a little and losing more. Thresher? I think. Quite a few threshers have been caught here, on this exact spot.
The fight drags on and on. Slowly I get it closer. There is a pulse like a heartbeat on the line. It swims parallel to the beach, using it’s body to drag against me and stay in the current. Then is comes up and I see two fins, too far apart to be a Garrick.
Shark I think, and my heart sinks. It would’ve been a pig of a Garrick!
It sets off for another run and I get it slowly back. Closer and closer. Chris goes down to get a look. GARRICK! He yells. BUS GARRICK!
45 minutes of fight I have it on the beach. I am gobsmacked at the size of it. The thing is HUGE!!
Quickly we weigh it and it goes to 26kg. What an incredible fish. Very big, even for this place’s standards.
After release it‘s smiles and high-fives all round. A few more massive fish are landed, several over 20kg.
The total for the day is 37 garrick. Just unbelievable fishing.
We are on the beach by 8am, no mullet visible.. we struggle for an hour to get 5, head back to the river mouth and drop them for Garrick. Fair wait and hammerheads again. Lines up and head further north casting artificials. I think one or two tailor came out. After lunch the guides don their wetstuits. They go off in search of the enormous crayfish this place is known for. We get the barbie going and have lunch.
They return a while later with no crayfish but a good catch for dinner.
We head back to camp and have a mega fry up of fresh fishcakes.
Next day rolls round. Sunday. We head towards the lodge to check for mullet. Shawn immediately has 12. We head back to the river mouth. The sea is almost dead calm, and I can see schools of mullet shallow and deeper as we go along. Excitement is building!
Conditions look absolutely mint.
Live mullet is dropped at a range of about 150-200m. The first drops goes in, as the drone returns, that rod is grabbed by a garrick, and that angler commences his fight. The next rod goes in, and another garrick is on that one before the drone has landed. And so it goes for each rod.
MANIC fishing. The bait runs out very quickly, and Shawn races off in the vehicle to get more. We spend more time waiting for him to bring bait than actually fishing. There is a massive school of Garrick out there and they are HUNGRY
My first fish is 13kg
The next 15kg
Next I have a 21kg. And a great fight
Then a 19kg
Shawn is off to get more bait. We have a barbie and wait. Suddenly one of the guys shout and point. In the distance we can see massive Garrick smashing into bait fish. Big splashes and birds reeling above. Just an amazing sight.
Shawn arrives back with more mullet. He drops mine at around 80m.
The wait is on. Not for long. 10minutes later everyone’s on again, except me. Suddenly my rod tips bounces, a heavy thud! And again, and then the rod arches over alarmingly and the reel screams! I struggle to get the arching rod out of the holder, turn up the drag, and it takes off. This is something else. The power!
It just keeps going and more than a hundred metres of line peels off the big Penn. It swims to the right and I follow, gaining a little and losing more. Thresher? I think. Quite a few threshers have been caught here, on this exact spot.
The fight drags on and on. Slowly I get it closer. There is a pulse like a heartbeat on the line. It swims parallel to the beach, using it’s body to drag against me and stay in the current. Then is comes up and I see two fins, too far apart to be a Garrick.
Shark I think, and my heart sinks. It would’ve been a pig of a Garrick!
It sets off for another run and I get it slowly back. Closer and closer. Chris goes down to get a look. GARRICK! He yells. BUS GARRICK!
45 minutes of fight I have it on the beach. I am gobsmacked at the size of it. The thing is HUGE!!
Quickly we weigh it and it goes to 26kg. What an incredible fish. Very big, even for this place’s standards.
After release it‘s smiles and high-fives all round. A few more massive fish are landed, several over 20kg.
The total for the day is 37 garrick. Just unbelievable fishing.
yeh they couldn’t find any over several dives they did while we were there.. they all just disappeared! 