We were invited to spend the weekend with Lu H and Lize A at Ntafuf. Unfortunately a severe fire warning for the weekend was issued on Wednesday, so Scotty couldn’t join us. I left at 4.30am on Thursday so that I would travel through Flagstaff and Lusikisiki before the morning traffic became a problem. It was pretty nerve wracking driving on my own, but all went well and I arrived at Ntafuf just on 8am.
After settling in and a breakfast fry-up, I rigged my rods (Loomis 7ft paired with a Crossfire 3000 and 0.300 mono and my little 4ft with the Fox 500 and 9lb braid) and went to fish off the jetty while the other ladies pottered around the cottage getting ready to go down river.
We spent the rest of the day on the river but apart from small/juvenile stumpies and thorn fish, there was nothing very exciting around to take our offerings. We got back just after dusk and spent a short while fishing off the jetty. As there was little wind, the no-C-ems began to make their presence felt and we called it a day to make supper.
The next morning I was up early and back at the jetty. Lize finally crawled out of bed at about 9am and after some pottering around with motors and boats, they were finally ready to go. We ambled up the river, stopping at good looking spots and having a few throws. I got a small cob at Cob Hole and we moved to another spot closer to the mouth that Lu favours for perch. She landed 2 sand sharks here and I nailed the thorn fish. I gave up counting after 20
. We got tired of these pesky little blighters and moved closer to the island where the currents converge. It was almost dead low and there was a nice hole on the sea side of us. I baited the Loomis with a no 2 circle and a flapped small mullet, cast into the hole, loosened my drag and stuck it in a rod holder.
I was battling to bait the small circles (the size of my pinky nail) and Lu suggested cottoning the bait into a small ball, then I could hook the circle through the cotton. Making the bait balls with sardine or crayfish is slippery, tedious work and they scoot all over the place as you try and cotton it into a ball, but it worked like a charm. I baited up the 4 ft and I swear those pesky critters followed the boat as I was back to catching thorn fish again. We were chilling nicely, sipping our cold ones and chatting when my Loomis went ballistic. Pandemonium broke out on the boat. I grabbed the rod, tightened the drag and realised I had a decent fish. Lu was convinced it was a sandy, but I could feel the headshakes. After a short and relatively quiet fight, I guided a nice perch into the landing net. There were high fives all around and then a debate on keeping or releasing while Lu took some photos and we measured the fish (43cm). I looked at this beauty, my PB, and just could not bear the thought of killing it. It was such a good feeling to see it swim away.
It went dead after this so we packed up and slowly made our way back to the cottage. We met up with Lize’s son and his mate JJ, who had landed a 40cm kingfish. The motor on their boat wouldn’t start, so we towed them back.
I carried on fishing off the jetty and cast out the 4ft with a crayfish bait ball. Lize decided to try and catch a nap and Lu joined me. I was just reaching for my beer when I got smashed by the juvenile GT. I have already told this story in my reel report, so I won’t go into detail. I was using 0.230mm fluorocarbon for the hook snoot so I had to really box carefully amongst the moored boats and other lines. I have been fishing with circles for 3 years now and after this trip, I am even more convinced of their effectiveness. It was a bit of a battle getting the tiny hook out of the kingy’s mouth, but I hooked over 90% of the takes irrespective of size of fish with only 3 thorn fish swallowing the hooks. In these cases a sharp tug and the hook came out cleanly.
Lu’s partner arrived later that evening and the following morning the girls went shopping in Port St Johns while Prof and I took the boat back down river. It was blustery and cold, not at all pleasant conditions
. We stopped at Cob Hole, but never had a take. We moved back to the mouth and anchored in the same spot where I had caught the perch. Again the rats and mice were out to play but I managed a 21cm spotted grunter on the 4ft. I put the Loomis out with a mullet fillet and caught a smaller perch.
The wind picked up and we decided to call it a day at around 4pm. When we got back to the cottage, the girls were fishing off the jetty, so I joined them but as soon as it got dark, it became very cold and unpleasant, so we gave up.
I left the next morning just after first light as I was travelling alone again and wanted to miss the traffic. It was promising to be a beautiful day, with few clouds and no wind. When I got back to Underberg, it was drizzly and a very chilly 2 degrees! All in all, a great weekend with 2 PB’s and my first GT
.
