Author Topic: St Lazarus Banks - Dads and Lads (Read 19836 times)

CRANKMAN · « **on:** December 18, 2018, 04:06:22 PM »

A quick report from our Dads and Lads trip to St Lazarus Banks, December 2018.

Myself and my 2 brothers each teamed with a son for friendly, drinking, bonding, fishing family outing - this was meant to be a yearly thing, but as often happens, life slips by and we forget to do this type of thing.

This was our second gathering since 2011 - and it made up for the 6 missed!

Everything worked out perfectly - the weather, the fishing, the boat and crew - and to my relief, not a single injury despite having 5 novice fisherman on board.

Scoring was simple with 10 points a day for the biggest or best fish and 5 points a day for the most interesting or challenging - fish caught trolling did not count.

We landed a good variety of fish between us, Gts, Doggies, Yellowfin, Black Jack, Blue Fin were among the 25 species caught. A combination of novice anglers and some massive deep water hits on the jigs meant we lost a lot of big fish. My tackle was spread thin between 6 of us (no one else had any tackle) so we found ourselves under gunned all too often. That combined with the fact that if we added any steel to the jig rigs the dogs just weren't interested.

I got couple of reasonable GTs, and Yellowfin on popper and finally got my dogtooth on a jig in about 100 metres. Much of my time was spent sorting out the families needs - but that is what I was there for!

Small Halco poppers were the most successful top water lures, 100 to 150 gram dark or black jigs with no wire, rings or swivels produced in the deep. Plastics failed, but weren't fished much. Small spoons on the flick sticks produced some nice Gts and Tuna as well as a variety of other smaller stuff.

The final fish of the trip needed a full family effort to get in. My brother Mike hooked a nice (maybe 25/30 kg) tuna on a jig in about 150 metres of water, he was using a rod set for my younger brother who fishes left handed, so in his excitement he flipped the reel over and promptly unwound the handle an dropped it in to the ocean. At this point our sons started hand lining the fish and winding the spool by hand, until they managed to unscrew the clutch and the whole spool detached from the reel. A wooden spoon from the galley was brought in as a temporary reel while we joined the jigging line to my popping rod - and finally after much laughter and abuse we landed and safely released the tuna.

Team Gauteng Pretenders - my elder brother Mike and his son Nick - were the final winners, with young brother Kev and his son Rob coming in second - myself and my son Andy were gracious losers (and score keepers

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CRANKMAN · « **Reply #1 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:08:34 PM »

Some pics

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #2 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:09:10 PM »

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #3 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:09:46 PM »

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #4 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:10:16 PM »

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #5 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:10:42 PM »

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #6 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:11:08 PM »

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #7 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:11:41 PM »

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #8 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:12:53 PM »

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #9 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:13:26 PM »

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #10 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:13:51 PM »

FishStyx · « **Reply #11 on:** December 18, 2018, 04:27:37 PM »

Lovely stuff mate... Some memories for them for the rest of time. I know how much fishing you gave up to take care of them... You'll get your reward in heaven mate, but in case you don't make it, have some

for a fantastic effort.

colin · « **Reply #12 on:** December 18, 2018, 05:47:30 PM »

great read

HooknCook · « **Reply #13 on:** December 18, 2018, 09:22:57 PM »

Awesome trip!!! Well done guys...

hrogers · « **Reply #14 on:** December 18, 2018, 10:13:43 PM »

Thanks for the report - Great catches !!

REEFMAN · « **Reply #15 on:** December 19, 2018, 08:13:07 AM »

Well done Sean! I see lots of sacrifice there...

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #16 on:** December 19, 2018, 09:49:07 AM »

Anyone know where I can order a replacement handle for a Fin Nor Lethal 100?

ianf · « **Reply #17 on:** December 19, 2018, 10:20:43 AM »

It's not only where you fish, or what you catch, but who you get to spend the time with. Great read and great photographs!

Visenvryheid · « **Reply #18 on:** December 19, 2018, 10:22:58 AM »

What happened to the handle? Epic trip man, very jealous! :) edit..

oh yeah it ended up in the drink! How did the reel perform other than the left-handed handlining incident?

You can try the local agents or rather try get hold of Zebco international's customer service..I've had much more luck with them for fin nor parts. They did not even charge me and gave me freebies and much apology and it arrived express courier within the week..this after waiting on local agents for 6 months for a part and giving up! Actually after all that I don't even think in the end, the local agents never came through LOL..

CRANKMAN · « **Reply #19 on:** December 19, 2018, 10:33:36 AM »

Quote from: Visenvryheid on December 19, 2018, 10:22:58 AM

What happened to the handle? Epic trip man, very jealous! :) edit.. oh yeah it ended up in the drink! How did the reel perform other than the left-handed handlining incident?

You can try the local agents or rather try get hold of Zebco international's customer service..I've had much more luck with them for fin nor parts. They did not even charge me and gave me freebies and much apology and it arrived express courier within the week..this after waiting on local agents for 6 months for a part and giving up! Actually after all that I don't even think in the end, the local agents never came through LOL..

Thanks for this info, I will contact them in the new year. The reel has performed great on a few trips, it is a beast, pretty heavy and not as smooth as a Stella, but a proper tractor when reeled in the right direction