I know myself well enough now to accept that I find it really difficult to adjust back into the working year after the holiday break in December (and the fishing that goes with it), and I’ve made it a habit to try and gap a quick trip in early into the work year to help me through that "difficult time" (thats my excuse and Im sticking with it ok). My wife and I have come to an understanding on this annual thing, we disguise it as a little weekend away from work and kids and we both know that once we get there we see each other only at meal times (sometimes) and that’s about it…. But its ok, it works… for both of us. And so 2018 was no different, after having work interfere with our original February plan, I managed to get a quick weekend penciled in for end February. We had holidayed at our usual home away from home in December – Zona Braza Beach Lodge in the Chidenguelle area in Mozambique and I got a whipping on a big GT so had a monkey on my back around a little revenge trip…..
The plan was to drive through to Mozambique early on a Thursday and spend a long weekend there driving back on Monday – quick little break at Zona Braza, something we try to do every chance we can get. A day before we were meant to leave, Fatima decided she couldn’t come with – too many other things going on with kids and so on so after a few frantic calls to mates to see if anyone was keen (with no luck given the short notice) I made the call to get in the car and go alone. There was talk of postponing and finding a better time and the very unhappy Mrs Cage in my ear around how terrible an idea it was to head out that far on my own….. none of which made any difference to me at the time as the weather, wind and tides were all looking pretty and I was not going to risk a bad weather window by postponing…. So I got in the car and hit it!
I arrived on Thursday afternoon after a fairly uneventful 12 hour drive (I didn’t realise I could sing aloud for that long, I was pretty impressed with myself, or contemplate the meaning of life for that long either…. 12 hours of alone time in the car was pretty intense actually, I loved it) and decided I’d have time for a quick throw, and then my phone rang – it was work related and I made the mistake of answering that call…. 5 hours later I put the phone down at which point it was dark and my first afternoon session was over…. So much for escaping work! I had 3 fishing days left (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and figured I’d spend one day South of base, one day North of base and the third would be spent wherever was better the last 2 days.
So on Friday morning I headed South, the tide was still falling and while passing one of the areas where the reef breaks with plenty working water I caught (just from the corner of my eye) some mullet fleeing for their lives. This is always exciting so quickly scrambled through the water with a wade/swim to get to the reef and started throwing a big plug. About 3 casts in and 20m from the end of my retrieve I had a GT in the 25-30kg class come somersaulting after my plug…. Once… miss…. Twice…. Miss…. Three times and…. Missed!!!! Was my retrieve too fast? Did I get over excited? I was shaking as the fish had breached twice to get to the plug and I immediately got the lure back out there but it was gone…. And after swapping out to a few different lures with no further interest I decided to leave the area when the pushing tide chased me off. This was an epic chase to witness though!
The next day I decided to go back to the exact same area instead of heading North. I made the walk South, and waded and swam through to the reef, I had a short window before the tide started pushing so scrambled across to the working water to start casting. I decided to upsize my plug so I could fish it a little slower and opted for a very big 7oz plug (the mullet I saw the day before were in the 1kg class so I figured a big plug would be better). I stepped out onto the edge, switched my GoPro on and made a cast………….
Halfway through the retrieve, a big black head appeared in a bow wave behind the plug and I slowed the retrieve just a tad, she exploded on the plug and missed and I tapped off the retrieve again and my rod tip dipped hard… ONNNNN!!!! I set the hook hard a few times as my drag started to slip and once I felt like the hooks were set I got the rod into my hip and the fight was on.
The fish’s initial run was crazy powerful and even though I was fishing heavy drag I couldn’t turn her away from the reef and she proceeded to get behind the piece of reef I was standing on. I had decided to fish a shorter rod for more power so didn’t have the length to keep my line clear of the reef and started dancing from rock to rock to try and clear the reef. I could see I wasn’t going to make it so flipped the bail open at that point to take pressure of the braid and hoped that the fish would turn and prayed she’d stay pinned.
She didn’t turn but I managed to get some height on the fish and when I tightened up again she was thankfully still on. I was now standing as close to the reef edge as I could, the tide had started pushing and I was getting increasingly nervous having waves hit me that I was all alone out there and if something went wrong it would be game over!! The fish made a number of powerful runs in a bid to head back into the reef and I managed to put the brakes on at each attempt and after a very intense 5-6 minutes could feel that I was slowly beginning to pump the fish closer to the surface. Now what I thought…. I had no idea how I was going to land this fish on my own but kept pumping as the terrain just seemed impossible to find a spot I could get her safely in from. I eventually got her close to the surface and just beyond the final ledge. She was thrashing about on the surface and I was a good 5 meters from the edge so was worried I'd cut cut off. I took a few steps forward, got smashed by a nice wave, stood up and kept pumping....a sheer stroke of luck and a large wave lifted the fish as I pulled and washed the massive GT over the ledge and right in my direction. I managed to catch a hold of the leader as it was going past me and a number of choice 4 letter words were unconsciously spewing from my mouth (I noticed all of this when looking at the footage after – not my proudest moment).
The hard part was over and now I needed to jump through all the reef and get back to my stuff which was now some way away, I couldn’t grab the tail with one hand (i have small hands perhaps!) so after a struggle managed to cradle the fish in my arms (good old GT hug), stuck my rod in my mouth and hopped and jumped back to my bag. I was breathing so heavily I couldn’t hear anything else besides that and my thumping heart…. My hands were shaking so much I battled to get the tape out to measure the fish….
Eventually, I managed to measure her, 124cm fork length of fat angry GT! I unhooked the fish, jammed the GoPro on a pole and stuck it between the rocks for some pictures and jumped into the water with the fish…. She was kicking within a minute or two and swam off strongly…. It was a weird moment standing in the water, alone, after experiencing something like that. I felt like I needed to high five someone, I felt like I needed to share that joy right there and then but looked around me and there wasn’t a soul….just the sound of the waves and the breeze..... The waves were getting rather high so I decided to get my gear and head back to base, my day was made, my trip was made, and I even had managed to get the whole thing on camera!
Always grateful to the Almighty for keeping me safe and blessing me with yet another experience that will never leave me.
Tackle check – Yamaga Blanks rod custom built by Brandon Mcqueen, Shimano Stella 10000, YGK PE6 braid and 150lb leader, the lure used was a 210g Orion Flapper rigged with 5/o BKK GT Rex treble.
Cage out :gt: