Sorry if you've seen this on a other sight but thought i woild share it here.
Was at Mazeppa Bay for my annual trip the week after Easter.
After a long drive from P.E I Arrived at 2pm and after quickly unpacking and meeting up with Mandla we headed off for a quick drop shot session. Was quite quiet and didn’t get any bumps so decided to call it a day and start afresh early the next morning.
The next day started of at 5am and on the way to the island we came across Zola. I hadn’t been able to get hold of him before the trip and he said he doesn’t have anyone fishing with him for the week so asked him to join us.
So off the three of us went to the island. Baits went in quickly and we started to plug for some Garrick. Garrick were up to there usual tricks with shoals of fish lying within casting distance in the swell but refusing to chase anything thrown at them. After an hour or so we gave up and started the long wait for a pick up.
I didn’t take long before the first rod went but unfortunately the shark bit behind the head of the whole yellowtail.
It took a while for the next pickup but this time the circle found its mark and the fish was on. Fish was hooked on the left hand side of the island and made its way from left to right without taking any line. At the point on the right hand side it hit the current and went straight out and I realized this was a serious fish.
I had forgot to set my drag properly after storing my reels after the last trip so it took a while to get the right settings.
Zola looked and said the drag is to loose so we cranked it some more, and then some more... about half way thru the fight the drag is fully locked and at some stages we have three hands on the spool trying to stop the run. T
This didn’t seem to phase the beast at all and it hardly skipped a beat while carrying on with its run. After a few minutes without it slowing down and my spool being steadily stripped with me starting to think of how we going to pop the 0.8mm top shot the fish stopped and either turned and bit back on the leader or reefed me. Was quite a clean cut thru the 1.9mm leader so not sure what exactly happened.
A little video of the submarine and how some fish aren’t meant to be stopped. Sorry left the drag clicker on but at least it gives you an idea of the run.
sharknadoThe next couple of days I managed to catch three smaller sharks the one morning.
We also managed some Garrick but they were biting really sporadically suddenly coming on the bite for a few minutes and then refusing everything thrown at them a few minutes later just lying lazily in the swell.
Saw a few strange things in the couple of days. A bull mullet being caught on a plug with about a 6/0 solidly hooked up inside of its mouth.
What looked like a bronzie breaching clear out the water chasing what I presume was the Garrick in the waves.
One day standing on the little hill in the middle of the island I saw what I thought was two dolphins swimming close past the front of the island but didn’t pay them much attention.
There had been a lot of dolphins around that day and the preceding days. Then a guy throwing plug shouted shark. Looking back to where the “dolphins“ were swimming in the swell on closer inspection it was actually a giant of a shark.
It was so close a guy before noticing it actually threw his plug over it. I could only see it swimming close to the surface every time a swell passed but could see it was a real giant and was very bulky resembling either a tiger or massive Zambezi. It slowly made its way past the front of the island before disappearing in the waves.
So fast forward to the last day. The previous night I had contemplated if I should maybe leave early using the morning to clean my tackle and pack before the trip back to P.E as I was still driving back to Cape Town the following day.
The weather predicted a nice west for the morning so decided what the hell will give it a go and if I don’t get a pick up before 9:30am I will call it quits.
Got the baits out quickly, one a whole yellowtail and the other the smelliest bait I could create using all the old various baits I had left over.
While waiting Zola said he had, had a dream we were going to catch something big on our last day so was hoping his ancestors were telling us of something good was about to happen haha!
So about at 7am the premonition came true and I got a pickup. The rip was on the left hand side of the island that day and the shark swam straight out with it.
After a long run it stopped and I managed to get some line back. While standing there chatting to a guy (Dillon) I met on the rocks I jokingly said if the other rod goes you going to have to take it.
Well murphy’s law it wasn’t 5min later and looking back we could see the rod bounce once and then being pulled flat. Mandla did the 100m in an impressive time and set the hook.
Dillon took over from him and now I was worried the second shark would swim round and cause me problems but luckily it was smaller and stayed to the left and a while later Dillon landed it under the bridge.
Meanwhile I was in a a back and forth battle with my shark with it taking line and me winning it back again.
This carried on for the next hour and I was hoping it would swim right so we could land it on the beach but it stopped every time at the point so we had to settle for second best trying to land it under the bridge on the other side of the island.
After a while I got enough line back to start working the shark into the little bay but as it realized what was happening it took off on another run and took me into my braid again and we had to start all over again. The second attempt a while later resulted in the shark swimming in to close to the rocks off tinys rock and we decided to let it out again.
On the third attempt it did the same and this time we couldn’t avoid landing it on the rocks off Tinys.
Female Grey shark 258cm (245kg). There was some confusion as when it was landed the ghillies were saying its a bronzie and being so buggered I took there word for it without checking for a ridge. Later looking at the photos I had my doubts and managed to isolate a image from my gopro vid confirming its a grey shark.
Packed up straight afterwards and drove home with an aching back but smile on my face.
Added a vid of a bronzie I caught last year and will add the grey shark vid as soon as i have finished editing it.
Mazeppa Bronzie
