Well my annual winter pilgrimage down to my beloved St Lucia came and went so fast that i am wondering whether 8 days is enough in that place.To all who are planning ( from Jhb) to go down to St Lucia,take note.Rather go via Durban.It will be much much quicker and the roads are better.
Left Jhb on friday 2 July at around 6ish as I need to check in only at 2pm.So I figured if i left at 6 i would be in St Lucia by 1pm with stopping.So I thought.I arrived in St Lucia at 4.30pm
.Reason you might wonder is that the roadworks are a nightmare.That stop go stop go is from just before Ermelo and gets worse.The wait could be upt to an hour in certain places.But thank God we arrived safely at out destination.Now the excitement to wet a line and my boys cannot wait to unpack and kick to the beach.so I took them down to a place I call shad hole,for obvious reasons,to see what is happening.The shad were comming out but all in the 25-35cm mark.I was the gillie till it got a bit dark and then retired to get ready for the next morning fishing.My 2 boys got around 40 shad which were all released much to the astonishment for some of the other guys fishing around us.
Next morning and we were greeted with the most glorius of days.light NE just enough to dry your sweat and clear blue skies.Just to let you guys in on a little secret......
I have NEVER used the slide method before.Caught all my garricks before on free swimming them.So this way of fishing is going to be the first for me.
I take out my shad bomber spoon and bang first throw I am on with a shad (33cm).In all the excitement of me now using it to slide this livie.Eish I forgot to fill the bucket to keep the livie in.So I dash down to put some water in the bucket and then put the shad inside.Eish now hooking the live shad and actually sliding it.It took me a lifetime to rig up the live shad and put the slide trace on the line and then sent it down the line.Yippee,the slide went perfectly and disappeared into the deep blue.This was about 6.15am.Now the excitement of getting picked up starts to creep in.In the meantime I was having some lekker fun with my 2 sons as to who can catch the most shad in 30 minutes.Between the three of us we nailed 47 shad of which all were released.The boys really enjoyed that little comp which cost me as well.I came and stood next to my rod while the boys messed around and then the music to all when the ratchet went.Eish i jsut looked at it and was wondering if I was dreaming or real.Next to me a guy was on with a garrick.So I picked up and let it run.It ran then stopped and then took off again and I hit him.....ON DAD
:woo5: .Fight lasted a few minutes before I lost the fish.The best part was I saw this beauty in the waves and breaking the surface.A big fat oke.Got another shad a nd slid it out.Slowly becomming a pro in the sliding thingie.Not even 20 minutes and I got picked up again.This time I see this honeycomb ray in the waves and motoring.I struck and on.......goood fight but it also did not last too long as I lost this one as well.Packed it up for the day and went home thinking about the good fight and lost fish.
The next morning I was back and out for revenge.I got a shad and slid him out and got picked up.This time I knew that i had him tight and after a good 20 minute battle,I landed a beauty of 7.8kg :woo5: .the rest of the week yielded lots of shad and a few more pick ups and lost fish.I must be doing something wrong as I had so many pick ups but only landed one fish.But hey i am not complaining.To me catching a fish is a bonus.Jsut being at the water's edge and seeing the sunrise is enough.All of a sudden I am now a master of sliding and it has been a long time since I am starting to now really enjoy my fishing.Special thanks to my fishing guru Wayne who has given me all the advice I needed :fnx:
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All in all it was great week's of fishing my my sons too and i enjoyed being the gillie as always..I took them to RB and fishing in the harbour and they caught lost of small little buggers which kept them busy form needle fins to pinkies to huge tobies/boxfish to small shad to small grunters,stumpies,slimies,kingies,moff grunters.
The one day we went up to Vidal and did some fishing in the bay.shad were thick but also very small.
Off the fishing and nature wise......THE HI-LITE OF MY HOLIDAY UNDOUBTEDLY WAS SEEING A LEOPARD WALKING ON THE ROAD ON MY WAY BACK FORM VIDAL.Man it was an extremely rare sighting and could not believe how close it was to us.It stood there and just looked at us before going around us and back on the road.What an awesome site.Oh and the day we were going to Vidal,a Rhino was waling in the middle of the road and refused to let any car pass him.Did I k*K myself and reversed for about 300m before he decided to move off the road .The one day after fishing in St Lucia,we come to the car park.So I decided to go and rinse my feet at one of the few taps.Now this is already pitch black so I had my headlight on.So I rinse my feet and my son was with me.I hear this noise in the bush and thought maybe a buck or something.After we finished I get bak to the bakkie which is close to the tap,I hear this noise behind me.I turned around and low and behold 2 monster hippos taking a walk past us to go and graze in the nearby bushes.I stood there in shock at the size of these things.
This is what keeps bringing me back to St Lucia.Now I cannot wait for the next trip.
Cheers
Garrick
