Diamond skate caught and released at The Block in Port Shepstone

The Block in Port Shepstone was wild this morning with a powerful and very fast moving SE swell hammering through. But the high tide meant that the the anglers fishing from The Block had their baits in the juicy water just behind the powerful breakers.

Next thing one of the trio’s rod bent double as a powerful sea creature headed for Umtentweni with his bait and hooks firmly inside his mouth. The angler held on tight with his reasonably heavy looking tackle and proceeded to do battle. Which lasted a good 20 exciting minutes – until the stalemate that The Block can present, came to be.

The wall that used be the harbour entrance has long since toppled leaving a formiddable barrier encased in sharpness that your line has to avoid at all costs. But the fish had found his spot, just behind the last standing, huge concrete brick. And there it stayed, any efforts to pull him back to the shallows where it was safer to land and release a fish. But no ways was this guy gonna move so when it surfaced identifying itself as a flat fish, pulling hard with a wave was his only chance.

A chance the guy took and the skate flipped over into the wild water gulleys between The Block and the old wall. Waves wash in here with dangerous force and the terrain is sharp and unrelenting. Old building material and rubble.

Which proved to be the skates undoing as a proper set pulled through and washed the flat fish right up into the bricks where his unusual form factor had him wedged in and in reach.

A great fight.

The fish measured 95cm and was caught by Franz Brand, somehow fishing for Toyota!?