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National Garrick Day

Pierre and the Garricks

National Garrick Day

It’s all about the garrick on the lower south coast of KZN, as they are being spotted and shot at, any point a spearo swims out to. They are in shoals and averaging about 8 to 10kg’s and marauding the plentiful shad and other baitfish in the backline.

Pierre and the Garricks
Pierre de Villers from the Cape pilgrims up to the south coast of KZN each year, to get shots like this and to shoot the odd Garrick. Thanks for the pic Pierre!

Carl Gous (as usual), got his two in the bag on Friday, and tussled with three more as the excellent and ruthless fighters tried bending his spear inside out.

But it hasn’t been National Garrick Day yet. This happens on a rare day in September times, when the garrick come right in close, and into the estuaries, to spawn. After this big party, the fish are ravenous and will just about eat anything. That’s National Garrick Day, and there are sometimes two of them down here at The Sandspit, spaced about a week apart.

There is no early warning system in place for National Garrick Day, and the ones who find out first try keep it under wraps until word gets out and the floodgates open completely.

The following video was shot on National Garrick Day in 2008, and features some of the more (in)famous characters that fish The Sandspit and The Block all year round.

Enjoy!

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Another great afternoon on Protea Reef…

An afternoon launch into a glassy, flat ocean put us onto the baitfish in no time. It did take a while to catch a few maasbanker (karapauw) and shad because some cheeky yellowfin had come into the shallows and were smashing them to pieces all around us. We got off to Protea at full speed on the flat sea, with about 30 live baits.

As we stopped on our favourite bump, the bigger yellowfin tuna boiled and my Dad threw the plug straight at them. Bang! And in a few minutes the 25+kg class tuna was right at the boat. The crystal clear and smooth water made for a spectacular look at the beautiful fish but it did not make sense that this huge fish would succumb so easily. And it didn’t. After checking us out, he turned his head downwards and screamed off….laughing at the 8kg drag left so tight, from our last outing. The braid could not stand any more abuse and we finally lost the massive plug that had served us so well over the last few trips.

The live baits were a bit slow, but the home made plug my Dad made kept on getting knocked time after time. Port Shepstone angler Randy Stevens got his first big strike on plug and was shaking with excitement. Robin Manirpersad had his hands full as the bait rods started to go, double strikes happening all the time.

Then we started some dead bait fishing techniques. With such desirable baits and lures, there was just no time to relax. Our success rate wasn’t very good but we all got a few fish with more than one forced release as lines were crossing and burning off…and eventually we spotted a huge Bronze Whaler shark cruising a few hundred metres away, obviously interested in all the excitement. A few of our fish were taken and with a huge buster coming at us from the south, we packed up and headed inshore for the blast.

Checking for salmon on the Boboyi reefs on the way home, as we dropped anchor, the westerley buster hit. About 20 knots on the first puff. Hometime!

Another fantastic afternoon on Protea Reef!

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