Nikao Fishing Adventures took 2 clients out to Durban Harbour to target some King Fish (Jacks) and Springer (10 Pounder, Lady Fish) on Drop Shot on Saturday afternoon and early evening on light tackle.
We launched at 12h00 and fished till 19h00, it was a bright warm sunny day with clear skies and a stiff breeze, in the late afternoon the wind died down and we had a superb evening. The water surface temperature was 21 deg C.
We started out on the low tide and threw some drop shot at the sand banks retrieving into the deeper water and were rewarded with 3 Sand Gurnards (Flat Heads) and 2 Needle Scaled Queen Fish (Salad Fish). Tried as we did we were not able to find any King Fish (Jacks), but I did get 2 good hits on a topwater lure, but no hook ups.
The tide was due to turn at around 16h00 and I started moving around looking for the tell tale swirls of Springer (10 Pounder, Lady Fish) and at around 17h00 I found them in water 10m deep.
We were rigged up on light tackle using 6'6" Medium Light Rods on 2000 size Spinning Reels rigged with 10lb braid.
I moved towards them quietly on the sneaker and then let the wind drift us towards them and we began to cast. It was not very long when we started getting chases and eventually one of my clients got the 1st fish on, the reel began to scream, but when the fish jumped the braid parted and I can only think it was due to a tight wind knot. I tied on a new leader and we were back in business. I then hooked up into one and again he was lost on the jump, he had thrown the hook.
We repositioned the boat again and the one client hooked up into a reel screamer and around 15 minutes and about 6 or 7 runs later landed a superb specimen of just under 4.68Kg's (10 1/4lbs). I tied a new leader for him and repositioned the boat again and then the other client went tight and was hooked into a really nice fish which gave us some super acrobatic displays, a lot of deep runs a 3 times around the boat, after 15 minutes or so he managed to land a splendid Springer of around 4.56Kg's (10lbs). Again I retied the leader and repositioned the boat and the Springer decided it was my turn again and after several runs and acrobatics and 20minutes later I managed to land a much larger fish than the 1st two of an undisclosed weight.
All the fish we caught were released safely back to the water after a recovery period.
Please see the Springer Video on U Tube of that night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXUeEL56UGM
