THERE’S A FIRST FOR EVERYTHING by Johandre Deacon (15)
I
WAS nine years old when I first went deep sea fishing. We were at Shelly Beach on the KZN South Coast and planned to fish the great Protea Banks. That day was most probably the worst day of fishing that I know of. We were on a 9.6m cat, a charter known as Big Mama, but I have to be honest — I was very scared and with the swell going up to 3m it was not fun at first. We were trolling and when a reel started screaming I took it and started to battle my fish. I was worried that a shark would get my fish, so I pulled that 5kg fish with all that’s in me and still lost it. It’s funny to think that such a terrible day turned into my entire life — it’s all that my dad and I want to do, and our favourite fishing spot is Shelly Beach’s Protea Bank. The sharks make it so much harder, but also much more fun, and if the fish don’t want to bite then the sharks keep us busy. My first fish was a yellowfin tuna and it was awesome for me. Our first boat was a 16ft Kosi Cat CC and on our first trip on our own boat we took her up to Richards Bay. We caught a lot of fish and it was a lot of fun. My dad and I dreamed of catching a
marlin or sailfish, but we had no luck until 8 May 2015... It was the Mpumalanga Club competition at Sodwana Bay, KZN and it was the first time I’d been fishing at Sodwana. I was on edge and I just could not wait to get onto the sea. Unfortunately my dad could not join me because he had to work, but our boat still went down with Uncle Dawie Saaiman as skipper, and his wife, Louise, and I as crew. On the first two days we targeted sailfish, but we only got six tuna and lost a dorado of about 18kg. We couldn’t fish for the next two days because of the strong wind and swell, so we used the time to prepare for some serious gamefishing when we could get to sea again. On the last day we launched our 5.1m Seacat and off we went. The sea was rough and the boat was all over the place, but when we got past the backline we put the lines in the water and had soon hooked a sailfish which Louise brought to the boat — what a beautiful fish to catch. We trolled for the rest of the day and the next time the reel screamed it was my turn and we’d hooked my 9.5kg dorado. It was an incredible experience and I will definitely do it again. I just want to say thanks to the crew of Good Grief for a fantastic day. Since then I’ve caught two more great fish at Shelly Beach — a 5.6kg amberjack and a 10kg black musselcracker.