THE Zululand Yacht Club hosted its first-ever garrick fishing competition over the weekend, hoping that the big one would be landed after plenty of razor belly action over the past few weeks.
Morgan Smit and his organising team would have been disappointed at the failure of the garrick to make an appearance … until minutes before the cut-off on Sunday when Wally Ley hooked into a big one as the sun was setting.
Veteran angler Fred le Roux has a theory that fish come on the bite at 6.20pm in winter and 5.20pm in summer and in this case he was spot-on.
Fishing from his paddle ski, it took Wally about 20 minutes to land his garrick, which measured exactly one metre and weighed an estimated 12kg.
‘The waters bordering the Yacht Club premises are notable for the many big fish that are caught here,’ said Smit.
‘In September last year, Marius Honeyball landed his SA record 9.74kg grunter between the yachts and there have been many other huge fish landed here, including rockcod, shad, grunter, garrick and salmon.
‘One must be a member or a signed-in guest to fish from these premises but it is well worth joining, with wonderful facilities for all the family.
‘As our first annual garrick compo this was a great success and we can only grow from here.’
Wally Ley won the floating trophy donated by Morgan Smit plus a reel from main sponsor SignForce, while Fred le Roux as runner-up with a 40cm cuda won a garrick wall hanger sponsored by Darryl Hutton.
Third in the catch and release competition was Wayne Brest with a 35cm rockcod, while Billy and Candice Watson, who spent the entire weekend supporting club activities, got the ‘Most Spirit’ award.
