From Kingies to a Croc

 Ashton, and I, and Anton Engelbrecht in fact have been trying to con Mick into fishing with us for at least four or five years now. As we always say, the guy spends way too much time fixing jet skis and not nearly enough time actually fishing.

Eventually, we resorted to a bit of an underhanded tactic: both Ashton and I said we’d bring our skis down and drop them off — but Mick would have to come fetch them off the beach... and fish. That sealed it. He launched with us. Finally.

The launch itself was chaos. I launched with barely any power, and with my son on the back, that was pretty hairy. And as anyone who’s fished Umkomaas knows, it’s unpredictable at the best of times.

But once we were out, it turned into one of those golden afternoons. There’s something about fishing in the late afternoon — the light, the air, the feeling — it’s probably my favourite time to be on the water. Anton agrees.

We launched around quarter past two, and by half past four we were back, just as the light started to fade. Mick took us to all his magic marks — the ones he always talks about — and we started having a lot of fun.

We started hooking into a lot of kingies. We got five, I think Anton got five. All on plastic while trawling. Proper little fighters. Mick had a few good takes too — two skipjacks early on, but lost them both at the boat. Then, right before we called it, he hooked a double on snook... and lost those as well. Still, we were laughing and buzzing — those kinds of afternoons don’t come around often.

Then, right near one of Mick’s marks at around 20 metres, one of the rods went. Not a blistering take — just a solid pull. We figured it was another decent kingie. It was my turn on rotation (sorry Ashton), so I took the rod.

It didn’t fight much at first. I even started thinking it was a shark, and I was half tempted to just pressure the line to break it. I was on light tackle — rigged for snoek — with a crystal minnow, one of those sardine-pattern Yozuris that Mick likes. Light leader, no wire. I think it was maybe 30-pound at most.

And then we saw it — that unmistakable silver flash in the water. Man, there’s nothing like that sight. Every time he got close to the ski, he’d dive again — must’ve done it three or four times. He saved all his fight for right at the end.

I knew I couldn’t over-pull — I was already worrying about the line fraying, or him turning and biting me off. But eventually, Ashton nailed the gaff first time. Solid shot. Which was impressive because its not easy for him he hasn’t done a lot of that. Got him first time but could barely lift him being nearly 30 kilos. And we got this slab on board and took us about twenty minutes to recover and try find a way to fit it in because sideways he was too fat! So we had to try manoeuvre him and his teeth were going, and didn’t have anything to terminate him…It was chaos!! Eventually we got him in the tubby and the rest is history. A lot of fun, wonderful experience and so lekker to fish with Mick . I’ve fished with him in clinics before, but this was our first real session together, the three of us.

Turned out to be my biggest Couta to date. On light gear, no wire, and pure stoke. One of those days I won’t forget. Weighed in at 26.2kg on Micks scale.