The One That Got Away "Smoked By A Steamer"
When I was fishing last week at the
RASSPL comp, April 30th 2012 to
be exact, I had an amazing experience... We were fishing at
Ship Rock,
about 2kms from Kasouga, and myself Steven and Aimee were fishing the
dropping tide. I was fishing with my edible setup and had a few small
bites but nothing to write home about, and when the tide dropped
sufficiently I waded out onto a ledge that dropped off onto a sandy
bottom quite deep. Since the bigger fish were not playing the game I
took my light stick with me... After a few drops next to the ledge, I
had not had a bite and was confused because the water looked so good...
And then out of nowhere, at my feet in about 2 meters of water, I had a
huge bite, I struck, reeled up, just in case it was a reef fish: didn't
want it to take me into it's hole, and as I got the fish to the surface
I saw, what would of been, my PB
White Steenbras... From pictures that I
have seen of the bigger fish, it was easily 4-5kgs and as I caught a
glimpse of the fish it then realised it was hooked and ran me straight
out into the surf and just as it was swimming towards the breakers the
hook pulled. I was so disappointed. All I know is that it would of been
very difficult to turn the fish in the surf with the light tackle I was
using, but what an experience it was; it almost shocked me where the
fish took the bait... A fish that size so close to a ledge. I think I
might of even under estimated the size of it because shortly after Aimee
got a 41cm "Steamer" out, and the one I hooked honestly looked 3 times
the size of that one.
After that event, we caught a few Steenbras notably smaller than the
one I had hooked into and it was lots of fun. One of the most amazing
sights I have seen happened in the vicinity of where we were fishing. A
school of Steenbras had moved into the area as the tide was still
dropping and it was unbelievable, at one stage I saw 10+ fish feeding
close to the top of the water... I felt very privileged to witness
this... It does makes you think though, what it must of been like in a
spot like that 40-50 years a go...
