WALLY’S WHACKERS

Wally has a passion for water... His day job is to install and repair pools but, because he is self-employed, he can take time off whenever the weather allows him to spend time on saltwater. He may be a grandfather, but he can still paddle his kayak with the best of them. One morning, way back in 2003, when Wally was still a rock and surf fisherman, he was astonished to see two crazy guys paddling their fishing kayaks through the Richards Bay harbour entrance heading towards the open ocean. Wally thought that anyone braving the wind, storms, currents, sharks and unpredictability of the open ocean in a paddle- powered craft, the shape of and not much larger than a toothpick, must have a few screws loose. A couple of months later, a few of Wally’s screws also came loose. A friend, Eugene Stevens, introduced him to kayak fishing and convinced him that it is actually not as dangerous as what he originally thought it to be. Wally decided to try it out and was soon hooked. He purchased a kayak and joined the no longer existing Richards Bay Fishing Ski Club. Soon he came to doubt Eugene’s sanity. On his third surf launch, he almost drowned when he timed the waves wrong. Not long after that, fishing at Cape Vidal, Eugene nearly became shark bait. Eugene wanted to check his bait and started to reel it in when he noticed a large tiger shark following it. He reeled in as fast as he could to get the bait out of the tiger’s reach, but the tiger was faster. When Eugene lifted the bait out of the water, the tiger hit his kayak with such force that it spun the kayak a full 360 degrees. White as the hull of a newly moulded kayak and in shock and awe, Eugene yelled “Did you see that tiger?” Seeing the shocked expression on Eugene’s face, Wally burst out in hysterical laughter. Eugene was not amused. Wally caught this 24,8kg behemoth during the 2018 King of the Sea fishing competition between ski boats, jet skis and fishing kayaks. He fished at Umtentweni. The fish was big enough to earn him 6th place overall. In spite of his initial scares, Wally persisted, and his persistence soon paid off. On the weekend he nearly drowned, he caught his first sailfish, a whacker of 28kg. He had no experience handling big fish off a kayak but fortunately the experienced Marius Kotze was close by to guide and assist him. Marius helped him to lift the fish onto his kayak and tie it down before they paddled back to the beach. Going through the surf, a wave dumped him on a sand bank and he had a mighty struggle to get the kayak and fish to the shore. Since then Wally has caught a number of sailfish, all of which have been released unharmed. Shortly after catching his first sailfish, he hooked into his first big King Mackerel, also at Cape Vidal. When he saw the size of it, his first reaction was to call for help. Fortunately, friend and experienced kayaker and surfer, Fred le Roux was close by. Wally marvelled at the large silver body circling below but had no idea how he was going to lift the toothed behemoth out of the water, over his legs and into the hatch. Fred came to the rescue and after a protracted struggle, the fish was in his hatch with no injury to man. Wally caught and released his fourth sailfish at Cape Vidal. Although challenging due to the strong current and surf launch, Cape Vidal is his favourite fishing spot. Less productive but with bigger fish, Wally also fishes at Zinkwazi, Scottsburg, Tinley Manor and Ballito. According to Wally, catching large King Mackerel is all in the technique and attention to fine detail. The fish take the bait with such tremendous speed that you cannot afford to fish with equipment that is not working properly. He tests his knots by fixing his line to a fixed object and pulling as hard as he can. If the knots hold, it is good to go. Before putting bait out, whether it is Mackerel, Bonito or Walla-Walla, he makes sure that the bait is swimming straight by testing it in the water next to his kayak. When the water is clear, he minimizes his terminal tackle, keep things as natural as possible and fishes for King Mackerel with Couta traces without dusters or skirts. He will first try and get his bait to swim straight by pinning the fins down. If it still spins, he will hook a quarter to half ounce teardrop sinker onto the lead hook and add a pink or luminous green bead to the trace. When the water is greenish, he uses bigger baits for the shine of it. His favourite bigger bait is Walla-Walla. He keeps his hooks as small as possible, no bigger than size 4, 6 extra strong trebles. He checks his baits every 15 minutes or so to make sure everything is still in order. Experience has taught him that the biggest crocodile King Mackerel prefers greenish water with low visibility. He fishes with one bait close to the surface and one bait downrigged with a barrel sinker on the line, 10m above the bait. Wally has noticed that most big King Mackerel tend to take the bait after he has stopped paddling and the bait is sinking to the bottom. This has taught him to paddle slowly and stop regularly allowing his bait to sink. By slowly pulling on the paddles, the bait lifts up again and that is usually when it is smashed. His technique is paddle – pause – paddle – pause – paddle – real scream! When fishing with live bait, he uses a different technique. If there is current, he will drift with the current until he finds the fish and then he focuses on that area. Experience has taught him that crocodile-sized King Mackerel often come on the bite late in the day in the areas where live bait is abundant. He therefore concentrates on the live bait spots and waits it out patiently. More often than not, he would return to the beach with a monster King Mackerel in his hatch. The adrenalin rushes he gets when launching in big surf, the cameraderie amongst the kayak fishing fraternity, making new kayak fishing friends, testing himself against the elements and the alarming speed at which a big fish takes off, is what excites him about kayak fishing. Wally has recently turned 58 and hopes to still be kayak fishing when he is 70. I have no doubt we will see many more of Wally’s whackers.