Fishing in the Western Cape Weekend of 17/18 October 2009

8.5kg Cob caught at Marine Rd.

(www.rockandsurf.co.za)

So summer is on its way and our best fishing time and weather of the year is here, not in full force yet, but here. Guys have been slagging (catching/killing) the kob the last couple of weeks already, and catching sizer bronzies already and in Northwesterly winds, something which is unheard of. But like the saying goes "anything can happen when you have a line in the water!"

6.2kg Cob caught by Andre at Maccasser

(www.rockandsurf.co.za)

So this past weekend, 17 & 18 October 2009 produced quite a couple of fish, with numerous cob and bronzies being landed along the beaches on the False Bay Coast, after Noth Westerly winds had been blowing all week, weird and strange.

I for one went along the mountains for a throw, the water was looking awesome, nice colour and temp, thought i might go for a throw before heading off to a friends wedding. Through a couple of chokka and mackerel baits, and had no takers. A kid next to me had caught a couple of baby smooth hounds, so i decided to swim one, thought maybe i could get picked up my something fairly large, but had no takers. My swim bait was in for about  1 h 30min. and then i had to leave, i was pretty bummed about that, if i could have stuck around for a bit longer i am sure i would have been picked up. Anyway i chucked that small smoothie into my bait box and is now in my freezer at home, ready to be cut up and slid out this coming weekend for a bigass bronzie!!

Bronzie at Maccasser caught by Deon

Maccasser Bronze Whaler caught by Deon

In the picture below of Nikolay and his 2m (precaudel length) bronze whaler, if you take a closer look at the sea in the background, you'll notice that it is a greeny-brown colour and the sea is quite rough. That is the type of sea conditions that you are looking for when targeting these beasts, just find yourself a nice hole with some good colour, and put a bloody bait out, and you should be vas(stuck) into a bronzie in no time at all.

Nikolay with a 2m Bronze Whaler

(www.rockandsurf.co.za)

Cow Sharks - Part 1

Ray with a 60+kg cowshark at Ganzekraal

(www.rockandsurf.co.za)

Cow sharks are one of the ugliest looking types of shark that we get in our waters. These are pap (pap = weak/no fight in them) sharks, with fights no last longer than 10/15min at most. They don't grow very big either, the biggest that i have seen is around 80/90 kgs.

They have very distinctive razor sharp teeth, and are known to pick baits up and swim in, and thus are often lost because of hooks not setting, so if you think you might have one of these at the end of your line, strike the sh*t out of the fish.

Areas where one would find these hondt (hondt = dog) ugly sharks are places like Ganzekraal, and certain other spots along the west coast, they are also found around the back of Gordons Bay mountains, and strand beach area.

Ruan with a cowshark also at Ganzekraal
(www.rockandsurf.co.za)

 These sharks prefer cold water, this is why one will find them in spots along the West Coast. Just make a good mackeral bait and chuck it in, and see what happens....

Fish Length to Weight Conversion - Part 1

Precaudal length, from the tip of the nose to the notch in the tail

In South Africa we use the method of measuring fish and then using a conversion table (, which can be found on the Ocean Research Institute's website http://www.ori.org.za/fishcalc.php) to calculate the weight of the fish according to its length, or disc width for rays. This is the only method of weight calculation in competitive angling in South Africa, therefore enforcing conservation.

This method of calculating a fishes weight is a means to help conservation of our sharks and rays and other big fish, to ensure that they'll be around in the future for our kids to catch and marvel at their beauty and size. It is a more conservation friendly method, as sharks and rays dont have to be killed and taken to a scale to find out its weight, or be weighed on beach which was/is a long painstaking process, which was/is impractical.

Me with a Diamond Ray, disc width/wing span is measured underneath the fish.

There are various ways in which to measure different fish, some fork length, some total length and others precaudal, all of this can be found out on http://www.ori.org.za/ , make sure you know which one is the correct one for your fish. You don't want to measure a fish wrong be telling everyone that you caught a 300kg shark, when in fact it was only 130kg, and end up looking like a fool.

So if you are new  or old to the sport of shark angling, and are targeting rays and sharks, even big Kob, make sure you have a tape measure at hand for when you land your fish, so it can be measured, pose for a quick couple of photos (for the none believers) and  quickly returned to the ocean to be able to fight another day.

Black Stingray (Pylie, Black Pylie, Pylstert, Swart Pylstert) - Part 1

Jacques De Plooy with a monster 261kg Black Pylie

(http://www.sealine.co.za/view_topic.php?id=25088&forum_id=1&highlight=pylie)

The Black Stingray, these are the prehistoric looking beasts of the ocean floor. If i was any fish, i'd want to be one of these guys, super strong mean machines, probably the most dangerous fish to land and handle once landed. This is because of its large stinger that it whips around once out of the water, one klap (klap = hit) with that thing and you're in the hospital,  or 6 feet under, or the hospital and then 6 feet under, ask Steve Irwin.

When you hook into one of these big boys, you'll know, then you better hope and pray that your tackle is in good shape and ready for a serious battle because you are in for a long hard slow fight. These black stingrays are more often than none, the winners of the battle leaving you with a broken ego and maybe even broken tackle just to make you feel that much worse.

Fights with these fish can last anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours +, so you better be ready for a fight and bring your camping gear with cause you are gonna be there for a while. When targeting these fish only the best and the strongest tackle, nothing short of that will do, otherwise you are just wasting your time, the fishes and the possible crowd you'd draw while fighting these beasts.

Areas where guys usually get stuffed up by these beasts are along the Gordons Bay mountain area, and around Strandfontein & Maccasser beaches.

Renier with a 210kg Black Pylie

(http://capetownfishing.co.za/index.php?topic=1438.0)

Spotted Gully Sharks (Spotties) and Smoothhounds (White Spotties) - Part 1

The Marine with a Smoothhound (its not a dog though) AKA White Spottie at the Reefs

Spotted gully sharks or spotties and Smoothhound sharks, are hard fighting little machines, they dont grow as large as bronzies and raggies, and other sharks, but what they lack in size they make up in strength.

These machines have been known to pull guys off rocks while trying to land them, with their famous rolls that they do when landing them.

Me with my first Smoothhound, caught at Mnandi along the False Bay Coast.

They are found as their name implies, in gullys, and also around reefs. A spot where these little machines are targetted is the Strand Reefs, as seen above in the first picture, that one was caught by that mal (mal = mad a South African term) oke Dean the Marine. Another good spot to target these spotties is at Mnandi where i have caught a few of these guys, seen above and below. We will go into more detail on how to catch these machines at later stage, so stay tuned.

Ragged Tooth Sharks (Raggies) - Part 1

Dinos Raggie

Ragged Tooth Sharks are another species of shark caught by shore anglers, and are also targeted by competitive anglers. These sharks don't fight as hard as bronzies, the fight is much slower, as these are heavy lazy sharks, they are basically the fat lazy sh*ts in the shark family. They just wanna chow a bait and lay around, so you the angler basically just have to pull this oke out the water, sometimes i dont even think these okes know that they are actually hooked and just go along with the flow.

Thys Kemp jnr. with his raggie

Catches of these sharks over 200kgs are more common than that of bronze whalers over 200kgs as they are a lot easier to land, bronzies over 200kgs aren't easily landed and are more elusive.

Fighting these sharks doesn't usually last more than an hour even for the larger raggies, as they are lazy as previously stated. However these sharks do have the nasty habit of turning around on you while trying to put them back in the ocean, or while a buddy is trying to get it out for you. This isn't uncommon, unlike a bronzie which cannot turn all the way around, these fat sh*ts can, so be very weary when handling these guys. Below is what happened to a kid from Pletternberg Bay in the Southern Cape, when he was handling a raggie by the tail.

When good times go bad
(http://www.sealine.co.za/view_topic.php?id=27084&forum_id=1&page=1)

We will go into more detail about these fish, how to target them and where to find them.

Bronze Whaler Sharks (Bronzies) - Part 1

Me with my first bronzie, 69kg

The Bronze Whaler/Copper shark is a species of shark that is targeted along the Falsebay coast by many anglers, but mainly buy competitive league anglers. These sharks put up a massive fight, lasting anywhere from 15min to 2 hours +, and are very difficult to land.

These sharks are caught from the shore purely for sport, and aren't kept, but returned to the ocean to live to fight another day.

In competition points are awarded per kilo, thus bronzies (bronze whalers), are the main focus of most competition anglers on the day, as catches of 100kgs + are a regular occurrence.

These sharks can grow to over 300kgs, the current record for a bronze whaler caught from the shore is held by Greg Kellermann of Two Oceans AC, with a bronzie of 2.50m which is 227kgs.

Greg Kellermann with his record breaker 227kg Bronzie

This record was close to being beaten recently by angler of Tygerberg Rock and Surf AC, Dion Van Zyl with his 2.49m bronzie of 224kgs caught on the 3 October 2009.

These make no mistake, these fish put man and his tackle under tremendous pressure, and is very testing, with the shark winning the battle more times than none.

Dion Van Zyl with his 224kg bronzie (www.probait.co.za)

At a later stage i'll go into more detail on how to target these beautiful machines of nature.

Dean The Marine Part 1

Dean The Marine, a mate of mine is currently a member of the Western Province A side. We fish for the same club, Two Oceans AC, and is one of the best anglers on the WPSAA scene at the moment. He is known for his craziness (also known as jussness a South African term), and for jumping off harbour walls (he's juss) into the sea to chase fish.

Other than that, this guy knows his eish (a dirivitive of sh*t), and knows where the fish are and how to land them.

We'll be giving you updates on his fishing endeavors in the future. He will be giving tips in the future, ranging from bait presentation to what to tackle is best and so on for any/new fisherman. So watch closely.

Shark Fishing in Cape Town Part 1

Shark angling from the shore has grown in leaps and bounds over the last couple of years with the invention of the non-return clip. This is the method whereby an angler will cast solely a heavy grapnel sinker into the ocean, and then use a slide trace made from heavy steel trace wire and a non return clip to slide their baits, possibly a yellowtail head, into the ocean. This method enables an angler to put baits much further out than previous methods, as now one does not have to worry about casting a heavy sinker and a heavy bait, but just the sinker.

This method can enable the shore angler to put their baits out as far as 300-400 meters, which was previously unheard of, as one would have to cast a sinker and bait. This method as enabled anglers to target bigger shark and ray varieties, which could not be so easily targeted in previous years.

The non-return clip is a South African invention, and we South African fisherman are the only fisherman in the world that fish for sharks in this manner. Other countries such as Australia and the USA use kayaks to take their heavy baits, something which we'll go into a bit more at a later stage.

What is Rock and Surf Fishing?!?

Surf fishing is the sport of catching fish standing on the shoreline or wading in the surf. A general term, surf fishing may or may not include casting a lure or bait, and refers to all types of shore fishing - from sandy and rocky beaches, rock jetties, or even fishing piers. The terms surfcasting or beachcasting refer more specifically to surf fishing from the beach by casting into the surf at or near the shoreline. With few exceptions, surf fishing is done in saltwater.