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.