Getting withdrawl symptoms

Full blown winter now. The fishing is not good now. I"M BORED!!!
All I can do now is explain it bit more about the tactics and fishing tackle I use.

For edibles like cob,spotted grunter, white steenbra’s and shad a nylon line with a diameter of around 0.40mm will be sufficient. That’s for fishing from the beach on sandy areas. Of course for shad you will want to add a small piece of steel cable/piano wire just above the hook to stop them from biting off your hook with their razor like teeth.

Going for galjoen, white musselcracker or blacktail around rocky areas you will have to use a thicker line that is also more abrasion resistant. Musselcracker is a very strong and dirty fighter so a strong reel will be a good idea.

For most sharks around here it will be best to use a line of 0.55mm. And a reel with a big line capacity. I use a custom build 14ft 400/3 graphite fishing rod with a Daiwa Saltist reel. On the reel I have 300m braided line as backing with about 400m of 0.55mm on top off that. That’s in most cases enough to stop and turn a beast from the shore.

To get a big bait (1-5kg) out deep I use a non return sliding clip. I attach a 1mm leader of about 8meters to my main line by means of a bemini twist knot and then a cat’s paw or figure 8 knot. Then you tie on a stop ring with power swivel and a short sinker/lead trace. For sliding you must use a big grapnel sinker to make sure you your sinker stays firmly stuck while you slide your bait out.

Next step is to cast out the sinker alone as deep as possible. On rocky areas is normally easier but from the beach/sand you will have to wade/swim out to cast out behind the drop-off.

When you are sure your sinker is not going to move you can clip on your slide with two hooks and at least a 150pound breaking strain stainless steel cable. Now you just pull your line tight and rock your rod forwards and backwards. That causes your slide to slide out into the water. Doing that for at least 5 minutes and your slide will be at or very near to the stop ring and sinker.

Now use patience till your line goes tight and the fight begins. Remember your fighting buckle otherwise your back won’t be lasting to long.

Happy fishing till next time

Fishing the winter blues

The last two weeks I did not really have time for fishing. Winter is starting to come through at full force and between all the cold fronts I also have a baby busy teething. Generally the fishing here dies down till around September month when the water slowly starts to get a bit warmer.

I did fish the Sealine 2Oceans challange on Saturday. What a disappointment for me to drive 350 kilometers to Betty's Bay near Cape town only to catch one baber. BUT thats fishing for you...Unpredictable!!!

On the way back I stopped at Breede River mouth, Witsand to slide for a raggie of the rocks there. More babers and I caught a few small "penhaaie" That's a small shark with strong barbs on its fin. Nasty little fish.

The next few days I'll spend my time fly fishing for garricks in the river here and playing some fishing games.

Have a look at my fish album at http://www.xtremefishingphotos.blogspot.com and the spots where we fish around here at http://xtremefishingreports.blogspot.com

Hound sharks at Santos beach

Yesterday morning I woke up to a perfect day. After getting my little one set up I packed my fishing tackle and headed for the beach. I decided to try the waters of Santos beach cause we had a huge swell on the ocean and Santos is sheltered against the swells. Arriving there everything looked very promising for a good day' s fishing.

After catching some baitfish and fighting seagulls from stealing my bait again I slid out a whole fish. About 20 minutes later I noticed some movement on my rod tip and saw I going down all of a sudden. I landed a small hound shark and released it to the amusement of the swimmers/holidaymakers in the water. While sliding out my second bait I had to convince them that a hound shark is harmless(especially that size).

Another half a hour or so later my bait got picked up and rod got pulled down. Again a hound shark, just a little bigger this time, still not the size of shark I'm after. But fishing is fishing and I'll be happy with any kind of fish. To me it's all about the sport.

After releasing this shark half of the swimmers decided not too swim anymore and the other half decided that I am public enemy number 1 so I called it a day and went home to spend some time with my baby boy.

Earlier this evening I went down to Little Brak river to see if i might get lucky there. The water and the sunset looked perfect. But there is a very strong undercurrent around our beaches now so I tried to catch a shad or two but only managed to land a blacktail and some nasty sea barbels. Now while I'm sitting here I hear the wind starting to blow very hard outside so maybe thats the reason the fishing was off tonight.