Sunday. Time for a second beating

Sunday morning I decided to have a second go at the big sharks.
But like with fishing no day is the same. We had perfect weather but the pick up's were slow.
I had a good pick up later in the afternoon but it was to big to stop and it took all the line off my reel. I'm not even sure that shark knew he was hooked.

I'm planning a trip there on Wednesday again (with stronger and longer line) and are hoping that I will be able to get a big ragged tooth shark out for a nice photo.

All Sharks we catch are released and handle with as much care as possible

And all guys going for big fish, Please don't use stainless steel hooks!!! Rather use something that will rust away fast.

Getting beaten up by Great White sharks

The weekend before last was not good for fishing at all.
We had gale force winds and rain for the whole weekend.
We were brave enough on Saturday morning to brave the elements but just waisted our time. The wind nearly blew us off the rocks at Glentana and we were not even able to catch a live bait to slide.
The rest of the week we spend planning and dreaming

During last week I heard the guys are hooking into nice sharks and stingray's at Mosselbay. I decided to try my luck there this past weekend.

I arrived there on a very misty Saturday morning and heard that Freddie hooked and landed a 121kg 197cm great white shark already(new southern cape record)While I greeted the guys two off them got picked up by great whites.

Now in a hurry to get ready I quickly caught some Strepies to slide in for the sharks.
Not too long after I saw movement at my rod tip and suddenly the fight started. I was into a young great white but it bit of my leader line on the edge just before we could land it.

New bait in and about a hour later my reel started making that very familiar smile on your face noise. Shark on again. This time it was a much bigger shark and a few times it had us holding our breath as it nearly ran all the line off my reel. It took me running and falling all over the rocks trying to keep up to it and winning back some line. After a 3 hour fight it did not seem to tire at all. I wish I could say the same for me.

And then the worst happened. It pulled my line over a rock full off black mussels and it got cut off. What a disappointment.

In the time I had that one on Riaan landed another one of 196cm. And a few guys got picked up but got either broken lines, trace failures or bitten off. The bigger sharks seem to like biting through the 440lb carbon coated stainless steel wire. Maybe that is a good thing cause I reckon there is no way in hell to stop that train when it realized its hooked.

During Saturday we counted 23 hook ups of which only 2 got landed. We all headed home with broken tackle, stiff bodies and very broken ego's.

Me, the wrong side of the law and pollution

On Monday evening Robert and I decided to go fish of the rocks at Victoria Bay for some shad for the pan while I slide out a bait for my raggie.

Arriving there I met up with another one of my fishing friends, Ian. He was busy spinning with a spoon and the shad was taking it eagerly.

There was lots of bait fish and shad in the water so I thought I might get lucky with a big shark...I WAS WRONG. I slid out a whole shad but nothing picked it up. I have a idea that the other shad ate it off piece by piece with their razor sharp teeth.

At least we had great fun with the shad on light tackle. The thing that I found disturbing is all the left over nylon and plastic bags on the rocks left behind by the previous anglers. And the smell of the rotten bait. Come on guys. Plastic is very light. Carry it back home with you or at least to the closes dustbin.

And nylon line just being left on the rocks. That's plain stupid. And dangerous.

"While some marine debris breaks down fairly quickly, plastic debris can take the longest to break down:
paper towel 2-4 weeks
Styrofoam cup 50 years
Plastic bottle 450 years
Mono filament fishing net 600 years"

Go have a look here and realise what you are doing to nature.http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/env/2004/mr10mar04.html

At 9 when we decided to go home we got stopped by a marine inspector. They were very friendly and polite and wanted to check our fishing permits and fish(for size and bag limits) Lucky me received a R300.00 fine for not having my permit on me. For some stupid reason I did not put it back into my fishing bag.

So learn from my mistake. Take your permit with you on your trips and if you still don't have one GO BUY ONE. It's only R65.oo for a full year(available at any post office) Instead of a R300.00 fine you can pay your permit for 4 years and still have change for hooks and bait. And don't be rude to the inspectors. They are only doing their jobs. If they don't protect the ocean resources we won't have anything left to catch. And I won't start to play golf now.

Anyway, we are planning a trip to beautiful Glentana for Friday. I'll keep you posted on that and take some nice photo's

The BIG plan

I'm really hooked on fishing. I do all types of fishing but lately i started looking for a new challenge. So i decided to pick a shark species and a weight and see if i can manage that.

My first personal challenge is to catch and release 150Kg+ spotted ragged tooth shark(hopefully without any injury to myself or the shark)

ClassificationOrder: Lamniformes (mackerel sharks)

Class: Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays)

Family: Odontaspididae idae - suffix meaning that this a family name. All animal family names end in -idae.

Genus: Odontaspis - odonto, odon - tooth (Greek) or Carcharias - carcharo - sharp pointed, jagged (Greek). Refers to the teeth.

Species: taurus - bull (Latin). Presumably refers to the stocky body.
Taxonomy

The Ragged Tooth Shark (Sand Tiger or Grey Nurse Shark)was originally named Carcharias taurus by Rafinesque in 1810. Since then it has also been referred to literature as Odontaspis taurus, Eugomphodus taurus, Odontaspis americanus, Squalus americanus, Carcharias griseus, Odontaspis arenarius, Carcharias arenarius, Odontaspis platensis, and Carcharius platensis.
Common NamesEnglish language common names include Ragged Tooth Shark (Sand Tiger or Grey Nurse Shark) shark, grey nurse shark, ground shark, spotted raggedtooth shark, slender-tooth shark, spotted Ragged Tooth Shark (Sand Tiger or Grey Nurse Shark) shark and ground shark. Other common names are bacota (Spanish), pintado (Spanish), sarda (Spanish), cação-da-areia (Portuguese), mangona (Portuguese), tavrocarcharias (Greek), chien de mer (French), kalb, (Arabic), grauer sandhai (German), hietahai (Finnish), karish khol pari (Hebrew), oxhaj (Swedish), zandtijgerhaai (Dutch), peshkaqen i eger (Albanian), shirowani (Japanese) and spikkel-skeurtandhaai (Afrikaans).

Distinctive Features

The most distinctive feature of the Ragged Tooth Shark is it's teeth - ferocious looking and always visible the ragged tooth Sharks grin can hardly be mistaken for any other shark.
The Ragged tooth Shark is a large, bulky shark with a flattened conical snout and a long mouth that extends behind the eyes. The first dorsal fin is set back and is much closer to the pelvic fins than the pectoral fins. The anal and dorsal fins are large and broad-based and the second dorsal fin is almost the same size as the first dorsal. Gill slits are anterior to the origin of the pectoral fins in this species. The caudal fin of the Ragged tooth Shark is asymmetrically shaped with a strongly pronounced upper lobe.
The Ragged tooth Shark grows to a length of 3.6m. Males mature at 2.1m and females at 2.2m. Average size ranges from four to nine feet with maximum length believed to be around 10.5 feet (320 cm) in females and 9.9 feet (301 cm) in males. Male maturity is reached at 6.3 feet (190-195 cm) at four to five years of age. Female maturity is reached at six years or over 7.2 feet (220 cm) in total length.

So sit back and enjoy the ride with me.

During this time you will also see some wonderful spots along the South African coastline and also some weird and amazing sea creatures.

And if you are a avid fisherman like me I'm sure you will also learn a thing or two along the way.

I'll keep you up to date on all my trips, successes and losses. Expect a lot of blood, sweat and tears. All in the name of fishing.

FISHING IS A HARD JOB, BUT SOMEONE GOT TO DO IT!!!