Really bad weather again

The past weekend we got hit by a BAD cold front. Icy wind, snow capped mountains and stormy rain kept me off the beach. At least I played some fishing games on my playstation. And I took the time to see if my 4 month old boy might be ready to catch his first big one.

I reckon it will still be a while before I can post his first catch on here.

I went down to Little Brak river for a short while on Saturday evening to try my luck but only the seagulls got lucky by stealing my bait. Two holidaymakers there managed to catch some shad/bluefish before the next bit of rain and strong winds arrived.

Tuesday the weather started clearing and what a beautiful sight.

Everything seems so clean and fresh after a storm. I decided to take a chance in Mosselbay but arriving there the ocean were very rough with 5meter+ swells. After about a hour I did get hooked into a huge stingray but lost it after it nearly ran all my line off my reel.

Now all I can do is get my fishing tackle sorted out and wait for the weekend. And dream of the big one that hopefully won't get away.

First outing-Close but no cigar

Yesterday morning (21 April) at 1 in the morning Robert and I left for a small coastal village called Little Brak River about 10 kilometres from us. We wanted to see if we might meet some shad there and i took a extra rod to use for sliding in a big bait hoping for my big raggie.





We arrived there just after 2. The water was a bit on the rough side but we decided to give it a go. Saltwater babers where biting like mad and i wasted a lot of time trying to catch something to use as bait. The mist packed up very thick and we made a small fire out of driftwood to fight the cold.



Sunrise was beautiful over the ocean and very welcome too. At this time Robert caught a decent size blacktail and i hooked it up and slid it out on a live bait trace. All types of small bankfish started biting at sunrise but nothing worth mentioning.

We caught some small reef sharks too and decided to pack up just before 8. While we packed up we heard screaming sound like a cat giving birth. Realising that something finally picked up my live bait a ran to my rod, got it in my waist buckle and gave the train at the other end of my line some time to swallow the bait. After a quick ten count a tensioned my reel's drag a bit and set the hook. FISH ON..BOAT ON....WHALE ON!!! It felt huge. Smiling like I won the lotto the fight started..But after a few minutes my line just slacked. The hooks did not set properly or a had trace failure. We could not tell cause after I lost the fish my line snagged on the reefs and I had to break off. Without our smiles we speculated what it could have been. Ragged tooth shark or young great white shark most likely. We decided to do the walk of shame and left for home without our picture of a big shark. Next time. Already making plans to build stronger traces.

At the end off the day it was great fun anyway. Relaxing and being so close to nature. Food for the soul.






You can have a look on Google earth at the spot where we fished. On the southern tip of Africa close to Mosselbay. 34'06'24.24"South
22'07'58.70"East. My next post I'll show you the steel traces we use and teach you a bit about the sliding technique for getting big bait out far.