Tag: brian lange

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Geelbek Salmon at night

Geelbek Salmon at night: with umzimkulu.co.za

A great evening out on the Niteshift, with John van Reenen and Elvis Olimpio as crew…

“Winter time is Geelbek time, and although the ‘Bek do feed during the day time, night time, is the right time.

So when conditions do play along, and the surf is small…and the tides are right, and the Umzimkulu Mouth acts like a harbour…and it lets us out for a 3 or 4 hour window.
The night previous had produced nothing but an Englishman, and we had a lot of trouble with the anchor at Boboyi…there must be so many anchor ropes and chains down there, after all these years!
But the current did turn out to be be very slack…so this last night we used the conditions to buzz around all the spots we could, sounding around…and dropping baits, to see where these Geelbek have been hiding.
There was heaps of bioluminescence in the water, and fishing on the seaward side of the boat, John Fever and I both clearly saw a white mushroom cloud burst up silently into the total blackness, some distance in front of us?! All sorts of thoughts. And then the sound…it was a whale exhaling, the cloud of air illuminated with bioluminescence. The things you see at sea at night?!
But no fish at this stage. Nothing. So after scouring the Port Shepstone reefs, the Old Man, on a hunch, took us 4 miles south through whale infested water…to one of his very first Geelbek stomping grounds.
The new Garmin CHIRP system on the Niteshift, is so powerful, it picks out our baits! So when we we got our first showing of red, the anchor went straight down.
And spot on. Dad goes away immediately. We found them!
I got one next, but on my next down something huge took my middle bait, and after a huge tug-of-war, my trace broke on the snootie?!
Then Elvis starting making weird noises as the biggest Geelbek of the night tried to pull him overboard.
By this time my Dad had his quote of two, so he helped Fever catch two more. I had more trouble, this time with a shark, and that’s how I ended up. Then just before our safe window of conditions were up, Elvis’ rod doubled over…but he made short work of the fish this time…which turned out to be half a fish. Tax.
Then the huge shape appeared around the anchor rope…milky white in the ultra clean and flourescent, phosperous water. It might have been a great white for it’s size, and it leered up at us circling underneath…breaking the water with it’s tail a few times, in some sort of defiant  gesture.
The whales had also been barking at us some more, we were surrounded on a few occasions, so we pulled anchor and hightailed it into the outgoing tide at the Umzimkulu River.
Total fish – 7.5!
A hard days night!”

For more information on the Umzimkulu Marina…click here.

Or check out their current promotion…

Check out the catch and cook series on thesardine.co.za for how to best savour the flavours of Geelbek Salmon…

And a gallery of photos…

Fish braai!
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To catch a tuna – with Brian Moulang

To catch a tuna – with Brian Moulang

Brian Moulang, up from Port Elizabeth, booked a charter with us on the Niteshift, for some Yellow fin Tuna action. It was a long hard day, but eventually a tuna showed itself after the entire day and many, many miles. Starting on the backline catching livebait, we saw Lawrence Wursnip and John Collinson show off two over 30kg tuna, taken just as we got there…and so the struggle ensued. It even took a trip out to Protea Reef, where we found the usual, big sharks, and big current!

So back to the backline. Luckily the bottomfish reefs kept us entertained while we waited for that elusive tuna strike…when that live maasbanker went away it sounded like U2 cranking up!

Enjoy the video…

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Musselcracker on light tackle: Video

Musselcracker on light tackle: Video

Photo 1: Robin Beatty, Jarda Kolar, Renske Massing, Brian Lange, Michael Moye and Candice Kolarova with 15kg Musselcracker caught with Niteshift Charters, Umzimkulu Marina, Port Shepstone (c) Xona

The 3:30am call time was difficult to process into action, but we did, and our morning crew featuring Jarda Kolova (CZ), Robin Beatty (Aus) and Renske Massing (Ned) found themselves heading slowly down river in the pitch dark. Clouds meant that first light was slow in coming, and after checking the launch through the gloom, we went for it.

Brian Lange steered us out of the mouth and parallel to the sandspit, at full tilt. 55 Seconds and a bunch of foamies later, and we were on the backline, rigging baits. The ‘couta still make it down to the Kwazulu Natal South Coast, and Feb is normally a good month for them, so we went straight for mackeral rigged on MYDO baitswimmers, MYDO stripswimmers with fillets, a daisy chain and a surface bait rigged with a float. Looking very good we headed north into the current. Jarda, the keenest fisherman in Czeckeslovakia, was flicking a rig of yo-zuri type jigs, and came up with a shoal of tiny red-eye sardines, which we promptly put out live.

There have been very few dorado this year, and only a few ‘couta have been coming out (sign of the times?), and after being beaten backwards by the strong current, we turned around and headed for the reefs just south of Sheppy, and dropped anchor. Light line fishing for soldiers and rockod in the current, is challenging and heaps of fun. Jarda started off with a few and soon we wee all catching delicious red soldiers. At 26 metres or so, these reefs often produce gamefish so we had three trap sticks flopping around out the back, when a nice little Hammerhead Shark came to investigate. We pulled the daisy chain rigged with redeyes away quickly enough, but he made short work of the fresh sardine on the outrigged rod and before long, Jarda was having a good old sweat.

Then Renske felt something on her 6kg line light tackle rig, an Okuma 555s and a beautiful Daiwa estuary type rod. She pulled and pulled, and the fish pulled and pulled. Brian mentioned Musselcracker due to the way it was fighting, and with about a 2kg drag, it looked to be a long and anxious haul. Remember, we had Jarda on the Hammer still, so crossed lines and burnoffs were on the cards. Eventually, after a good 15 minute fight, Renske popped up this beautiful Musselcracker (Poenskop, Black Steenbras). It was her first and it was quite deep, so we put it in the hatch as we released the Hammer, and packed up heading for home before 8am!

Watch the video of the action here…

Click below to book a trip on the Niteshift…

https://thesardine.co.za/classifieds/show-ad/?id=27

 

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Tiger Shark catch off Umtentweni

Cptn Brian Lange takes us through the Umzimkulu River Mouth launch and fishing for the morning. Using MYDO lures and livebaits, we only managed a nice Tiger Shark that Mike Stubbs filmed up close and personal with his GoPro camera, which was then nicely tail swiped by the angry shark. A clean release and back home through the river mouth in stereoscopic video – not quite 3D but you definitely get the picture.

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Violence on Protea Reef!

The first drift yielded not a touch on our awesome spread of live baits. Until we reached the southern pinnacle on Protea Reef, off Shelley Beach. Funnily enough the first beating was taken on a plug with the drag set to 8kg’s the yellowfin swam around the boat as if it was still hunting. Only when it went right around us and behind the motors did it take off. Mike Stubbs and I wrestled the rod between the other sticks with the huge Finnor spinning reel smoking and screaming blue murder. The hooks pulled out on that blistering run and all of a sudden the bait sticks started screaming.

We were three sticks away dancing around the boat each with his own set of problems. Luckily mine came off and I was able to help gaff and boat the fish my Dad (Brian Lange) and Stubbs were fighting.
The moon was silver bright and we never needed a light as the sun disappeared in a sky of red and the fish went wild. Free jumping and swimming tuna all around the boat but the bigger ones were just being so violent as rod after rod screamed.
I was beaten up by a monster eventually handing the rod to Stubbs who in turn gave ot to my Dad until the line parted.
We hooked and battled many big tuna and luckily a few small ones which were easier to boat.
Protea Reef is an incredible place but very difficult to fish with a 3 to 4 knot current prevailing, huge sharks and jagged reef – not to mention the outsized fish. Even though the yellowfin seldom get over 35kg’s here, they fight double as hard in the shallower waters and tackling up is the only solution.