Meritorious catches and how they were made…
The entries make for a searchable database of catches that can help you become a better angler…
SKZN angler Mike Stubbs popped these cool shots in the mail a while back… Thanks Mike!
This very nicely framed and taken photograph of young Ty, features a lovely little Garrick, taken before school, on a needle nose plug.
The South Coast rules!
He was fishing with an 11ft Assassin Spin,a 4000 Ecoda, 30lb JDB and a 50lb Casting leader.
Nice before work guys!
Certain spots produce above average fish of a given species.
That tiny piece of reef down south of Port Edward consistently produces the biggest couta.
Bazaruto is definitely the favoured hangout of big momma blue and black marlin.
Dubai is mobster sailfish central.
And Shad Lane down in Umtentweni on the KZN South Coast is the spot for giant shad.
Young Keegan Logie submitted this shot of another outsized shad taken at this spot. The stretch of surf between Shad Lane, encompassing The Sandspit has long been known for its sugar pocket shad…ie that just fit into a 50kg sugar bag, as sugar was distributed in, in the old days.
Keegan is still researching the name of the skilful angler, and will revert as soon as he finds out more.
Click here for another huge Shad Lane shad. This one was shot just south, at Chakas Rock, at the start of the Sandspit.
To dispel a myth, there is no such thing as a blue shad, which were thought to be a bigger species of shad. Even this monster is green as.
Kob is a mainline buzzword here in Jeffrey’s Bay. Everyone wants one. And I can relate to the regiments of retirees enjoying the bountiful waters this place has been blessed with. On any afternoon, down at Kabeljauws, there are anglers standing proud, fishing all sorts of rigs and baits, waiting for a delicious kob for dinner…
It was a Sunday version of one of these days, the sun was out, light onshore, bathers, surfers…and us…
We pulled up to an empty Kabeljauws carpark mid afternoon. But soon vehicles, some out of mad max and adorned with rods and reels of huge proportions, rolled in and surrounded us. Massive coffee grinders everywhere.
Brucifire had conjured up some squid baits for us from somewhere, which hardly compared to what offerings some of these guys were sneaking out. Cracker Shrimps. Octopus. Red bait…
Our first casts found a shoal of smallies just before the surf zone and soon we were hauling in blacktail and small silver bream things. Our 10ft rod soon had a silver bream out the back and Charl proceeded to haul out smallies, puffers included, and chuck them back, while I settled in. By now, we had camps either side of us. The couple to our south had a trolley-like magody that expanded out into a professional fully fledged bait station with rod holders and all!
There was a young romance going on to our right as a young guy was teaching his girl to surf just behind the mid-break in the deeper channel. And to our left were a huddle of bathers, basically 10 metres up the beach from us. There was the mid break we were fishing over, a deep channel and white water fading in from the outside sets.
Ideal for…you know what…
Bang I felt something and as looked at where my bait might be just before the breakers, a wave lifted and through the wave I saw it. Shark! As it lined up and hit my bait again! The bathers were 10 metres away! I forced fed him a bit and struck, and there I was, standing on the beach, into a decent sized shark, right down from where I been surfing all day!
By decent I mean over a metre and as soon as I had him close, I just pulled and luckily the shark let go and I got my hook back and all. The smallies had gone quiet now so without a live bait, I grabbed my beautiful new spinning stick with 20lb braid and let fly with a karanteen type rig to try snag another livie. The squid bait was proving to be the flavour of the day and all of a sudden I got a heavy bite and was vas. But this fish gave some resistance. It dogged around the waves while it worked out that it was hooked, and then just screamed off out to sea and up the point towards the surfing couple. I stopped it after a few minutes, being loaded with new braid, but soon had my doubts and the pressure increased to more than what my little hooks could take. The fish would stop and let me turn it’s head a bit, fee what I was doing, and just say no. Adamantly NO. And he would peel off 10 or even 20 more metres, until sadly, my audience was disappointed when the tip went slack and the hook came back straight as an arrow.
Wow, we were having fun!
Then the smallies came back so we got a few blacktail, in case we couldn’t find a kob somewhere, for dinner. We had promised Noma and Kurt of JBay SurfView fish for dinner!. Obviously I got one live bait out back as soon as I could, a slightly smaller fish, and no sh$%^t, three minutes later I was into another really large fish.
My little 10ft Assassin and 30SH were buckling under the strain as this much bigger shark gave me the gears. But I have no time for sharks really and Charl point blank refused to go and get the fish out for photos, so when it was close I just pulled and once again, got my hook and trace back (amazing leader material that old style Maxima green).
We had fished out everybody around us and with our little pile of blacktail headed back to Chelsea and Bruce waiting patiently for fish dinner, in the carpark. Bruce didn’t scoff at the small fish, but there were a few chirps.
So we headed back to town to shop, Charl and I left Bruce and Chelsea car guarding, and went in. When we came out, there was a crowd around the car as Bruce was showing off our Mydo Luck Shots to a local angler he knows – to startling results. I told the guy, Morne, a well know hot shot angler in these parts, that he could have a few lures. His face lit up and he opened the back of his bakkie and presented us with a freshly caught kob he had nailed on paddle tail at a secret spot of his, just before!
We got home to a standing ovation, cooked the fresh and delicious fish as follows:
Firstly, we had to remove the head and tail to fit in the baking dish, after it was cleaned and scaled.
Then we made a concoction up of all sorts available in the kitchen that afternoon. Grated garlic. Lemon juice. Finely chopped onions and green peppers. A little soya sauce. Some sweet chill sauce.
Incisions across the breadth of the fish were then filled with this concoction, both sides until it was dripping and then wrapped in a single layer of foil and the rest of the juice poure all over it.
Into the oven at a nice 200 or so, and leave it be!
30 minutes in and we turn the fish (bigger fish, longer cooking time), and give it another 20 or so.
Serve!
The meat falls off the bone in chunks formed by the deep cuts across the fish.
PS the next day, this same fish, mixed with finely chopped onions and mayonnaise had us biting our fingers off!
Enjoy the video…Pooven Naicker wowed the crowds with this punchy hammerhead shark at The Block, this morning…
The fish was taken on a live mullet and screamed off on it’s first run, steam train style. The outsized wintery waves proved to be a true challenge as some were breaking right over Pooven – as he had to stand and just take it on the head, whilst he negotiated a truce with the grumpy shark. A crowd had gathered by now and support was being shouted in from all sides – world cup fever spilling over…
When Pooven put the fish on the rocks, the crowd errupted with applause and Pooven’s smile got even bigger.
Pooven was not targeting sharks, no, rather he was after the Garrick which are running nicely. This time of the year is when the garrick go absolutely wild for a few days, having spent their energies on spawning – they need to replenish for their long swim back to The Cape.
The Umzimkulu Marina and Shonalanga Fishing Adventures have teamed up to offer the following mid week, or weekend fishing packages:
Umzimkulu Estuary Fishing (pp)
https://thesardine.co.za/product/umzimkulu-ambush-5-days/
Or contact us and we will put something together especially to match your requirements.
There was one beach buggy in the carpark before me at The Block in Port Shepstone, this morning. The guy went down to the rocky pool at the base of the point, and threw his cast net. One decent mullet. He moves on up to The Block and launches his 8Oz grapnel with the wind right over the backline. He slides his mullet down and waits patiently. Not for long. The rod starts bouncing in it’s holder and Rudi Smit sets the hook with a few pumps. Vas!
He fights the fish expertly and after 10 minutes has the fish right up the rocks at The Block. Very dangerous situation with all those sharp edges. His fishing buddy has rocked up and climbs down to get the fish…and almost loses when he pulls on the leader and it comes loose!!!
And it all panned out in the end…
