Category: SouthCoast

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You never know until you see the colour…by Dave Sproston

You never know until you see the colour…by Dave Sproston

Memoirs: by Dave Sproston

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Dave Sproston with a couple of delicious geelbek caught back in the days when…

 

Way back in 1990, I ran a small charter fishing operation from Shelly Beach, Kwazulu Natal. I skippered my own boat, a 17ft. Ace Craft with twin Yamaha 85’s, but maybe I will cover the specs of this amazing craft later on.Anyway, on this particular day I had two guys who had chartered the boat for the morning, we normally launched at first light and we’re back by lunchtime, and set off for the Protea Banks, a fifteen minute ride, to look for some YFT ( Yellowfin Tuna).

Continue reading You never know until you see the colour…by Dave Sproston

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Mnyemeni Rock Salmon

Mnyemeni Rock Salmon

Ryan Saunders of Port Shepstone with a lekker Rock salmon, caught in the Mnymeni River in the Eastern Cape (or Transkei Wild Coast). Mnyemeni is actually quite near the Casino. The fish was taken on a live mullet in the middle of the day.

This fish was caught a while back but as we move into March, the Rock Salmon are big on our minds…

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Mnyemeni Rock Salmon by Ryan Saunders

 

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45kg couta off Hibberdene

45kg couta off Hibberdene

Roger Davidson may have entered the elite 100 pounder club, with this massive ‘couta (king mackeral) taken on a live bonito, off Hibberdene this weekend. Unfortunately Roger gutted the fish before he weighed it, so we will never know!

The photo does not do the fish of this size any justice at all. Although it does look like Roger could stick his entire head into that fish's mouth!
The photo does not do the fish of this size any justice. Although it does look like Roger could stick his entire head into that fish’s mouth!

Either way, it’s a magnificent catch – the catch of a lifetime for sure! Maybe it bodes well for another bumper big ‘couta run – like last years.

There are very few shoal ‘couta coming out anywhere, it seems the ‘couta population on our coastline is starting to age and we only have the big ones left?! Luckily the worldwide couta population is spread far and wide and in certain well maintained fisheries like Australia, the stocks are still healthy and should be able to bolster the stocks that are being so hammered, on our side of the Indian Ocean.

Roger fishes from a jet ski. The fish was 1.9 metres long. Must have been quite an interesting ride home!

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South Coast Amberjack

South Coast Amberjack

The hard hitting south coast Amberjack hang out in the deep water along our continental shelf. Ferocious fighters and voracious eaters they will devour an entire live bonito no problem. And then it’s really on! Relatives of the formidable yellowtail they fight hard and dirty, often taking you into the reef. And when you finally work him to the top, he goes straight back down to the bottom again!

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A nice South Coast Amberjack caught by Brian Lange this last weekend.

They are big fish these amberjack – the biggest recorded unofficially went over 100kg’s! The offficial world record stands at 70kg’s. We get them up to around the 50kg mark but we can only imagine and speculate about the ones that have gotten away. Even a 20kg Ambo will stretch your arms a while!

The three species so closely resembling eachother – Seriola Lalandi (Cape Yellowtail), the Amberjack (Seriola dumerili) and the Tropical Yellowtail (Seriola rivoliana), have caused confusion for aeons. In fact, the world record for Cape Yellowtail was actually an Amberjack and was re-recognised as such, a few decades later.

It was caught by Ray Bannister-Jones off Hibberdene, and weighed 58.5kg’s!

More yellowtail and amberjack stories on thesardine.co.za here…

 

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Mercury in yellowfin tuna

Mercury in yellowfin tuna

The environmentally friendly crew at The Watchers – follow the link below to get acquainted with them – are doing a great job of keeping tabs on what is going on all over our ailing planet.

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2015/02/05/mercury-concentrations-in-hawaiian-yellowfin-tuna-increasing/

This story however is of particular relevance to us…we catch and eat heaps of south African yellowfin tuna, which also are likely to be affected.

Here is more on mercury in tuna from One Earth…

http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/tuna-mercury-levels-rising

…and a particularly good graphic depiction of the problem…

From One Earth .Org…

However, it’s not just yellowfin tuna and it’s cousins. ALL our fish are being subjected to mercury pollution this way. All studies on the subject show increased levels of mercury in our fish – redfish, pelagics…all of them!

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