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The fishing season has now really started in all earnest and one of the major differences this year to previous years, is the fierce heat and early south easter we have experienced to date. Due to the moon phases this week, early morning and evening fishing has mostly been at low tide and spinning and fishing from the shore did not really suit land-based fishermen at all along our coast.

The most successful anglers were as usual the top manne fishing for Elf with bait and spinners.

There is at present not really an abundance of Elf around, but the serious hard working spinnermen fishing from the reefs have caught a few nice class Elf of between 800 grammes and 1,2 kg.

It was also nice to see that there is a growing fraternity of very serious fly fishermen fishing from the beach and rocky outcrops all along our section of the coast from Melk Bay to Harmony Park.

I encountered two of these fly fishermen, who I must say really impressed me, on Strand Beach.

They told me they first started fly fishing for Elf and later Leerfish and after mastering these they have started targeting local shark species and Rays.

They showed me one or two of their successes with the capture of a Sting Ray and Duckbill Ray on the state of the art video camera that they had with them.

These guys use the cameras to record their catches before releasing their fish.

These two anglers are really well kitted out and have all the very best in rods, reels and line as well as flies and polaroid sunglasses to be able to see their prey in the gullies when the water is clear enough so that they can target the fish by casting accurately.

Top spinnermen
Another pair of top Elf spinnermen that frequent our reefs, have mentioned that close observation of the contents of the stomachs of the larger Elf that they have caught, have revealed large chunks of fresh Harder that have probably been bitten off a live fish while the Elf were feeding.

Anglers spinning from the reefs and kayak fishermen have once again reported the huge amounts of bait fish which have been seen in the bay during the past few weeks.

Most of the boat fishing activity has been locals and professional fishermen that have been concentrating on the large shoals of Snoek that were in the Hout Bay area right up to Olifantsbos. Most professionals and other boatmen reported catching up to 70 Snoek per man.

There were allegations of a Cape Town based fishing vessel that apparently had 150 tons of Snoek aboard, but was later seen by other boats floating out at sea near a large concentration of Hake which they decided to rather target and then dumped their load of Snoek on account of the higher price they could fetch for the Hake.

Another upsetting story was on Sunday after a very successful Marlin competition at Struisbaai.

A Taiwanese fishing vessel was witnessed by a number of skiboats fishing on the 12 mile bank at Struisbaai.

The skiboats alerted Marine Conservation and a helicopter based at Overberg flew out and dropped officials onto the Taiwanese trawler and arrested the skipper.

The boat was commandeered to steam straight to Cape Town harbour to be impounded.

Taiwanese trawler
A number of boatmen who witnessed the Taiwanese trawler in action off 12 mile bank in Struisbaai, will monitor the court case and report on the findings.

The Marlin competition that took place from Struisbaai last week was a successful event with 22 boats participating. Three Black Marlin and nine stripped Marlin were caught and released during the event and besides these fish participants also reported many strikes during the four days of fishing.

The water at Cape Point warmed up to 17 degrees on Sunday and anglers reported that Yellowtail were present, but they were very reluctant to take the take lures and spoons.

It was also sad to hear about the tons of Yellowtail full of roe being trekked at Fish Hoek Beach. Myself and many other concerned anglers and readers just cannot see the justification of the government and sea fisheries continuing to allow this slaughter of breeding stock of Yellowtail and then still cry Save False Bay.

This is not the same fishing as trekking for Harders, which the licences were originally issued for, this is wholesale slaughter of breeding stock and all sorts of species of fish.

This weekend there is a Yellowtail festival scheduled for Struisbaai. Boatmen who fished the 12 mile bank last weekend said that there were some huge Yellowtail caught from boats in this area with one fish over 19 kg reported.

An interesting catch on the 12 mile bank was a 3 kg Galjoen which was caught with a 12 O hook and chokka.

Anglers are reminded that the new much sought after breakaway tackle box is now available at the ESA Tackle Shop in Somerset West.

This tackle box is great when having to walk long distances on beaches and features a seat combination.

New range of reels
A new range of Shimano reels has also just arrived at the Somerset West store including the Trinidad DC 20 and 30 which both have phenomenal casting abilities and are suitable for shore and boat angling.

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