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The Tunny season this year got off to a great start and old fundis such as Earl Fenwick and other expert predict an excellent Tunny season for 2008. When one bears in mind that Earl, who has been game fishing for many years and has a good positive attitude and understanding about the sport of angling and the good reports of game fishing off the Point plus the excessively heavy South Easter, it all augers well for a bumper Tunny season.

Earl reports that a skiboat, fishing 20 miles off Cape Point, had eight Longfin Tunny and hooked and lost a big Marlin of which the weight and species could not be judged. On Sunday two big Yellowfin Tunny were also boated by a skiboat in the same area.

The Snoek shoals have once again completely disappeared due to the heavy South Easter, but if they follow the usual pattern they will once again be massing up along the West Coast near Stompneusbaai and higher up.

This coming weekend the Western Province Inshore League takes place from Struisbaai - weather permitting - and according to Earl, who will be fishing from the boat Devinish, many of his crew as well as others in the competition will be competing using 2 kg line to try and win the competition and break a few records with this thin line which demands intense concentration, skill and a top class skipper on the boat.

Small craft
Anglers fishing from small craft that took advantage of the lull in the weather around the Strand did not have much joy due to the water being slightly cooler and clear, although a group of kayak fishermen had a good catch of Kob in Melk Bay on Saturday evening.

Shore angling from Gordon's Bay and Strand is also at a bit of an ebb at the moment and only a few sharks and a ray were caught and released with the exception of the odd smallish Elf from Melk Bay.

A few local die-hards took advantage of fishing for Elf which were all massed up along Strandfontein, Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek beaches during the weekend and most managed to catch their quotas.

These Elf and a few Kob provided good fishing for many of the local manne that came down to the beaches last weekend.

Helderberg shore anglers and spinnermen are still waiting for the Elf shoals to come to our area because to date the spinning season has not been successful and all local anglers hope and pray that the trek netting at Strandfontein and Macassar do not once again kill off tons of Elf, Belman, Kob and other species as in the past.

I have noted that the recent red tide and a few other factors have also had a lasting effect on fishing along our shores.

One of these signs is that Barbel are conspicuous by their absence and less and less are caught by boat and shore anglers - some may see this as a good thing, but these fish are always a sign of plenty of Kob in the water.

Also missing from their usual haunts just offshore at fishing spots like Nuwe Moddergat and other fishing gullies near Blinkklip, are the chokka which use the muddy beds to lay their eggs and breed.

These chokka concentrations have always been the main reason that large Kob and Geelbek come to these areas to feed.

It is well known that local small boats have always had good kills of these large Kob that concentrate around Nuwe Moddergat, Modder-gat and offshore in the deep at the mouth of the Lourens River and in Melk Bay.

Development Nationals
The annual SASAA Development Nationals were held in the Western Cape recently with six teams competing, namely Central Gauteng, Eastern Province, KwaZulu-Natal, West Coast, Western Province and Zululand.

The NSRI was on stand-by throughout the competition and regular patrols by the police ensured participants? and officials' safety.

The bait organisation was superb as per SASAA specifications with additional baits of Yellowtail heads added on days two and three to afford the anglers more chance of hooking the big fish.

Species caught included Blue Rays, Bronze Whalers, Bull Ray, Kob (Dusky), Elf, Duckbill Rays, Ragged Tooth Shark, Sandshark/Lesser guitarfish, St Joseph and Smoothhound/Spotty.

The Top Ten Anglers at the Development Nationals this year were: 1. Marius Nortje (KwaZulu Natal 132.30 kg), 2.

Ryno van der Merwe (Central Gauteng 120.00 kg), 3. Shaun Mathura (Zululand 106.80 kg), 4. Dean Naidoo (KwaZulu-Natal (98.30 kg), 5. Shaun Sanders (Western Province 71.50 kg), 6. Albert Thirling (West Coast 61.40 kg), 7. Ebrahim Davids (Western Province 56.00 kg), 8. Juan Cronje (West Coast 53.10 kg), 9. Leon Swart (Central Gauteng 49.20 kg) and 10. Andrew Hayward (Eastern Province 41.70 kg).

Final Inter Provincial Standings: 1. KwaZulu-Natal - 335.30 kg, 2. Western Province 230.20 kg, 3. Central Gauteng 202.90 kg, 4. West Coast 167.50 kg, 5. Zululand 151.80 kg, 6. Eastern Province 91.70 kg.

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