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We have recently had a complete change in the weather pattern and it now appears that the so called prime fishing time has finally arrived - a month late. All of a sudden the schools of larger Elf have arrived in the bay after three days of southeasterly wind and a change in the current which has brought warmer water into the bay.

During last week many anglers and beach goers must have seen all the blue bottles and cuttlefish as well as an excessive amount of kelp on our beaches.

It has always been believed that when kelp and blue bottles are washed up onto the beach it is due to a slight change in the temperature (warmer water) of the sea causing the blue bottles and kelp to die and get washed up on the beach after the first storm or bit of rough water.

The warm new current that swept into the bay appeared to have mixed and spread the few streaks of red tide bloom that was forming and seen alongside the mountainside.

Last week there was a very thick greenish/yellow colour in the water and the temperature measured between 18 to 20 degrees Celsius.

In Melk Bay and Blakes Beach many anglers who fished at night had their quotas of good size Elf - from 40 cm up to 52 cm and many of the Elf weighed over 1 kg to 1,5 kg. Most of these Elf were caught on fresh pilchards and Pike baits.

On Saturday local anglers fishing from Macassar Beach also had some good catches of these larger Elf while on Sunday morning Harmony Park anglers also had their quotas of these fish which makes me believe that these Elf are fairly wide spread in the bay.

I must mention that although these Elf were taking bait freely in the mixed colour water, local spinnermen had very little luck - this should however change for the better for spinnermen now that the water is becoming clearer around our beaches and reefs.

White Steenbras
The occasional good catch of White Steenbras has been reported from the Gants pipe or beach area where the odd Kob was also landed during the past weekend.

Strand rod manufacturer, Francois Burger, who often fishes along the Strandfontein and Macassar Beaches during the weekend said that during the past weekend he noticed that in the warmer coloured water very few Bronze Whaler sharks were hooked in their usual haunts, but that three Great White Sharks (which measured between 1,8 and 2 metres) were tagged and released.

Francois also mentioned seeing an abundance of creel in the shallows around the Macassar area and also said that he had better results when fishing with larger like Katonkel and Bonito heads, used with a sliding method when catching sharks and rays, than with big chunky baits that had to be cast by first wading deep into the sea.

The Western Province Inshore South League Competition was held at Struisbaai during the past weekend and once again proved to be a very successful competition.

Most of the boats in the competition were successful and managed to weigh in fish.

It appears that the WP Competition and the Pam Golding sponsored competition were held concurrently. The biggest fish caught in the competition was 34,6 kg Kob caught on 6 kg line by Greg Morrison fishing with Earl Fenwick and Mike Patelo on the boat Devenish - which was also the top boat in the competition.

Earl also had the best Red Stump of 4,08 kg in the competition - which incidentally won him R1 000 in the Pam Golding Inshore Competition.

I'm sure that many anglers and readers do not know just how technical and difficult these provincial fishing competitions are or how results are calculated and scoring works.

Earl mentioned that while fishing for Kob and using 2 kg line great care must be taken to chum correctly so that the Kob are raised from the bottom to near the surface.

He said small pieces of chum are generally used and then the anglers bait up with small whole sardines and then drop them over the side of the boat near to the bottom.

He said that sometimes the Kob which have been raised from the chumming bump against the line and break it because it is so thin.

Earl said that during the last competition the chumming was so successful that while Mike was fighting a Kob on the surface three other Kob were swimming alongside the fish he had hooked and were so close that they could?ve been gaffed.

The Tunny fishing is sporadic at present with he fish biting early in the morning and slacking off during the day.

There have also been no reports of Snoek from the West Coast.

Don't forget to phone me at (021) 854 - 3831 for reel repairs and services on fishing reels and for tips and on shore fishing along our coast.

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© Tel. (021) 853-0211 Fax. (021) 853-0234 2003 Somerset Press (Pty) Ltd on all information and photographs.