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Many anglers are perplexed about the change in the sea conditions and in the weather this season and shore anglers using bait and spinners are not sure whether the Elf season is over or not. The Elf have been sporadic this season and many anglers believe that the exodus of most of the Elf schools is already under way.

The fantastic three-day Elf run of large fish, which were caught about two weeks ago in the strange colour water brought into the bay by a warm current which left so many dead blue bottles and kelp lying on our beaches, is now but a memory.

Most of the large Elf which were caught on our beaches were caught at night on bait and eager spinner-men fishing from Blake?s and Melk Bay Beaches were unsuccessful in landing any of these big fish.

I have received reports that these large Elf are currently all along our coastline and are working their way up the coast towards KwaZulu-Natal, which seems to tally with the theory that the larger schools are already on their way up the coast.

The good news however is that the annual run of large Geelbek is starting to take place and the Yellowtail have moved into the Fish Hoek side of the bay where some big schools of yellowtail (some in the 11 kg class) have been seen.

Quite a number of boats caught some of these fine fish during the past weekend.

I received a report from the usual top boatmen from the Cape Boat and Skiboat Club on Monday to say that these Yellowtail were feeding in fairly shallow water - around eight fathoms.

Gus Raughtman and Earl Fenwick fishing aboard a professional cat-skiboat, Dr Fish (powered by two 250 horse power motors), together with the crew managed to boat 30 large Yellowtail after some tough battles with rod and reel.

Aboard Dr Fish
Earl said they were invited aboard Dr Fish by the skipper of the boat when he stopped alongside them as he and Gus were preparing Earl's boat to go to sea.

Earl said the skipper just shouted climb aboard there?s a big run of Yellowtail.

He said he and Gus just climbed aboard with only their rods and reels and a few lures and no rod buckets.

Earl said they battled with the large Yellowtail for two-and-a-half hours and admitted that without rod buckets it was very painful and tiring, but was an excellent outing which was close to Miller's Point.

Earl also told me of a slaughter of around 20 tons of fish by trek netters off Fish Hoek Beach.

The Tunny scene is looking good and some commercial boats fishing south of the canyon had up to 136 Long Fin Tunny.

Skiboats fishing on Sunday had up to three Yellowfin each in the 60 kg class and reported that the pattern was fish biting early in the morning and then going off the bite during the day.

The Tunny were also very wide spread.

The shore angling activity around False Bay has mostly been good catches of Kob and White Stumpnose from Kalk Bay harbour wall as well as from Strandfontein and Muizen-berg corner.

Anglers have been using small jigs which are dropped off the side of the Kalk Bay wall to catch the abundance of Maasbanker there.

The Maasbanker are then used as bait for Kob and Stumpnose.

A few Yellowtail were also caught at the Battery from the Simonstown side of the bay by keen spinnermen.

Locally one or two straggler Elf and the odd Kob are still being caught off the reefs by anglers willing to wade and also from Blake's and Melk Bay beaches at night despite the fact the wind has not really been favourable.

Anglers fishing at Gant's Pipe at the mouth of the Lourensford River had their quotas of White Steenbras using prawn and bloodworm.

Tagged and released
One of the successful anglers that tagged and released a nice Steenbras was Strand angler, Jan Brink who was fishing there with his father (77).

Jan said he and his father were using Shimano Trinidad DC's which they both believed were excellent fishing reels and were great for easy casting , had no overwinds and were able to handle any fish or shark comfortably. Jan Brink is a well known tackle nut and arguably has one of the biggest private selections of modern rods and reels in South Africa. He has built his collection up over the last 35 years and uses most of his tackle, so it's not just for the show.

At present he has 104 rods while the reels in his collection include: 18 Saltigas (30/40 and 50's ) 21 Abus (7000 to 10 000 ) 14 Grand Wave Z series reels, seven Saltists, 29 Grand Waves, 16 Trinidads, 20 Toriums, 3 Speedmasters, 7 Penn Torque's as well as some Shimano Torsa 20 and Calcutta 7005 and two Shimano DC's.

His favourite reel is a Saltiga for casting and a Trinidad 16 for catching Steenbras and his favourite rods are a Purglas 15 foot / 2 built by Chris Uys and then his Gremlins 3 to 6.

The ESA Pro Series was fished at Macassar this past Saturday.

The water was 24 degrees and flat, not ideal for False Bay.

A total of 50 anglers entered the competition, but only 12 fish were weighed in.

The winner for the day was Wilhelm Bouwer with a Bronze Whaler of 50 kg, second place went to Ben Puddu with a Diamond Ray of 40 kg and third place to Chris Bester with two Blue Rays and a Elf.

The next Pro Series will be held at Struisbaai on April 12 with R10 000 prize money.

For more info log onto www.esaworld.co.za

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