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AS usual, the weather conditions are one of the main factors in the fishing game. Many anglers feel that the recent weather pattern has really gone haywire with the south easter blowing along our coast.

Good catches of Geelbek on small boats were taken on Friday and Saturday at Hangklip bay and tough rodmen had good catches of Steenbras at Betty's Bay off Verwoerds and Dawidskraal.

Small boat anglers fishing the Poort area on Saturday and Sunday did well in the evening and early mornings. On Sunday two real die-hards, the local businessman Ben Friedman and Barend Ridgway, enjoyed some good dinghy fishing just off Melk Bay using light tackle.

They caught six different species of fish, including Kob, Elf, White Stump, Wildeperd and Dassie. Most of the fish were released and some tagged.

It was mentioned that it was nice to see that Ben Friedman, who cut his teeth on the old chuckies and rowing boats that were once moored all around the Strand jetty in the old days and Gordon's Bay boats like the Voortrekker, Aurora and Mavis, has not lost any of the skills which he learned from the old Muslim skippers during weekends and school holidays.

The untimely south easter has also brought back some other old memories and realities, like the large amounts of Mackerel that were caught by some boats off the Bullnose in Simonstown in very uncomfortable conditions.

These were very large Mackerel, which make excellent bait and are also very good eating fish.

One of the boats that enjoyed the active fishing was Whale Rider.

Fishing off the Strand reefs at Shark Rock and Blinkwater, the top malletjies were still getting their quotas of Geelbek, a few Kob and large straggler Elf on bait and using spinners.

As usual Friedel van der Merwe, Christo Botha, Pietie Vermeulen and Kobie de Jongh were the most successful. The paddleski fraternity also had their fair share of fishing off Melk Bay and the Poort area.

It is strange when schools of fish are attracted to the paddleskiers when bait and chum are cast into the water.

The fish appear to be less scared than with larger fishing boats with noisy engines.

The run of Kabeljou and Musselcracker is still on the go at Die Dam and anglers are even catching size Geelbek from the beaches and banks there.

Locals holidaying at Struisbaai were very successful at the river mouth, and Mark Wakefield and his young son reported catching Belman of up to 2 kg.

All along our coast, at Melk Bay, Blake's Beach and the Strand reefs, there have been many reports of large Rays that have taxed some of the anglers to the hilt, only to lose these giants due to line breakage and knots.

It pays to use top class lines like high abrasive Double XX or Maxima with a good Shimano reel backed up with good braid and careful maintenance of the drag washers and drag disks, which should be prepared with a carbon spray or powder which prevents a jerky drag, causing undue strain on knots and jerking out hooks from the fish's mouths.

Another common cause of clutch failure is when the reel is stored after washing down, with the lever or star drag tightly compressed causing a friction to adhere to the smooth metal disks, which in turn causes breakage when trying to separate the disks, which are made of high tech and expensive materials.

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