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During the Easter weekend the Cape fish market was flooded with small Yellowtail and it seemed as if most fish mongers and fish wholesalers did good business with these small fish - some of which were the size of a good size Mackerel.

There were many remarks and questions raised by locals about these small Yellowtail.

Most people wanted to know whether these fish were not undersize, as they were not used to seeing such small fish of this species for sale.

Our local marine and fishing authorities have ordered an investigation about the source of these small Yellowtail.

There are two possible explanations as to where these fish originated.

One is that they were caught by hand or trawled by large fishing boats off the Alpha Reef (which is 75 miles off Struisbaai) and the other possibility is that they were trawled by either Japanese or Taiwanese trawlers in New Zealand waters and imported to South Africa.

Anyway, they claim that these fish are undersize is not correct around South Africa, as they have never been caught along our shores before.

The Yellowtail we know are not so small and there is no existing size limit on the Yellowtail in our waters, as only the larger breeding fish come to spawn in our bay.

On Saturday there were once again very good catches of Mackerel on the Simonstown side of the bay off Bullnose, but on Sunday the shoals could not be located in the same area.

Mackerel shoals
It is thought that the shoals could have either moved to the Fish Hoek area (where hopefully they will not be trekked) or are moving out of the bay into warmer currents off Cape Point.

The strong south easter experienced during most of the weekend restricted boatmen going to look for these shoals.

During the weekend there were reports of a few Snoek per boat at Olifantshoek just outside Hout Bay. Local boatmen fishing from smaller vessels that fished off the Strand Beaches in Die Poort, Suidrif, Melk Bay, Moddergat and Die Kombuis all reported catches of good size Geelbek as well as some Kob, Elf and White Stumpnose.

For the first time in many years small Geelbek of around 20 cm were hooked and caught on standard tackle by shore anglers fishing on the reefs and by boat anglers.

These small Geelbek were also noticed amongst the stomach contents of larger Geelbek being cleaned on the Strand slipway.

Steve Reynolds, who caught three good size Geelbek off Blake's Beach on Friday night, also told me about one of his larger fish having one of these small Geelbek inside its stomach when he was cleaning it.

This season has also been really unusual as far as all the Geelbek which have been caught among the Kob by both shore anglers and boatmen fishing the reefs at Blake's Beach and Melk Bay Beach.

Lively fish
Many of these very lively fish were lost by anglers due to the smaller hooks they were using for Kob and Elf and which ripped out of the Geelbek's very soft jaws if it was not hooked in the gills or deeper in the mouth.

There are a number of anglers that to avoid this happening have resorted to using two hooks - one at the top of the bait and one at the bottom.

I have found that the top hook which is loose on the line can be put in place with three twists around the shank to position it.

The top hook is simply held with pliers on the shank and then a flame from a cigarette lighter is used to heat up the eye of the hook and then one simply bends the eye of the hook to 90 degrees to the shank with another pair of pliers.

I received some good news from Barry Wareham, the manufacturer of Assasin rods, last week.

Barry told me that they were making a complete new range of Assasin models and would also continue with their present range of light, medium and heavy rods manufactured in single piece of five pieces.

I have heard a lot of talk about the ideal drag setting on modern fishing reels and whether or not to use grease or carbon spray on drag washers, which are made of many different types of materials such as cloth impregnated with grease or special dimpled washers as used by Penn.

I have found that a drag which is properly set will give the correct slipage when required without over-heating and sticking.

I believe that it is important to again stress that no drag or reel can operate correctly if the reel is stored with the drag compressed.

This incorrect practice causes a very jerky and sticky drag due to the material washers being compressed and having no resistance.

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