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In previous years there were quite a number of Leerfish (Garrick) caught by spinnermen while fishing for Elf or purposely targeting these magnificent, hard fighting game fish with poppers, lures, spoons or live bait along our coastline, but this past season catches have been scarce. Steve Reynolds, Kevin Ogle, Jaco Snyman and even well-known fishing writer and top light tackle spinnerman, Anton Kessel from Cape Town, all expressed their concern about the few Leerfish as well as Elf caught in our part of False Bay this season.

However, on the other side of the coin many anglers who fished our beaches during the evenings and at night have found that the weather this season has brought many shoals of medium size Geelbek into the shallows.

These fish have been caught from the Melk Bay reefs and beach as well as Blakes Beach and Harmony Park, where the regular Harmony manne also experienced unexpected but excellent catches of Geelbek as well as the odd Kob and good size Elf.

Many comments about the amount of Geelbek that have been unexpectedly caught this season were often heard when anglers discussed fishing.

It was also interesting to observe the many different kinds of traces which are being used by shore anglers these days.

Shorter and longer hook snoods, different positions of foam or floats cleverly threaded or tied onto line with cotton to position or make the bait hover and remain lively just off the bottom "in the strike zone" a bit longer to tempt Elf, Geelbek, and Kob to take the bait.

Many Geelbek are hooked and lost on the beach and reefs due to the fact that one is limited to the size hook that is convenient to use for Geelbek from the shore or reefs, because of the smaller hooks pulling out of the Geelbek's lower soft jaw when it is not hooked deeper in the mouth.

A well placed double hook seems to work if anglers use a smaller top hook and then add to it a slightly larger hook by threading the smaller hook through the eye of the larger hook.

The practice of fishing with small hooks to catch a number of fresh bait fish is not really practised anymore.

This fresh bait works well when a small cut of fresh bait fish is added to the hook or hooks together with a piece of fresh sardine, chokka or pike which seems to be one of the favourite baits used by night fishermen these days.

Adding the fresh bait fish to sardine bait always makes the bait a more wholesome and longer lasting bait for Geelbek to grab before the little peckers strip the bait off the hook before the larger fish can get to it.

Another modern practice which seems very effective is the use of a green glo-bead which is threaded onto the hook snood just above the hook and then activated by shining a torch light onto it for a few seconds before casting it into the sea. The luminosity of the glo-bead attracts the fish in the dark.

During the past weekend the larger boats could not venture out to the Tunny grounds due to the strong south easter which only dropped on Monday evening. Local small craft and kayaks are still having reasonable catches of Kob, Geelbek, a few Elf and White Stumpnose.

The best fish reported was a 15 kg Kob caught by Somerset West kayak angler, Frank Aspeling, on Sunday morning.

At times during the weekend boats also had some good catches of Geelbek in Hangklip Bay.

Shore anglers are still having reasonable success using prawn and bloodworms to target White Steenbras in the usual haunts such as Gant's Pipe, Deep Blue, Melk Bay Beach and Strand jetty during the south easterly influence.

Harmony, Mosselbank and Steen-bras Gat are always good venues during a south breeze while Gordon's Bay Harbour, Bikini Beach and mountainside spots such as Platbank, Black Rocks, Vogelsteen right around the coast to Kogel Bay all prosper in the northerly conditions.

Offshore Classic
The Gordon's Bay Boat Angling club will be hosting the 2008 Offshore Classic Tournament from April 28 until May 3.

The tournament venue will be the Clubhouse in Harbour Island, Gordon's Bay.

Activities will start on April 28 with registration of anglers and boats and the official opening of the tournament. Fishing will commence on April 29 through to May 2 and will focus on the Tuna species prolific in the waters southwest of Cape Point.

This will be the 17th anniversary of the competition which originally focused on Broadbill Swordfish, but whose numbers have declined over the years to be replaced by Yellowfin and Longfin Tuna.

In keeping with tradition, emphasis is placed on conservation with restrictions placed on the number of fish presented to weigh and special recognition being made for the tag and release angling.

Boats will leave the harbour in the early hours of the morning and return in the late afternoon from the Cape Canyon area some thirty miles south-west of Cape Point.

The public will be able to see the teams presenting their catches at the weigh-station.

Prizes totally in excess of R400 000 will be on offer to anglers for successfully landing the biggest Tuna. The main prize will be a fully rigged ski-boat from Unathi Yachts fitted with motors from HONDA MARINE Helderberg to the value of R230 000. More that 30 boats will be vying for this one.

The tournament committee looks forward to another successful tournament and invites all anglers, skippers, sponsors and the public to join them.

For more information, phone Anne Pretorius on 073 5466 686, Mike Casserley at (021) 851-6811 or Adele Harris on 082 3903 634 or e-mail lwmark@mweb.co.za.

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