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DURING the weekend there were still widespread catches of Snoek reported from Table Bay to Cape Point to Buffels Bay.

Most of the boats had an average of 50 fish a man, with a number of boats catching even more.

Whale Rider, fishing off Buffels Bay, had 300 Snoek aboard while a number of recreation boats also had full quotas of Snoek.

Finkie Finklestein and his crew on the craft Finkie were one of the boats that had full quotas.

Most of the Snoek caught were reasonably large and in good condition and boat anglers said that most of the Snoek were caught on pike and pilchard baits.

With the South Easter blowing until Monday night, the Snoek were expected to move up higher along the coast to the West Coast - but now with the sudden change in wind (back to North West) one cannot be so sure.

Professional and other local boat fishermen are still waiting for the shoals to come back to the "ou Snoek gronde" and nearer to Kleinmond and Gansbaai, which could happen after this current North Wester.

Very few Yellowtail have been caught to date, in fact, the schools have completely disappeared from Cape Point and the surrounding areas.

Although the weather during the past weekend was good for local shore anglers and there were a number of shore anglers trying their luck in most of the popular places - very few catches of decent fish were reported.

The Strand local manne fishing from the harmony rocks had a few Wildeperd, White Stump and the odd Galjoen, but no real fireworks.

Water temperature
The water temperature during the weekend was still very cold, although a muddy Kob colour was widespread due to all the rain water.

During this coming weekend the Western Province Inshore West League will be held from Kleinbaai on either Saturday or Sunday, depending on the weather.

The paddleski fishermen have had a quiet time recently although a few paddleskiers have paddled around the Strand, Gordon?s Bay and Hangklip areas to find warmer patches of water to target winter Kob - but they have only had limited success.

They did however manage to catch the odd Galjoen and some smaller Hottentot fish in the Hangklip and Betty's Bay areas.

I have noticed that at present many shore anglers have reverted back to using prawn as bait.

I think this is a great winter bait and believe anglers can achieve much better results using fresh prawn baits.

Kob and White Steenbras have always preferred fresh prawn baits in winter and as I have previously mentioned, large White Stump that are also present in this area at this time of year, are also very fond of fresh prawn or fresh mussels, although both these baits require considerable effort to obtain.

The Extreme Sports Angling (ESA) Pro Store in Strand held another successful competition in Betty?s Bay during the past weekend.

The biggest Cow shark of 204 cm was caught by Greg Kellerman while a number of Steenbras and Galjoen were also caught and released.

The next competition will be held at Melk Baai beach in the Strand on August 9. For more info contact the ESA Pro Store at (021) 852-8444 or visit their website www.esaworld.co.za.

During the competition last weekend the prize winners were: Johan van der Westhuizen (3rd - R1 000), Greg Kellerman (2nd - R2 000 and Wolverine boots for the longest fish), Len Burger (1st - R5 000), Henrico Henegan (Junior winner - R500 ESA voucher) and Stephan Prinsloo (2nd Junior).

The next competition will be held at Melkbaai beach in the Strand on August 9.

For more info contact the ESA Pro Store at (021) 852-8444 or visit their website www.esaworld.co.za.

I believe that the jetty debacle has now turned into a complete circus. A

bout three years ago the jetty was declared unsafe and closed off to the public due to the municipality failing to timeously repair the jetty although they had funds and timber available.

At the same time it was stated that this structure was unstable and could topple over at any time and injure people on it and the front of the jetty was barricaded.

There was apparently money available to have the structure demolished, but it stayed put and fishermen and children started using it again by climbing around the barricade.

Now the municipality have erected an expensive high fence, which has been fastened onto the jetty itself, all around the structure to keep people out. Surely this costly, unnecessary tonnage of fencing weighing down the jetty proves that the theory that it was about to topple over and is unsafe, is pure nonsense. Furthermore, the fence was an unnecessary expense and the funds could rather have been used to demolish the jetty and remove it and then go about setting up funds to build a new solid, practical cement structure.

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