Fishing EC Magazine May 2015 by Nigel Louw

FISHING EC BAIT DEMO

CATCH COMPETITION

TIDES

MAY 2015

ZAMBEZI SHARK

6 Hour Fight

DROPSHOT Estuary Action With Kob At Gamtoos

DUCKBILL RAY Caught On Light Tackle

KAYAK CORNER

F C RE O E P Y

Brett Armstrong

FEC | May 2015

ISSUE: 17

FEC | May 2015

CONTENT

Mazeppa 6 Hour Zambezi Fight 05 Kob Action in Gamtoos

FEATURES Bait Demo

Octopus blob bait on dingle dangle.

Catch Competition 26 10

Duckbill On Light Tackle

Send us your photos and you could win.

Tides

Check the tide tables to make sure you fishing the right times.

21 Kayak Corner With Brett Armstrong.

Brett talks about kayak layout, a live bait torpeedo and reserves.

FEC | May 2015

EDITORS

LETTER

MAGAZINE EDITOR Nigel Louw CONTRIBUTORS Owen Richter Tiaan Dorfling Justin du Preez Brett Armstrong

CONTACT ADVERTISING: email: nigel@fishingec.com Mobile: 073 690 2606 Website: www.fishingec.com

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No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Fishing The Eastern Cape. The magazine is published monthly and cannot be held responsible for inaccuracies in articles. The views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the editor. Fishing The Eastern Cape does not accept responsibility for advertising content.

Winter is definitely setting in now. You can feel the cold in the early mornings and evenings. Winter is not a bad thing though as we will experience some of our best fishing from the shore and deep sea when the Sardine Run starts. Some Shad have also been coming out so I hope you got your tackle ready and those spoons dusted off and nicely polished for the season. You will notice the sardines have not been of best quality lately in stores, but that is due to a shortage of sardines all round. Some shops have managed to source some fresh ones now though.

Nigel Louw Editor

ON THE COVER

Tiaan Dorfling with one of many Kob he landed in the Breede River. FEC | May 2015

FEC | May 2015

Mazeppa Bay Zambezi (Bull Shark) Words: Owen Richter Pics: Greg Brown

6 hour Fight

ell it started as a quick throw for a Shark before lunch, as I had a tour on after lunch. My wife and I took a stroll to the Island. Getting there I was met by some anglers and I joined Werner on the right side of the Island. The sea had a bump on it so I decided to slide a whole squid off the front of the Island. With my Blue Marlin 100 /100 Super Slimline rod, 50 Torium with 0.60 T/Line and T/line Tapered leader I knew Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m ready for war. So the bait was

FEC | May 2015

out for half an hour and I got a bite. With the tackle I was using I new the shark that took the squid was a small one. Reeling the shark in I saw it swimming straight to the front of the Island and new I’ll loose it there if I carried on reeling in. So I gave it slack line and it swam out back to sea. I made a joke with Werner telling him that’s my swim bait. “Never the less “ I started reeling the shark in next to the right side of the Island to get it out. While we were  waiting for the swell (water) to lift so I could get the shark out next to me and throw it back.  My self and Werner where looking at the little grey shark of about 8kg and the next minute a Beast of a Shark shot out the water with the small grey shark in its mouth. Looking like a big Black Fin shark or Zambezi. Strufffff “and there the fight began. It took off like a steam train into the surf. Getting slack line it swam back towards me and turned around and swam straight out to sea. Giving me a proper run for my money, the shark had me going up and down, left and right fighting like a machine. Getting some FEC | May 2015

FEC | May 2015

refreshments from my wife and some back up from Greg Brown I new I’ve got a good team with me. Now it’s just patience and time.  At one point the shark swam to the right side of the surf in front of the Mazeppa Bay Hotel, thinking I’ll land it there, and the next minute it decided to turn back and swim back at me around the front of the Island... Strufffff” here I go again. It was a tug of war with this beast. Now swimming slowly to the left side of the Island and managed to get the beast to swim left and stay swimming slowly towards the Mazeppa Bay bridge. Knowing the left side of the Bridge (Island) is like a graveyard full of reefs and rocks, I new my chance of landing this shark was not good. We’ll six hour’s later and lot’s of pulling and running up and down getting line stripped many times we had the beast in the surf line and spotted it for the first time. I knew I’ve got my beast, the all mighty Zambezi shark (Bull Shark).  Greg going into the water grabbed my leader and slowly the Zambezi Shark swam towards us.  Getting this Shark out and seeing the size and one of the world’s most dangerous shark’s by my feet, I knew I’ve got him. We got him out measured it and it-measured 199cm male and 143 KG. One dream fish caught and released to swim back to go and fight another day. Big thanks to king Neptune for giving me the chance to land the Zambezi. Never give up. If you got a line in the water you stand a chance to catch your dream fish. FEC | May 2015

DROPSHOT KOB At Gamtoos

Words/pics: Tiaan Dorfling

TACKLE USED: b 20lb Gaitorbraid, Power swivel, 20l 7ft Exceler mh, Exceler plus 2500, Double X fluorocarb, small clip. rod, Finnor Rampage 3000, 12lb 6’6” Loomis and Franklin Dropshot ble X fluorocarb, small clip. Rovex braid, Power swivel, 20lb Dou McArthy: 5 inch in Goldfish/ Orca/

Red Mullet/ Baby Elf

½ oz Dropshot: for just before to just

after neap tide.

¾ oz Dropshot: for just before to just

after spring tide.

FEC | May 2015

y dad and I decided to put in a morning session on the Gamtoos. The conditions were great. A light breeze that came from the south was just enough to cool us down bit in the heat. We headed to the mouth area, got a few mud prawns and started drifting with them for some Grunter. Whilst drifting we also threw a couple of bucktail leadheads to see if there were any Leeries around. The water was just about to turn from outgoing to incoming tide. The Stumpies were harassing our prawn and we realized if there were so many of them then there was a good chance that a FEC | May 2015

Leerie wasn’t around. We moved down to the blind mouth, put out the prawns (drifting) and also looking for a Leerie or two with the dropshots. My dad was throwing a white bucktail leadhead that my uncle makes for us, and by the way you’re not going to get a better bucktail leadhead than what he makes for the river or the surf. I was throwing a Mcarthy jerk minnow on a ½ oz dropshot. My dad got a single Leerie on the white bucktail leadhead. With no Grunter showing themselves, we pulled in our lines and threw the prawn overboard. I told my dad, that we should move to a spot that I saw where the water washed off a bank, creat-

FEC | May 2015

ing a foam line and it drew me like a magnet. We pulled up anchor and headed there, but saw it was too shallow for the dropshots. We then moved across river to deeper water and saw a nice drop off. I held the anchor over board and waited for the signal to drop it. My first cast was to the Jeffries Bay side of the river, the second one was up river and I let it sink to the bottom. Started to retrieve with a slow Leerie retrieve and by the 4th or 5th jerk it felt like

OB: RETRIEVE FOR K After throwing your dropshot, you need to let it sink to the bottom, if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re fishing a sand bottom. Just lift your rod gradually from just above horizontal to just before vertical. This retrieve can be tweaked to suite the situation. It can vary from a long gradually jerk to a short aggressive jerk. The trick is to let it fall to the bottom and repeat. You need to keep the dropshot close to the bottom at all times.

FEC | May 2015

I jerked my dropshot into a piece of concrete that then took off. My first thought was that it was a decent size Garrick, not long into the fight my mind changed. I felt the headshakes and it didn’t come up to the surface during the fight like a Garrick does. My dad said it must be a nice Kob. The first time we had a glimpse of the fish, my knees started shaking. I was trying to keep calm, not trying to force the fish at all. There was a sigh of relief on the boat when it slipped into the net. This Kob had a deformity in its tail. I was thrilled to have caught this size Kob in the river in December. After landing the fish and a few snapshots, it was released. I sat at the back of the boat with mixed feelings of success and amazement. Sitting there with the whole experience running threw my head, I was woken up by my dad that asked: “Aren’t you going to have another throw?” I pulled my jerk minnow against the dropshot’s head, ready for another throw. The next cast was in the same direction, but the retrieve was a bit slower knowing we just caught a Kob. Again at the 4th or 5th jerk I felt a bump and let it fall to the bottom. The next jerk was the whole experience all over again. Another nice Kob. Landed it, a few snap shots, you know the routine and let it go. We came across a small school of Kob ranging between 3kg-10kg. In between the Kob with a slow retrieve I manage to land a nice Leerie. There were some fish coming out on the other boats as well, but it was single fish and was caught on live bait. Meanwhile we were hammering the Kob on the McArthy’s. Later that night we looked at the fotos, noticing a pattern. We would catch 2-4 fish, release them and then it would get quiet, half an hour later the next 2-4 fish with the same result. We landed 14 Kob and had 8 on the line that came off, not to mention all the bumps we had and 2 Garrick. The best attribute the day had was that the water was colder that week and had a great deep green/blue off colour look to it. The weather gave us a break 3 days later. With no hesitation we headed back to the same spot and started where we left off. Unlucky for us the fish were smaller 14

FEC | May 2015

(3kg – 5kg) than the first outing, but whose going to complain about any size Kob on dropshot? We got stuck on 10 Kob (landed) and missed a couple from there. My dad had caught a small Leerie again. The other difference was that the water was running stronger and we needed to fish with ¾ oz dropshots. All the fish we caught were released to be caught again later this year. I switched between the colours mentioned, also between the jerk minnow and paddletail. I enjoy the jerk minnow more than the paddletail, but every fisherman has his preferences.

FEC | May 2015

DUCKBILL RAY ON LIGHT TACKLE Words/pics: Justin du Preez

o the story starts with me going to join some great mates at “Jan Se Gat” in Port Elizabeth. Now the weather hadn’t been looking great but a couple days before my trip it started looking better. Bevid Hansen informed me that they were getting some duckbills cob and shad with the odd Ragged Tooth Shark. Now I haven’t landed a Duckbill Ray in a while loosing the

last one to a reef. So Friday morning early off I was in high hopes. Eventually after a safe trip we get to the spot and the water is warmish and brown. Mmmm must be a Kobbie. I’ve been using a grinder setup for surf fishing for edibles and small in edibles the last while. It makes wading and casting a good distance very easy and also the braid has less drag in wind and water. FEC | May 2015

FEC | May 2015

My setup is a Penn conflict 6000 on a Purglas 400/2 with the winch built onto the blank no butting. I’ve filled the reel with 40 pound 4 strand JDB braid and must say its really doing well. Ok back to the action. We got some fresh Octopus and got to fishing immediately after setting up camp Well I saw this hole on the right with a bank left of it that was rolling into the hole, mmmmm nice. So out came a dingle on a 5/0 Mustad demon circle. Casting a 4-ounce nylon grappie I placed the bait just on the hole side of the bank. Well about 3-4 minutes later after a pecker had given up trying to eat my Octopus blob I felt a positive pickup and then slowly got pulled flat. Leaned on the fish to turn the circle in and vassss!!!! Let the games begin. Now I knew it wasn’t a Kob and thought maybe a small Ducky or Eagle Ray. Fish didn’t do much till I pulled hard on it. That’s when it realised its in trouble rod pulled flat and off it screamed!!! Sho! What the ... Well I ran up onto the top shelf and got to boxing and what a fight. After 45 minutes we confirmed it’s definitely was a

Duckie but couldn’t judge size. I was pulling as hard as I dared considering the light wire circle on the end. Any way after a good few runs and left to right movement we got it shallow enough to lip gaff, as there was no way we could leader. Whew!! 1hr 20. Done. Hook was half opened but held up. A quick measurement and a great release I just stood there smiling like a Cheshire cat. Got my Duckie on light stuff nogal. Hell yessss. We also managed some Shad, Hounds, Small Rags and another small Duckie. Awesome weekend with the boys. I must also mention I used a FG knot to tie my mainline braid to Fireline leader and it never budged the whole weekend and that included breaking my .65 shock leader off on the bricks.

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FEC | May 2015

KAYAK CORNER FISHING

Words/pics: Brett Armstrong

ell, winter is here, bringing lovely surf conditions and not as much wind, great stuff, but the early morning efforts to hit the water before sunrise are being delayed until the temperatures become more bearable. This will certainly be the case for the next 5 months or so. Winter will be stronger than us this year it appears. Over the last months, I have managed to get out on the water a couple times doing some interesting testing and fishing, along with some rather enthusiastic mates. Amazing when you start to look around at how many guys are interested in kayak fishing, all with their own setups and rigging preferences of the kayaks. When I was asked, what is the ideal setup for the kayak for offshore fish-

ing, essentially certain items are standard in terms of setup, but essentially it is up to your personal preference, what works for you, may not necessary work for the next guy. So, do what you feel works, but remember, safety, ease of use and convenience are all important factors to bear in mind when rigging out you kayak for those crazy fishing trips in the big blue ocean. For me certain factors are essential in making your experience more enjoyable and effective. These are my personal preferences in terms of what I have made sure of for my Stealth Supalite: - Garmin 301C Fish Finder and Flush mounted hatch lid - Easily reachable bait up rod holders - Organized rod holder brackets inside the FEC | May 2015

fish hatch - Additional small storage compartment for my smaller items - Two rods, specifically designed for kayak fishing which just the essential tackle I need for the trip - Rod, gaff and knife leashes keeping my items safe from falling overboard - Paddle leash and paddle latch to keep the paddle away from my working space while fishing - Railblaza GoPro mount - Live bait bag, well positioned for easy access. For me – how you configure the setup is up to you, just remember though, we all go out fishing to have some awesome fun mates, so why struggle fist over hand and get frustrated because you haven’t put any thought into how you will function out there. This month’s accessory of choice: Sometime back I setup my Live Bait Tube from Stealth and I hadn’t really used it much, for various reasons, but last month I decided to put it through its paces and see what I thought of it in practical terms. At first site I felt that possibly the tube was too small. However, when going out and catching a few live bait off the kayak I soon real-

ized, when this tube adequately stores just what you need, there is no need to go crazy and catch tons of live bait if you cannot even use them and they die off. So after two casts with multiple hook setup and 7 small live bait fish later, I realized, that is more than enough and I even released 3 immediately. 22

FEC | May 2015

There is normally plenty of bait fish around if you know where to go, so don’t be greedy, just take a few and work them and see if you still need more and then catch if necessary. I found that the live bait tube did not hamper or interfere at all with my paddle stroke neither did it create much extra drag from paddling. It was setup in the perfect place on my left side just behind my back of my seat in the water. This for me made perfect sense and I would encourage you to order one of these, they are inexpensive and effective. Reserve Fishing! I need to mention, that irrespective of currents and wind speed, kayak fisherman need to understand and realize that we, along with other fisherman are not permitted to fishing in the protected reserves. Come on guys, we all know the rules, we just got to think and be aware of our surroundings. I have had a couple calls from guys saying they have seen a few guys off Gonubie and even Nahoon in the reserve. Let’s just be mindful of the protected areas and minimize the negative comments coming our way. If you are unsure of the areas of importance, just ask around, the information is available.

Next Month’s Edition: With tons of sharks being spotted, two on my last outing and almost everyone I know having seen a few lately, I will be testing the Shark Pod and hopefully survive to give the results thereof and the impact on the shark scene. Let’s see if this equipment is as beneficial as advertised. In addition to this I will be testing the Stealth Evo Duo with a good mate of mine. How will this slightly heavy and more bulky kayak perform? How much more fun will it be. Look out for next month’s edition. What new on the used market: I am pleased to say with the increased exposure and interest in kayak fishing of late, many guys are dusting off their once prize possessions and deciding on upgrading their kayaks. This last month have seen quite a few kayaks becoming available, from older generation Stealth craft to newer models, mostly from guys who are either going for double kayaks or the latest, more expensive carbon models. So if you are interested in picking up a used kayak, drop me an email at brettflip@gmail.com. There are some great bargains out there. FEC | May 2015

X TIPS O B T I A B

THE

OCTOPUS DINGLE

Octopus dingle dangle bait used on a circle hook which provides a good hook-up. Words/pics: Justin du Preez

1 You need a thick piece of Octopus leg and the end part is optional.

2 Slice the leg and open up to make it wider so you can wrap it around.

3 Beat the piece of leg well with your Chokka hammer.

FEC | May 2015

Sponsored by SPARGS MALL BEACON BAY 043 711 7700

4 Cotton the end tentacle onto your dingle dangle, if you wish to use that option.

5 Place the soft leg section over the dingle and cotton into place.

Thats it all rigged. Just clip to your sinker and cast

FEC | May 2015

CATCH & WIN Angler: Tristan Pringle Species: Kob Location: Transkei Bait: Dropshot Paddletail Size: 10.5kg

Angler: Chloe Olivier Species: Spotted Grunter Location: Swartkops Bait: Pencil Bait Size: 3.1kg

Angler: Jonathan Gregson Species: Kob Location: Nahoon Bait: Pilchard Size: 40cm

Send us your best catch picture and you could win an awesome prize. (Photo must be of yourself holding the fish and preferably still alive. Photos of gutted fish do not qualify) Email your entry to nigel@fishingec.com with the following details: - Anglers full name - Species - Location caught | May 2015 26 - BaitFEC used - Size/Weight

April Winner Angler: Challen Gendall Species: Red Snapper Location: East London Bait: Catfish leg Size: 66cm

Challen wins himself 2 GT Ice Cream plugs and an Iron Candy spoon.

Angler: David Brits Species: Kob Location: EC Estuary Bait: McArthy dropshot Size: 75cm

Keep sending in your catches and stand a chance of winning an Assasin Spin rod in our next competition.

FEC | May 2015

TIDE CHART May 2015 Information supplied by the Hydrographer SA Navy The Hydrographer is not responsible for any transcription errors.

FEC | May 2015