9 minute read
KINGS AND GANGSTERS
Targeting trophies of the deep
By Craig Stubbs
I’VE written extensively about bottom fishing in previous issues of SKI-BOAT magazine,covering topics from fishing various depths and upping your odds for various species, to fishing various structure as well as tackle and tactics,but in this issue,we are going to delve into targeting a few specific “trophy”species.
Now we all know that it’s a bit of a lottery as to what could pick up the baits that we send down,but as your knowledge and skills increase,you will be amazed at how specifically and successfully you can target certain species.
In particular in this article,we are going to look at the heavyweight king of our deep water fishery – the red steenbras and the gangster of our reefs, the greater amberjack.
RED STEENBRAS – “COPPER”
This is a truly magnificent,endemic species,with the fish attaining epic proportions,resplendent in their beautiful rust colouring adorned with bits of black and sometimes pink hues on their cheeks.They make seasonal movements from further south into our KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) waters,and arrive in limited numbers through winter and spring.
They are creatures of habit,and some fishing spots are synonymous with consistent catches of coppers. That doesn’t mean that you can’t catch one if you don’t have that secret GPS mark,but knowing a few traditional hot spots definitely will help.
The number one rule you need to apply when fishing for coppers in KZN is:be patient.
They are few and far between,and although they can and will be caught when “general bottom fishing”,if you really want to tick this species off your local list,you will probably need to put in considerable time and effort and exercise patience.
Coppers prefer big structure rather than flat reef and,in particular,small to large pinnacles in 60- to 90m of water
surrounded by further reef.If you want to up the odds in your favour,you need to have your bait on or around that pinnacle for as long as possible.This means that,in most cases,you will need to fish “on anchor”.
I’ve written previously about how to fish on anchor and how to deploy and retrieve your anchor,so familiarise yourself with these techniques before you try them on the water.
When setting your anchor,make sure you are as close to the main pinnacle as possible.Once your anchor is set, check your GPS position and if you have miscalculated and are not exactly where you need to be,then retrieve anchor,recalculate and do it again until you are within a stone’s throw of your chosen structure.It really will be worth the effort,because,now comes the patience part.
Now that your anchor is set,I would urge you to spend hours on that mark rather than upping anchor after half an hour to race off to a new spot.
If the structure is right and coppers are known to be caught “in the area”, then patience and perseverance is going to pay off way sooner that driving all over the ocean trying to find them.
You could sit for many hours going up and down until you get that bite,or maybe it will not come at all on that day,but if you are in the right area and are patient,the bite will come at some stage.
Coppers have big mouths and like big baits,and a nice size,lively mackerel is my number one choice,followed by a smallish flapped trawl soldier or a large sand soldier with a few cuts in its side and its fins trimmed off.
I would recommend fishing a single hook trace (generally a big circle or Jhook) on a heavy 1mm to 1.2mm monofilament hook snoot,and avoid a multiple hook trace which could scare off that wary copper.
However,if you have a few other anglers on the boat,having one guy going up and down with a multi hook trace doesn’t hurt,as this constant movement and excitement in the water will definitely attract that copper into the area where he may well find that well-presented bait of yours waiting for him.
Coppers can grow to huge proportions of well over 30kg,with the average fish ranging from 12- to 20kg with larger fish not being uncommon.
They are incredibly strong and stubborn fish,and,once hooked,will test you and your tackle to the max,so they truly are a deserved trophy to add to your list should you be willing to put in the time and effort to find them. Remember,the key to coppers is “patience”and “perseverance”.
Also bear in mind that these fish are under threat,and the bag limit is one per angler per day,with a minimum size of 60cm.If you catch more than your limit,or if you decide to release your catch,this can be done using the rig shown alongside.
GREATER AMBERJACK
In the last few years we have seen an explosion of the number of “ambers” caught in local KZN waters as anglers have adapted tackle and tactics to land some incredible fish of up to 40kg. There is a general consensus that they have always been here,and bottomfishing anglers of years gone by will tell tails of unstoppable fish that,in some cases,were mistaken for large sharks that could not be subdued.
Now,with anglers fishing stronger braided lines and using stronger terminal tackle,and with news spreading about “hotspots”,more and more ambers have been targeted and landed. The use of modern spinning reels with their incredibly powerful drag systems has also meant that many more of these fish have been boated.
Anglers have gone even further by fishing big live- and dead bonito on heavy bent-butt or stand-up billfish tackle to get these brutes away from the reef,but I don’t really prescribe to this form of angling.I would r ecommend a more sporting approach by sticking to learning how to use a KP reel properly,or making use of a high quality spinning reel,should you haveone. Ambers can be found in water depths from around 30m all the way down to around 70m,although I’ve taken a few both shallower and deeper, and big reef structure in this range is where you will most likely meet with success.
They can be caught both during the day and night,and anglers targeting daga salmon at night often stumble across a few ambers,but earlier in the morning has always been a pretty productive period for me when trying for one.
They really do like a decent rocky pinnacle,and given that they form loose schools and shoal together,they can often be “picked up”on the fishfinder as a solid marking a few metres off the bottom above the structure.Live baits are unbeatable for an amber,and my top three baits are a frisky live mackeral,a small live bonnie or a big live mozzie.
Bridle-rig them on a big circle hook and a fairly long,heavy mono leader of around 1- to 1.2mm in diameter,and send it down to that pinnacle.Once you hit the bottom,give it a few winds up as a bait.A few metres above the reef often gets the bite rather than one right in the bricks.
Hooking a big amber is one thing, but the real achievement is going to be getting it off the bottom. They really are hard and dirty fighters,and will make use of every ounce of their strength to pull you down onto the reef and cut you off.
Here’s one quick tip at this stage which I’ve learned: they sometimes take a few seconds to “wake up”to the fight, so regardless of whether you are on the KP or the spinning reel,use those initial few seconds to get as much line on the fish as possible and move him off the reef.It’s almost as if they don’t realise they are hooked,or they begin by swimming up,but most of my good ambers have given me a few seconds of slack line before I’ve literally been pulled into the gunnels and found myself holding on for dear life with a now,very angry amber bucking and kicking as it tries to get back down.
That first minute or two after they start fighting is absolute chaos. Backwind,hold on for all you’re worth and scream in anguish if you must,but you have to make sure that you take advantage of every opportunity to get a metre of line back on the reel.
Once you have them off the bottom,then you can relax and slowly work the fish up,and although they will
continue to pull hard,you should have them beat.It’s those first few minutes when the majority of fish are won and lost,and it’s then,that you need to have your wits and strength about you,if you are going to land that trophy amber.
As anglers,we need to accept the fact that as technology,tackle and accessibility improves,so does our impact on fish stocks and species.By all means,go out there and target that dream fish,but both of the above mentioned species can be safely released if brought to the surface slowly.
Ambers seem to do very well when released and generally swim away and back down strongly.When they are found,one can often catch a few,so consider their stocks,and release fish where applicable so that other anglers can end up with bruised and bloody knuckles from those out of control KP handles,or a sore body the day after tussling with these beasts of the deep.
See you on the water!
