1FEC | June 2015

EC BAIT DEMO CATCH COMPETITION TIDES

FISHING

GREATER LEERIEOf Swartkops

TRENNERY’SComp Results

EPIC RAGGY On Grinder

RASSPLAFRICA Nationals 2015

ISSUE: 18

FREE

COPYPLEASE

TAKE ONE

JUNE 2015

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1FEC | June 2015

Epic Raggy On Grinder 05

Bait Demo 24Mackerel cutlet bait.

Catch Competition 26Send us your photos and youcould win.

Tides 28Check the tide tables tomake sure you fishing theright times.

Kayak CornerBrett talks about kayak layout and the Bamba kayak for river fishing.

Target Line Freshwater ClubPrizegiving and competition standings.

19 22

FEATURES

CONTENT

12

08

Swartkops Leerie

Trennery’s HotelComp

RASSPL Nationals

17

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MAGAZINEEDITOR

Nigel Louw

CONTRIBUTORSJonathan TimmChad PutnamShane Smit

Trennery’s HotelBrett Armstrong

Carl HennJustin du Preez

CONTACT

ADVERTISING:

email: nigel@fishingec.com

Mobile: 073 690 2606

Website: www.fishingec.com

Search: Fishing The Eastern Cape

Nigel LouwEditor

LETTEREDITORS

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.

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ON THE COVERDarren Kurz with a 7kg Pignose Grunter that he caught during the RASSPL Nationals 2015.

It is an exciting time of the year now, winter brings some big sharks, Sardines and good Salmon. I am sure all the deep sea guys are getting rigged and ready for the Salmon. Hopefully this year we will have a good sardine run which brings all the other fish along with them.

Land based anglers should be all tackled up now too with the shad run taking place. Most well know spots will be looking like bamboo plantations. Always fun and loads of excitement as the Shad come past. Bait flying with glo sticks and spoons wizzing through the air.

Don’t forget to send in your catch photos for our Catch & Win page. You could be the next winner.

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Epic RaggyOn The Grinder With SuperSlim

Jonathan Timm with the 214kg Ragged Tooth Shark he landed

at Bira.

The 2014/2015 Border Rock and Surf league season had been a bad year all-round were not many good fish

were caught. The leagues had been very slow until the last, well at least for me...

The 8th and final league of the season was fished between Bira (Dassie Rock) and Gwalana (Mpekweni River) on 2 May 2015. It had come down to the wire for Border team selection, as well as Club bragging rights. The top clubs (WWAC & KBAC) were scrapping it out for the top spot, with not much in it.

It was an early morning start with the majority of the anglers choosing to walk east of Bira towards Dassie Rock. Byron Keys and I had been eying the Bira river mouth for quite some time over the last few leagues that were fished at the same venue

(but with much more trying conditions). The bank had formed nicely to the right of the mouth and the drop-off looked good. The call was made and we made our way to the access point on the other side of the river.

With a bit of hard work traipsing our way through unused paths with our fishing trolleys along the river bed, we made it to the surf. With sweat running down our brows, Byron and myself looked at the sea and just shook our heads in disbelief. The formation looked brilliant. There was a huge hole in the river mouth and a large bank forming a huge drop-off to the right of the mouth.

With the new scoring system in place, I was tempted to throw for a marble ray in the hole in the river mouth to get some points on the board. Byron quickly put a stop

Words: Jonathan TimmPics: Byron Keys

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to that thought and we were tackling up for a big fish. The question was grinder or conventional tackle… I chose my trusty grinder setup, Blue Marlin 80/50 Superslim rod with my Saragosa 20 000. I had a point to prove, as I had lost a big fish at the Struisbaai Nationals earlier in the year. A yellow tail head on a dingle dangle was the bait of choice…

It wasn’t long, the pickup was characteristically like a raggy, but not a small one… It went away… I set the hook and let the drag do the work. The headshakes on the braid were enough to get any angler’s heart racing. My heart was in my throat the entire fight. This big fish pulled a lot of line, getting to my backing knot on 2 occasions. Maybe this was because I went easy on the fish, but I could not take any chances – this WAS the

1st Tagged :Angler: Owen Richter

Location: Hamburg

Date: 26 - 11 - 2011

Length (Precaudal): 2150mm

Weight: 193.3kgs

Recapture :

Angler: Jonathan Timm

Location: Bira

Date: 02 - 05 - 2015

Length (Precaudal): 2220mm

Weight: 214kgs

Days free: 1253

Distance Travelled: 19km

Growth: 70mm = +-20kgs

Tagging Info:

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final league. I needed to make it count!!!

The fight was coming to an end – the intense battle lasted what felt like about an hour before the fish showed itself. The raggy was through the surf and on the bank… You could see it was a big fish. My heart was pounding even stronger now. This is where it becomes interesting. Most lost fish are lost when they are getting grabbed in the water. I shouted for Byron to go and help. A few edgy moments but to my utter delight, Byron dragged the big female Ragged Tooth Shark into the shallows. I was elated!!! High-fives were fast and furious, I had just caught the fish of the league season…

While measuring the fish, I noted that the fish had a tag which was also a nice surprise. I put her back in the water and she swam away strongly. The precaudal measurement was 222cm, which equates to 214kgs. What a buss of a fish. Even better, IT WAS ON GRINDER!!! Hard to believe, but this story gets even better. I sent the tag data to ORI (Oceanographic Research Institute) and a few days later I get back the recapture data. I cannot believe my eyes. It is one of the fish I have tagged in the past. I go back to my tagging information and a quick double check on the date. Back on 26 November 2011, my club mate, Owen Richter caught the very same raggy at Hamburg in one of our Border Rock and surf leagues. Not only is it my club mate, but the same fish won us the top angler in the respective season. It gets even better, Byron happened to be the angler that grabbed the fish on both occasions.

Same fish, same club, same sharkwrangler... Definitely one for the books…

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It was a beautiful Sunday morning when this beast made its way on to my hook. It was my dad’s birthday on that Sunday

and I bought him a rod and reel to start fishing with me with the lure. We went down to the river with the intentions of going to fish for some Grunter on surface lure. Normally when I go down I fish a Shimano 3000 symetre with 15 pound braid or my 3000 ATC Valliant with 20 pound and my Crucial rods just in case of those monster Skippies or the monster Leeries and just maybe the big Kob are around. That day I went down with my Shimano Crucial 6 foot 8 and my Shimano Exage with 15

Of SwartkopsWords/pics: Chad Putnam

THE GREATER LEERIE

Shimano Crucial 6.8ft

Shimano 2500 Exage reel

15 pound braid

Alcocks jig head

5 inch Mcarthy baby shad

TACKLE USED:

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pound braid with the intentions of looking for the Spotties. I went and looked at the spot for the Grunter and decided against it as I saw further down the river there were small amounts of nervous bait fish. So we made our way to the spot “train bridge” a spot along the Swartkops River. We walked along the bank and I worked an olive and white tin lead head for the Leerie. Got a few knocks but nothing set. So we continued to walk along the bank with some Strike Pros, the Taistick. I got 2 Leerie on the Taistick one of +/-43 cm and another of +/-32cm. I continued down and watched the current. I saw that it was going to come to a com-

Chad Putnam with a good size Leerie caught in Swartkops.

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plete stand still very soon so I made my way to a very deep point along the bank and put on my baby shad jerk minnow made by McArthy with a half-ounce jig head made by the Alcocks. For me from my own experiences I find that a jerk minnow must be worked slowly, nothing like the lead head which is generally a faster action. So I used the normal method of letting the lure sink to the bottom then slowly lift it up and then I gave a second small twitch which adds a little more vibrations in the water which get the fish on their game mode. So I stood and took about 5 casts and nothing showed for it and I took one more cast and let the lure drop and on my fourth twitch I got smashed by this beast of a Leerie. Luckily this hook managed to set on this bullet. So as it started peeling off the line my dad was on the bank telling all the boats to stop and watch out for my line and after minutes into the fight I had an awesome crowd of jealous fisherman spectating. After about 17 minutes the fish started getting extremely tired and my dad made his way into the water in order to grab it, but because of itsextreme strength it slipped out my dad’s hand and so I gave him a cloth in order to handle the fish easier and second time lucky he got it in. So we grabbed it and

made our measurement’s and took photos and then it bulleted back off into the water to fight anotherday. Hopefully I fight it when its 120cm.

The Leerie jumping and looking nice and fresh for the release.

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From left: Andre Piguet, Mike Pautz, Rudolph Tome (Bakkie Winner) and Shawn Mey.

Words: Shane Smit

RASSPL AFRICA NATIONALS

Travis Victor celebrating as he landed the heaviest edible. A Leervis of 4.87kg

On the 29th of April this year RASSPL anglers from all over South Africa converged on the tiny seaside village

of Kidds Beach in the Eastern Cape. This was to be basecamp for what promised to be South Africas’ and Rasspl’s biggest rock and surf pro event ever and im sure most who attended will agree, it certainly was. With over R820000 worth of prizes on of-fer and 160 anglers participating, the big-gest question on everybody’s mind wasn’t , who was going to win the vehicles or walk away with top honours but rather, was the typically unpredictable weather and sea conditions of this region going to play ball. With everyone registered on the system and settled into their accommoda-tion venues by 8pm that evening, it was time to have supper and hit the sack to dream about baits and strategies for what was going to be a cracker of a tournament! With the 1st day of the 3 day event kick-

ing off at 7am on the morning of the 30th, all 160 participants made there first cast into a relatively calm sea, although quite dirty from the Keiskamma river flowing out into the sea and westwards toward Birha, great catches are always expected and be-come the norm along this pristine piece of coastline. The area for day 1 would be be-tween Keiskamma and Birha river mouths. The sea temp was a tad cold so many of the seasoned anglers tried their luck at entic-

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RASSPL AFRICA NATIONALS

2015Travis Victor celebrating as he landed the heaviest edible. A Leervis of 4.87kg

ing a early morning raggy but amazingly it was not to be, in fact not one single raggy turned up for the entire duration of the 3 day event, this on the ultimate raggy coast-line in SA, go figure. The weather prediction for the day was not a good one regarding wind though with a 60km/h southwester set to arrive by midday so anglers knew they simply had to make the very most of

the early morning session. Kowie angler Darian Keeton and Borders’ Trevor Browne, took full advantage of the morning lull in wind by landing a 12kg kob and 7.6kg white steenbras respectively early on day 1. This was unfortunately not to set the tone though as by lines up at 3pm those same fish would secure biggest and 2nd biggest edible species on day 1 with the rest of the edible specimens coming in well under the 4kg mark. Biggest shark was a 6kg striped cat shark caught by Border angler Roger Lutge. Not too bad though considering that the monster southwester did in fact show

Darian Keeton with a 11.9kg Kob.

Tony Davis with a 4.4kg Kob.

Derek Niewoudt with a 4.4kg Bronze Bream.

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up as predicted although some would ar-gue, gusting even harder than 60km/h! It really did blow us off our feet, anglers took comfort in the fact that the prediction for the following 2 days would be exception-ally great with little to no wind predicted.Day 2 arrived with very calm wind condi-tions but the sea still on the grubby and cold side. The show must go on though so at 7am all anglers having walked to their spot along the Kiwane coastline made their 1st cast into a sea, to everyone’s surprise, complete-ly littered with as much seaweed as you can imagine! It was quite severe I must say with the arm muscles taking a beating pulling in huge clumps of the stuff, terrible to say the least. Darren Kurz from Border man-aged to evade the weed and wrangle a very impressive 7kg white steenbras far right of the Kiwane river mouth with southern capes’ Riaan Conradie managing a healthy 4kg kob. The wind may have played the part but make no mistake, the fishing was tough with big bites being a luxury! Once again a Kob and Steenie took top honours for the day concerning edible species with

a 3.5kg lesser sandshark topping the shark category. one single blueray decided to grace us with its presence on day 2 with an-other Border angler, Andre Botha, being the lucky one landing a beautiful 10.6kg speci-men on light tackle, great achievement! Most anglers I spoke to at the end of day 2 reckoned Day 3 was thee day that both sea and weather conditions would be most fa-vourable for some great angling, well lets say these predictions were half right. The area for Day 3 was big with boundaries be-ing from Chulumna river mouth to a distant igoda river some 25km apart. Anglers were spread out nicely and yes, the conditions were certainly more favourable than the previous 2 days, still though the water temp was low resulting in the least amount of fish being caught on day 3.atleast the weed was gone! This was however the day that some big fish would make an appearance! West-ern Provinces’ Aiden Aspelling leading the charge with a truly impressive 77kg black-tip shark which also turned out to be a new rasspl Africa record and biggest shark of the tournament. Another amazing catch was

Nadia Radcliffe with a 1.1kg Baardman.

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a 4.4kg bronze bream caught by another western province angler Derek Niewoudt, this was a strong contender for catch of the tournament as any bronze bream over 4kg ranks up there as a top catch! Anthony Davis of Border managed 2nd spot for the day with a 4.5kg kob but top fish and most outstand-ing catch of the tournament went to “Mr. Reliable” himself, Shawn Mey from South-ern Cape with a steamtrain 10.2kg white steenbras, caught at the death I might add. With day 3 over and the rasspl Africa na-tionals all wrapped up it was time to pack the rods away, hit the showers and get all dolled up for prize giving festivities. West-ern Province won the gold with Hosts Bor-der scooping Silver, Southern Cape rounded the trio off with a hard fought bronze in third place. Top individual angler went to Mike Bailey from Western province and top lady went to southern cape angler Lauren Ambler . Top masters angler was Border an-gler Colin Scheepers with eastern province Youngster, Daniel Dickinson taking the Top Junior position. With prize giving proceed-ings over, all attention was diverted to the 6 lucky anglers that each drew a Ford rang-er key earlier. These 6 anglers had caught the biggest of 6 pre-determined species in the 2014/2015 franchise season and they would each get a chance to start the Ford Ranger double cab bakkie with the bearer of the key that started the van, winning the vehicle outright. Borders Derek Nicholson was up 1st but unfortunately to no avail, Steven Rodwell Odgen all the way from Namibia was up next but his short curse let us know he too wasn’t successful. Southern Capes’ Roudolph Tome was the 3rd angler to try and after a few moments saying a short prayer in the drivers seat, turned the key and the engine rumbled to life, just like that he was the owner of a brand new Ford Ranger Double Cab worth R300000! The re-maining three anglers, Wade Labuschagne from Kowie, Southern Capes’ Ricky Taylor and Derek Niewoudt from Western province were only left to applaud and congratulate Roudolph. For these three unfortunately, The big one had got away! Better luck next time.

An important fact that must be mentioned was that We were lucky enough to have a research team from the Rhodes university ichthyology and fisheries science depart-ment headed by Dr. Warren Potts to watch over preceedings for the duration of the tournament with loads of data being re-corded and samples taken as the fish were landed. This data, as Dr. Potts explained is a vital tool in accurately monitoring the health and abundancy of all coastal fish species effected by recreational shore an-gling. A total of 1486 fish were caught dur-ing this nationals event covering 32 differ-ent species with a total weight of 947kg. The real winner of this tournament was the fact that 947kg of fish was caught but more importantly successfully released back into the ocean! Bare in mind that this was on three relatively bad fishing days and only over a three day period, just imagine what devastation can be done in 1 year across South Africas entire coastline! This most certainly puts into perspective the damage that is caused to fish stocks by not practis-ing catch and release on a regular basis. Rasspl Africa is proud to be partnered with Rhodes university in conserving and pre-serving our rapidly depleting fish stocks and we put forward the challenge to all anglers, be it an organization or individual across South Africa to step up and follow in Rasspl Africas’ footsteps by practising catch and release….its the right thing to do.

Daniel Dickinson with a 3.1kg Kob.

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On the 18th of April 2015 we had our 4th annual fishing competition. We had about 55 entrees and they were

between 5 years and 81 years of age. We had people that came from as far as Jeffreys Bay ,Aliwal North, Johannesburg, Natal and even a lady from Singapore.

There were 5 different categories:

Biggest Kob :Dirk du Toit 50cm 1.3kgBiggest Steenbras:Caryl Ann Parathyras 57cm 3kg Pignose GrunterBiggest Bream:Paul Jeacocks 54cm 4.6kg Bronze BreamFish of he Day:Wade Labuschagne 73cm 11kg Black SteenbrasHeaviest Bag (excluding fish which already won a prize)Craig Hurn 3.9kg

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors. Without themthis event would never be able to happen.

TRENNERY’SCOMPRESULTS

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Hi again, fellow kayakers. Well, winter is clearly here, and this means, windless days with lots of opportunity

to fish in lovely conditions, although chilly early morning sessions become quite an experience when having to keep warm during and after the fishing session. But what great fun!

For those of us who have been fishing off kayaks for a while, or even those less experienced, the sense of freedom experienced, the thrill of being in nature or even the sense of relief from the pressures of the working world, are all to familiar to us, and we just want more time on the water, with friends or family. This is why we do it, it’s not only about the catch or the satisfaction of releasing that beautiful gift from nature, and it’s about creating memories and experiences. But at the same time we have to understand the inherent dangers and responsibilities we have as anglers and visitors in our rivers and oceans.Of late, sharks seem to be species on many a kayakers lips and mind at the moment, and rightfully so. Lots of sharks have been spotted especially north of Gonubie past Yellows and Cintsa side, so guys, please be vigilant and stick to the areas our

KAYAK CORNERFISHING

Words/pics: Brett Armstrong

experience tells us is “safer”, of course, the sharks will always be there, even if we don’t see them, they know we are in their back yard. I had a couple experiences behind bats cave a month or two ago, and yes, kinda freaky for sure, but just remember we are visitors in the ocean, so we have to expect a little resistance now and again.

I was fortunate to have the use of a shark pod the last couple weeks to test its effectiveness. Well I am still here and on both occasions I was not visited by a shark at all, in areas, I previously did. I hooked a couple small fish as well as had some live bait over the side in my live bait tube, but nothing. Not sure if the frequency of the shark pod had any effect, but nevertheless, I cant really say. I bet some surfers have far more interesting experiences than I do at this stage. Essentially, lets just think about being safe and exercising caution when going out into the big blue ocean.

So now onto some lovely river fishing kayaks. I have previously mentioned the Fluid Bamba, an amazing plastic fishing kayak with all the features you would want and need right under you. A stable platform to fish from, even allowing you the

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TO ADVERTISEWITH

CONTACT:

NIGEL LOUW

NIGEL@FISHINGEC.COM

073 690 2606

21FEC | June 2015

opportunity to stand and fish, even fly fish if you felt the need. Another lovely compact plastic fishing kayak is the Feel Free Moken 10 Angler. This craft also offers lovely storage, transport wheel and

While we on the topic of river fishing, it is great to see how many guys are fishing on kayaks on the rivers, whether with their sons or entire families. What better way to spend the day with family and friends. The rivers have also been full of activity lately with Garrick and even Shad been caught. In an early morning dawnie a week or so ago I was amazed at how much mullet action (some even jumped into my kayak) was going on with tons of chasing around. Lovely to see for sure. I was also happy to catch and release a handful of different species before thesun even came up.

everything at your fingertips, but no rudder. This creates a problem, but if you handy and like to tinker with your toys, you could fit an adjustable rudder system. I may have a great opportunity in the next couple of months to create an interesting river kayak project out of one of these fine craft. Watch this space! Project, ultimate river kayak may be coming to a river near you soon….

In next months issue, I will bring you an in-depth look at GoPro setup and Wi-Fi remote access for your kayaking enjoyment. This topic has been on quite a few guys’ emails of late all wanting the optimum setup for filming your catch and experience. I will give a detailed look and review of what poles, extensions and attachments you need to make this work for your kayak. Fortunately there are some amazing products out there at great prices to, so no need to rob the bank or make something up out of old braai wood, hehe.

Anyway, for more information on kayak fishing and modifications and setup, drop me an email at brettflip@gmail.com In addition to this, if you would like to join the kayak fishing Whats app group, please also send your details through. A great way to meet guys who share your fishing experience and passion forthe sport.

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On the 28/03/2015, Target Line Freshwater Angling Club had its 1st prize giving. 12 months went past

very quickly and there were lots to cele-brate. From fishing in perfect conditions, to fishing through hailstorms. We had it all. Here are the top results after the first year:

Seniors: Masters: 1 Martin Piek 1 Andy Warren 2 Carl Henn 2 Stephen Hugo3 Shaine Moodley 3 Chris Koch

Ladies: Juniors: 1 Petra Piek 1 Lyle Skinner2 Wilma Hugo 2 Liane Husselmann 3 Jackie Domoney 3 Ryan Delport Victor Ludorum:Martin Piek

TARGET LINEPrizegiving & CompetitionsWords: Carl HennPhotos: Monique Brits

From left: Malcolm Stoltz, Martin Piek and Pam Stoltz.

Martin is receiving the Victor Ludorum prize here.

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Our new season kicked off with competitions at Bridal Drift and Nahoon Dam. We could see that winter was coming with the dams at full capacity just after Easter. Lots of rain made it tuff for all and perseverance was the only answer. After the first two competitions and winter solid on top of us, will make the 3rd competition at Wriggleswade Dam on 06/06/2015 very tuff and testing.

Here are the standings after the first two competitions:

Seniors: 1 Martin Piek 39pts 2 Carl Henn 34pts 3 Richard Ackerman 25pts Masters: 1 Chris Englebrecht 40pts 2 Anthon Henn 35pts 3 Andy Warren 24pts

Ladies: 1 Lezanda Engelbrecht 20pts 2 Petra Piek 19pts 3 Jackie Domoney 15pts Juniors: 1 Liane Husselmann 20pts 2 Nikita Moodley 15pts Our Club is growing on a month to month basis, with more water to be tested for future competitions. I hope this year will be as successful as last year, if not better.In the not too far future, there is going to be a 70 hour carp competition open for ALL bank anglers. Please stay tuned for all the details of this in the next few months to follow. For any enquiries on how to join our club, feel free to call me on 073 857 2209,e-mailtargetlinefreshwaterangling@gmail.com or join on facebook at Target Line FAC. See you all reel soon on the banks.

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Words/pics: Justin du Preez

THE

BAIT BOXTIPS

MACKEREL CUTLET BAIT

You need 1 fresh Mackerel, dingle dangle and Chokka legs optional.

Cotton on Chokka legs if wanted and then Mackerel over that.

Slice two cutlets from the Mackerel body at a slight angle.

1

2

3

25FEC | June 2015

SPARGS MALLBEACON BAY043 711 7700

Sponsored by

Once Mackerel is cottoned over it should look like this. Then just clip to the sinker and cast.

4

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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 followingdetails: - Anglers full name - Species - Location caught- Bait used - Size/Weight

Angler: Joe JonkerSpecies: Longnose KingfishLocation: Aston BayBait: Bloodworm/PrawnSize: 41cm

Angler: Ziyaad RyneveldSpecies: Stone BreamLocation: Hougham ParkBait: Coral WormSize: 41cm

Angler: Wayne GerberSpecies: YellowtailLocation: Port ElizabethBait: Chokka StripSize: 12.8kg

CATCH & WIN

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May Winner

Angler: Warren PottsSpecies: White MusselcrackerLocation: Fish RiverBait: SaddlebackSize: 8.7kg

Angler: Dylan BoothSpecies: Pignose GrunterLocation: Mazeppa BayBait: ChokkaSize: 80cm

Dylan wins himself an Assassin Spin rod. Sponsored by Bilimoria Fishing Tackle

Keep sending in your catches and stand a chance of winning an assortment of Triton lures in July.

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TIDE CHARTJune 2015Information supplied by the Hydrographer SA Navy

The Hydrographer is not responsible for anytranscription errors.

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