1FEC | April 2015

EC BAIT DEMO CATCH COMPETITION TIDES

FISHING

TRANSKEI Estuary Action

AMATOLABASS CLASSIC Results

KAYAKCORNERBrett Armstrong

SILVERSTEENBRAS On Rapala X-Rap

FREE

COPY

ISSUE: 16

APRIL 2015

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Transkei Lure Fishing 04

Bait Demo 24Rigging your swimmingprawn.

Catch Competition 26Send us your photos and youcould win.

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

Target Line Freshwater Angling Club’s 12th Outing Of Season.The club members target Carp in the Xonxa Dam just outside Queenstown.

22

FEATURES

CONTENT

12

08

Mussel Cracker On Lure

Kayak Corner

Amatola BassClassic 201516

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MAGAZINEEDITOR

Nigel Louw

CONTRIBUTORSLeslie HempelStone Spowart

Brett ArmstrongClint LentzCarl Henn

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 COVERStone Spowart with an amazing and rare catch. A Silver Steenbras caught on a Rapala.

What a great summer season we have had. Lots of fish around and especially in the Wild Coast rivers as you will see in Leslie Hempels article this month. April should still produce as swimming prawns are abundant and fish will be in the rivers feeding.

Don’t leave it to late though. Plan your Wild Coast trip now before the cool weather starts hitting and the Game fish go off the bite.

Don’t forget to send in your catch photo and details to stand a chance of winning a monthly prize in our Catch & Win gallery.

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TranskeiLure FishingWords/pics: Leslie Hempel

It’s been a little while since I’ve been able to get back to the Transkei to fish its estuaries and so the nudge from my

boss Dean got the ball in motion, our mission was to venture deep into the rustic Transkei and throw a line in an-ticipation of that explosive strike the much sought after GT’s inflict on a lure..We were up before light and endured the seven-hour odd drive with boats in tow. Arriving at our luxurious accommodation nestled upriver we proceeded down to the

river which turned out to be quite a 4x4’ing (a 4x4 is a must for the t-kei) experience on its own. While we were still launching the boats my colleague Willie Herbst grabbed a rod and walked to the water’s edge, within 5 casts he had had a smash but no hook up...We hurriedly launched the boats with one half of the party going upriver and us going a little further down... using radios to communicate the word on the wireless came through that 2 kingfish had been landed within 15 minutes of launch.

WILD

COAST

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WILD

COAST

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fish for the duration of 4 minutes I finally got a glimpse... A GT!!!! A Personal best for me and an amazing fight, high fives all-round...Lures used on the trip varied with the fish taking almost anything that was thrown their way, but the rapala x wrap sub walk 07 was irresistible to the skipjack and kingies alike, new lures we tried were the Zombie killers and even our novice lure angler on the boat caught using them. It was literally throw, retrieve and wait for the smash.Dean decided to mix it up a little and put out live bait. We later approached his boat and were told of his reel repeatedly being stripped of line, we later caught up with them after a little while to figure out it was small Zambezi sharks taxing his tackle, he finally managed to get one onboard and as small as it was aggressive none the less.Great trip all-round, Willie Herbst got the biggest GT and was just totally on form, in 25 casts I witnessed him hook and land 15 fish of varying species (mostly small big eye kingies) My mate Daron whom I had to virtually beg to come with on the trip

We were about to respond when one of our crew went tight landing a small yellowtail kingie.The fish were gale!!! Size wasn’t really the aim as much as the diversity of species we were looking to add to out personal bests lists.We drifted further down by this time Dean and his crew had met with us moving a little further, Daron changed to a midwinter rapala and BAM!! In he went , what we later identified as a diamond ray spinning our boat in circles kick-ing up mounds of sand but not before having us thinking it was a largish cob!..Willie threw and got stuck into a small yellowtail kingie. I was still filming it with my gopro when the boat beside us saw one of the many skipjacks fluttering through the sky in an attempt to throw the imbedded hooks, while watching Willie land his fish, I cast as soon as it was safe to do so and SMASH, I WAS IN!!! This thing was PEEEELING line, trying to contain my excitement and not to jinx the matter I relegated to thinking it was a big yellowtail kingie... as I fought the

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couldn’t stop grinning as he got smashed repeatedly and landed some nice fish notching a pick handle to his species list.All in all a fantastic fishing trip which will stay with us in our memories, we did our utmost to return every fish back to this pristine river environment with as little stress and damage as possible, unfortunately as with fishing there are always the odd unavoidable losses.. But we strongly recommend catch and release in these estuaries so that we may all havememorable trips in the future.

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I took my paddle ski out on the Kromme River to target a few Garrick. I had only my light tackle with me, a Daiwa 2500

Laguna and a little Finesse rod. It was sunny and finally no wind, the water was really cold and dirty, I paddled to the mouth and when I reached the bank I pulled the ski out of the water so I could fish off of the bank. I fished a plug for a while, and got a couple shy Garrick chases, then I swapped to a olive Rapala Xrap because I can normally tempt a shy Garrick to take a subsurface lure when he’s not committing to a surface lure. Then two friends of mine

on X-Rap RapalaWords/pics: Stone Spowart

MUSSEL CRACKER

Daniel and Sean came past on a boat to ask if I had caught anything yet, I stopped retrieving for a second, so I could chat to them. As I was busy telling them I had a few chases but had caught nothing yet, I suddenly went on. Initially I thought it was a Garrick until I realized I couldn’t pull it to the surface. Whatever was on my line was big and determined to stay on the bottom. I carried on fighting it from the bank but it was fighting hard and strong with some big head shakes. I knew I was fighting a losing battle with my light tackle so I asked Daniel and Sean

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if I could jump on their boat and follow it. Daniel happily obliged and quickly reversed his boat off the bank. I was fighting this fish all around the boat and under the boat while it played games with me, then it started heading up river with the incoming tide, Daniel switched off the engines and we slowly drifted up river with the tide, I was fighting this fish hard all the way on my light Garrick set up, which was becoming a joke for this headstrong fish, it took him about 45 minutes to tire out, by this time we had drifted 400 meters up river. I still didn’t know what fish it was and I was desperately looking for a bank to land it on, as I knew we had no net or gaff, I only came out to catch and release some Garrick. Other boats were coming up interested to see what the commotion was about. As we moved fur-ther up river the fish surfaced briefly and when I caught sight of this beautiful 10kg White Mussel Cracker I really couldn’t believe my eyes, it’s the first one I have ever caught, and the river mouth was the

last place I ever expected to catch one, especially not on a lure! I asked Daniel to put the boat up onto the bank so I could get off and try fight it up over the ledge of the river and hoped to bring it into the waist deep water, thinking I might then try and wrestle the fish out of the water by hand, I finally managed to bring him up over the ledge as he was tiring fast along with me, so I quickly handed Sean my rod and waded out up to my waist to find him, I literally reached arms length down into the water and grabbed the fish off the bottom trying not to damage his gills but unfortunately by this time he was finished from the long fight and no possible chance of release which is always a pity, but this is what keeps me fishing you neverknow what you might pull out next.

Don’t miss the Trennery’s fishing competition this month. Only a few spots left and loads of awesome prizes to be won. Contact Trennery’s to enter.

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KAYAK CORNER

FISHING

With: Brett Armstrong

Hello fellow kayakers, can you believe it, its April and with it the opportunity to get some more

fishing and adventure in. This last month has been great, I have been able to explore some new rivers and even just find new spots I never knew existed in our local rivers. How beautiful and how lucky we are to live in the Eastern Cape. It is also great to see our local Whats App growing and new members joining weekly. Social media, who would

have believed a few years ago what an impact this would have on our life and hobbies.Anyway, onto the business at hand. For those who are considering kayak fishing, or even those of you who have just started this amazing sport, kayak fishing offers you the opportunity to do physical exercise from relaxing to strenuous in an amazing environment, whether it be in your local estuary or in the big blue ocean. Paddling a fishing kayak is easy to learn, perhaps too easy, resulting in both novices and even experienced paddlers making simple mistakes in many situations that a more advanced kayaker would avoid. In skilled hands kayaks are very seaworthy craft. Proven to be a safe sport for those that have taken the time to learn the basic skills, kayaking can be a richly rewarding form of recreation, which can literally change your perspective in live. The following information will provide you with some basic points to ensure you minimize your risk in the water: - Know the latest weather forecast;- Understand wave and rock hazards in your area;- Understand the Currents and Tides in general and especially on the day of go ing out;- Respect the fact that other water users are in the water and keep your distance;- Ensure you have all the safety equipment in terms of the legislature;- Sun cream, water and even a bite to eat on board safely stowed away;- Safety in numbers, go fishing with a friend.

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Essentially, at some point in time we all make mistakes, but take the time to inspect your equipment, plan your trip and hook up with some friends who you can just enjoy the time on the water with. This can make a massive difference to your experience. Also take some time just think about the layout of your kayak deck, think of ideas and ways to best setup additional rod holders and accessories to optimize the space with bet-ter rigging you have on deck. This can trans-form your experience on the water as well.

Product Review: I was very fortunate to lay my hands on a Garmin GPS 72H (See picture insert) a week or two ago, and what a pleasure. I previously had the amazing little Garmin Terex 10, a lovely little GPS, with cool basic features. But the 72H, this is a ma-chine with everything you could need and more for your kayak experience. I setup the GPS in the provided marine mount next to my Garmin 301 on my flush mounted hatch lid. Perfect size screen and easy access to all the menu options and features. The 72H is a marine based GPS and it floats! Yes floats, a great feature considering I lost my eTrex

overboard and I wasn’t going to dive in af-ter it. Anyway, back to the amazing features:

- Easy and quick finding of satellites;- An Amazing 18hr battery life;- Effortless connectivity to your computer;- Big screen with nicely sized menu but tons;- Celestial data including sunrise and sunset;- Comes with a nifty carry case as well as a marine mount and 12v charging cable.

Although I have only been out a couple times, this unit is well worth the buy, spoil yourself. This unit has the ability to easily upload waypoints and track your trip in a way that no other unit I have tested does.

The second product I had a quick look at was a kayak seat. And no, this is not only for old guys like me, its about back support and comfort. I tested the Stealth backrest with built in base section. This unit was so easy to install and very comfortable. I was amazed how poor my sitting posture was which was solved by the proper seat setup.

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I felt so much more relaxed and never suf-fered from backache during a 5 hr session recently on the river. I think I may keep it….Anyway, lastly, I mentioned in the last ar-ticle we are planning a long kayak fishing paddling outing, we are still busy planning this and would love to get your comments, suggestions and ideas on this experience. Please email me at brettflip@gmail.com with your comments. We would like to get a huge amount of guys out on the water, especially the new guys and some really experienced guys. In addition to this we are also looking at planning an open day at the river soon to give those interested kayakers the opportunity to see the differ-ent crafts out there and experience what fuels our passion for this amazing hobby/sport. Please checkout our May article with the latest GoPro setup and Railblaza action. Thanks to some of the guys for pics of their catches. I am so happy to hear more and more people also exercising catch andrelease only keeping the minimum catch.

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MERCURYAmatola Bass Classic Results

THE ANNUAL AMATOLA BASS CLASSIC HELD AT WRIGGLESWADE DAM OVER THE

WEEKEND OF THE 7’TH & 8’TH MARCH ATTRACTED SOME 63 BOATS WITH OVER 130

ANGLERS COMPETING TO WIN R50 000 CASH FOR THE BIGGEST FISH AND MANY MORE

TERRIFIC PRIZES TO WHICH THE LOYAL COMPETITORS HAVE BECOME ACCUSTOMED.

Words: Clint LentzPhotos: Jill Lentz and Lyndon Hall

The weather was extremely hot on the Saturday with a big storm in the evening and much

kinder to the anglers on the Sunday. Unfortunately the organizers were unable to offer a bass boat with a motor for the first time in many years. This may have contributed to fewer entries but did in no way quell the thrill which is what the Amatola Classic is all about.Richard Watson from Cape Town held the lead after day one with a fish of 2.275kg. Being very familiar with Wriggleswade

he knew this fish was certainly not safe and especially considering the amount of reports of bigger fish being lost by other anglers. It must be noted that the condition of the Wriggleswade bass have improved remarkably and so too has the cunning and strength of the fish. Tony Jericevich came very close on day one with a fish of 2.250kg and so too did Tyrone Schwartz with a fish of 2.050kg.Rumours abounded about where the bigger fish were being caught and on day two the upper reaches of the main dam saw

Cyril Schwartz (Border Bassmasters), Richard Watson (main prize winner), Richard Carroll (Sportcraft), Michael Carroll (Sportcraft).

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Richard Watson (main prize winner)

a flood of boats on the Sunday morning. Although Dirk Coxen and Clinton Schwartz brought in fish over 2kg’s, it was not enough to steal victory away from Richard Watson, who described at the prize giving how his catch was a lucky catch.

Unfortunately Shaun Van Rooyen from Rutherfords (Mercury) could not stay for the prize giving. He did however compete in the event and the records show that he caught some respectable fish.

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Place Weight Name1st 2.275 RICHARD WATSON 2nd 2.250 TONY JERICEVICH 3rd 2.060 DIRK COXEN 4th 2.050 TYRONE SCHWARTZ5th 2.040 CLINTON SCHWARTZ6th 1.815 JORDAN LENTZ7th 1.735 MATTHEW MOFFITT8th 1.700 JONATHAN BEHNKE9th 1.675 ROB SCOTT10th 1.660 GRAHAM RICHTER11th 1.655 TONY WESSELS12th 1.650 TONY JERICEVICH13th 1.640 PUFF MCALL-PEAT14th 1.635 RICHARD WATSON 15th 1.590 ALLAN GRANT 16th 1.585 PAUL KEMP17th 1.580 MATTHEW MOFFITT18th 1.560 MATTHEW LENTZ19th 1.535 NOEL SPARKS20th 1.535 MOIRA WESSELS21st 1.515 PEDRO CALDEIRA22nd 1.480 JADE BADENHORST23rd 1.480 BRESBY DU PREEZ24th 1.450 DEWALD MEYER25th 1.405 SEAN RICHTER26th 1.405 NIGEL LOUW27th 1.395 TONY JERICEVICH28th 1.390 PHILLIP VAN DER BERG29th 1.380 ANDRE LE ROUX30th 1.375 LEONARD POTGIETER

Ladies:

Place Weight Name1st 1.535 MOIRA WESSELS2nd 1.150 SAMANTHA EDMUNDS3rd 1.055 SAMANTHA EDMUNDS

Juniors:

Place Weight Name1st 1.560 MATTHEW LENTZ 2nd 1.355 DYLAN BUCHLER3rd 1.060 NATHAN LENTZ

Heaviest Bag:

Place Weight Name1st 8.015 TONY JERICEVICH AND GORDON BROWN

2nd 6.515 CLINTON SCHWARTZ AND MARK WATTRUS

3rd 6.365 GAVIN MOFFITT AND MATTHEW MOFFITT

AMATOLA BASS CLASSIC RESULTS

Nigel Louw of Team Fishing EC/Suzuki.

Tyrone Schwartz a previous winner

4th 6.225 ROB SCOTT AND JORDAN LENTZ 5th 6.225 LEONARD POTGIETER

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As is tradition at the Amatola Classic, the winner gets thrown off the end of the jetty for a swim in Wriggleswade dam and this year was no exception. We dread the year that an angler who can’t swim will win this event!

The organizers would like to thank participants and sponsors alike for their continued support of this event, not withstanding all the hard working ladies

and gents who continue to put in their time and effort to makethis event a success year on year. See you all again next year.

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On the 07/03/2015, Target Line Freshwater Angling Club had their 12th outing for the season. This time

at Xonxa Dam, just outside Queenstown.27 club members and 4 visitors came to compete on a day. The comp started at 10:30 the morning with temperatures already in the high 20’s. It was going to be a scorcher of a day. The dam was full with a gentle breeze. That breeze changed to gale-force winds af-ter lunch with hail and rain. Even in the late afternoon we had lines out due to lightning that dint feel anything for our graphite rods.After all this severe weather, we had a pleasant evening with fish on the bite. Some anglers managed to get good action after the storm and hardly slept the night.A total of 380kg of fish were caught with certain areas doing much better those others.

TARGET LINE 12thFRESHWATER CLUB OUTINGWords: Carl HennPics: Jacques Husselmann

Martin Piek caught the biggest carp @ 4.328kg, Reaan Geyer the biggest barbel @ 8.504kg, Andy Warren the big-gest yellow fish @ 0.523kg and Jacques Husselmann caught the only eel @ 0.381kg. The weigh in was a long affair with plenty of bags to be weighed, but 2 hours later all the fish caught were donated to the community of Xonxa. They accepted these blessings with open arms and even released the smaller fish.After heatwaves, storms, hail, lightning, this was still one of the better comps for the club with waters that produce good catches.This was the last comp of our season, with the new season kicking off beginning April.

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Seniors: 1 Carl Henn 40 fish @ 73.774kg2 Martin Piek 22 fish @ 57.077kg3 Jacques Husselmann 20 fish @ 24.581kg

Masters:1 Anthon Henn 22 fish @ 53.494kg 2 Chris Engelbrecht 25 fish @ 21.348kg3 Stephen Hugo 19 fish @ 9.880kg

Ladies: 1 Wilma Hugo 21 fish @ 17.809kg 2 Petra Piek 14 fish @ 12.616kg 3 Jacky Domoney 15 fish @ 4.075kg

Juniors:1 Bernika Hugo 4 fish @ 1.923kg

Results:

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Words/pics: Nigel Louw

THE

BAIT BOXTIPS

SWIMMING PRAWNIt is the right time of year now for the swimming prawns in our estuaries. They should be a decent size by now. Here is two waysof rigging the prawn on your hook.

Perfect drift bait for Kob, Grunter and most other species. Skipjack love them too.“ “

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SPARGS MALLBEACON BAY043 711 7700

Sponsored by

OPTION 1: Place the hook through the head section of the prawn. Not too deep, it must be just under the spike.

OPTION 2: Place the hook through the last segment of the prawns tail.

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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)

Angler: Trenette BillsonSpecies: KobLocation: J-BayBait: SquidSize: 74cm

Angler: Neels ClaasenSpecies: PignoseLocation: Cape RecifeBait: Pink PrawnSize: 10kg Angler: Joel Wicks

Species: ZebraLocation: NahoonBait: SquidSize: 25cm

CATCH & WIN

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Email your entry to nigel@fishingec.com with the followingdetails: - Anglers full name - Species - Location caught- Bait used - Size/Weight

March WinnerAngler: Justin KieckSpecies: ShadLocation: Glen EdenBait: Live MulletSize: 70cm

Tiaan wins himself a Robocup rod & drinks holder.

Angler: Joseph WeyersSpecies: SkipjackLocation: SwartkopsBait: Storm FlutterstickSize: 79cm

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TIDE CHARTApril 2015Information supplied by the Hydrographer SA Navy

The Hydrographer is not responsible for any tran-scription errors.

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