Fish Eagle: Strategy and timing make all the difference

Last week presented some really good fishing conditions with for much of the week, a relatively small surf.

The recent rainfall filled the rivers that began flowing into the sea and this should attract fish as they tend to look for food in the mixed fresh and seawater.

The local beaches need something to shake up the fishing. The fresh north easterly wind last Friday distributed the dirty water over a wide area and on Saturday morning I saw anglers looking at the water in disapproval.

Friends took advantage of the good fishing conditions and fished their preferred area at night on three different occasions with mixed results. They reported that the surf was relatively calm and on the first night, they managed to land one small stumpie and found plenty of peckers attacking their baited hooks.

On the second outing, they found similar fishing conditions with the peckers still a problem then after about an hour of fishing time, the peckers seemed to just vanish and for a while all was quiet. One of the anglers went on with a fish that felt like it could be of a decent size and after a short battle, landed a grunter weighing around three kilos.

A short while later two of the anglers had bites and hooked into decent sized fish. One of these was soon lost but the other proved to be another grunter weighing nearly five kilos. After that, the fishing went quiet and they left the beach.

On the third outing in the same area, the fishing was really quiet for the first hour and a half, then one of the anglers hooked and landed a big stumpie weighing six kilos.

The fishing then went dead again and one of the anglers cast out a mixed grill bait of mackerel fillet and chokka. The bait was in the water for about 15 minutes when he felt a tremendous bite and hooked into a fish that gave a tremendous fight.

The fish was brought into the shore break area after 20 minutes by shining lights into the water, they saw a large shark on the end of the line. When the fish was identified as a shark, the angler began to exert pressure on the line and inevitably the hook straightened and the shark was lost.

Many anglers are of the opinion that fishing in the surf at present is a waste of time but this story proves that if the correct tactics and times of fishing are implemented, then there are decent fish to be caught. Just casting a bait into the sea and just hoping for a bite does not always work.

It helps to do some research to find out what species can be found in local waters at present and where these fish are most likely to be found. I kept a diary for many years and this certainly helped to improve catches and to choose which area would present the best option. The angler that advised me many years ago to keep a diary was a Springbok angler. While other anglers said he was a lucky fishermen, he said he always referred to his diary when fishing.

Sealice

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