#FishEagle: What a drag! Know your gear, and waters

Early morning anglers targeting shad last week found fishing a little quieter than usual, but this was to be expected at the back end of season.

A few big shad were caught last week although the fish were definitely a lot scarcer than in recent weeks.

But again I saw a couple of big shad lost in the shore break.

One angler hooked into a real bus of a shad and he was doing his best to winch the fish ashore as quickly as he could.

However the problem began when the big fish was reeled in to the shore break.

It was clear the angler had set the drag on his fixed spool reel or ‘grinder’ as tight as possible.

There was no use of the water of the in-shore break to help land the fish and line peeled from the reel as the pressure increased.

Instead, it was up to brute force, and a tug of war followed between angler and fish.

Emerging victorious, the shad eventually broke free.

It really amazes me to see anglers arrive at the beach sporting expensive equipment but when the chips are down, they don’t understand how to set their equipment correctly.

This year I have seen possibly half a dozen big shad lost in exactly the same way, simply because of incorrectly set drags.

It is the most important item of anglers’ equipment and when anglers buy these expensive items they should ask at the tackle shops how to get the best use out of the item.

Surf conditions were ideal for the fishing of summer rays and sand sharks, with a number of both being landed from local beaches.

The discoloured water has also enticed a few big sharks in-shore as well, which caused a few exciting moments.

Sharks really do enjoy the calm surf conditions and, the best time of day to fish for these arm-stretching fish is late afternoon into the early evening.

As most of the local rock and surf anglers prefer to catch edible species, at this time of the year light tackle angling may produce some excellent results for anglers trying for bull mullet and the five spot pompano.

These fish are mainly caught right in the shore break and can give excellent sport.

Back when I used to fish at deep sea from ski-boats, December 16 normally proved to be the day barracouta would first make an appearance.

Now couta tend to appear later in the season. At present, dorado and yellowfin tuna are the species being targeted.

But the in-shore fishermen could try and see whether there are any big kingfish.

I say this because there was a rumour that an angler fishing the backline on the upper South Coast aboard a surf-ski boated a nice GT recently using live mackerel bait.

Anglers could soon be seen travelling to deeper waters if game fish angling is slow – opting to fish the bottom reefs for reds, rockcod and kob.

Some nice catches have been recorded recently but fishing on the bottom depends very much on the elements.

The winds that have been pushing recently tend to create currents which can be strong and fishing can be really difficult.

Even more so when reverse currents are in play.

This has been a really strange year, but if everyone abides by the rules, a return to normality could come sooner rather than later.