Hooked on Fishing: Geelbek are on the bite
Remember to respect bag and size limits.
SOME excellent catches of geelbek were made in the Hibberdene area last week. While commercial anglers are not restricted to quantities, recreational anglers are reminded that they are only permitted two fish per angler per day.
Yellowtail have also made an appearance. These fish are rated as one of the hardest fighting species in the ocean and will test even the most competent angler to the maximum. While these fish will eat a dead bait, the best manner to target them is either with a live bait or a vertical jig. Last week we had the experience of targeting these fish with the live-baits without success, yet another boat fishing the exact same area had great success with yellowtail and amberjack using the vertical jig method.
Kurt Rutter and Mark Brewitt, fishing on Kurt’s boat Dugga Bull, had six amberjack, and a yellowtail of 12.9kg. The current has been very slack over the last week, with a slight reverse (south to north) running, which has allowed for some excellent bottom fishing to be had. Englishman, more commonly known as ‘stumpies’, have been feeding prolifically in most areas and, again, one is reminded that the limit is one fish per person with a minimum size of 400mm.
Shad have been pretty scarce over the last week with basically only Orange Rocks consistently producing fish. Garrick have also become scarce with the disappearance of the shad, so hopefully conditions change and some good fishing can be had. August, known by the locals as ‘the windy month’, with strong north-easterly winds, was always the time when shad used to bite freely, so hopefully these fish will come back on the bite.
The Transkei rivers are still fishing very well, with Port St Johns reporting some good catches of garrick, grunter and kob.
Please remember that these fish come into the estuaries to spawn so while there is nothing wrong in keeping the odd fish for the pan, try and release whatever you can to ensure our fish stocks for the future.
Mark Bennett, Tackle Box
PORT EDWARD
It has been a week of excellent fishing and catches have included a prodigal son of 22kg, a number of large kob of up to 25kg, a geelbek and garrick also.
Shad are plentiful and are the reason for the bigger fish coming out, mostly on live shad as bait. The 25kg kob was caught by local Allan Killian while fishing for shad on a shad trace. Conditions have been good so get out there and enjoy this remarkable season we are having.
Terry Nel, Tackle Net.
