First prize in this year’s Mercury Ski-boat Fishing Festival competition is two 150hp 4-stroke Mercury motors valued at over R400 000.
There are also lots of other big prizes up for grabs.
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Last year’s winner Lourens Viljoen is coming back from Sweden to try and win again.
He’s originally from Margate but married a Swede and moved there about 10 years ago.
Fishing starts on Wednesday, July 4 with weigh-ins from 2pm to 5pm each day until Saturday, July 7 when weigh-in closes at 4pm.
The road in front of the Shelly Beach Ski-boat Club (Albert Meyer Drive) will be closed to traffic (except boats) from midnight on Tuesday, July 3 till 4pm on Saturday, July 7.
Permits will be available from the ski-boat club next week before 1pm on Tuesday, July 3.
All are welcome to come and watch the daily weigh-ins and Saturday night’s prize-giving which starts at 7pm.
Rock and surf
The much-anticipated sardine run finally hit in a big way.
These little silver fish brought with them shoals of predators in the water and crowds of people on the beaches.
If you have any leave, this might be the time to use it.
If you are wanting to target edible fish or inedible giants, a fresh sardine (or bunch) will be the best way of attracting their attention.
The best way to rig the sards on to your hook would be the ‘banana bunch’.
This means feeding a few sards on to the hook by either threading the hook through the eyes or mouths of the sards.
You are not throwing very far so do not bother with cotton on the bait, just lob and hold on.
For the guys wanting to specifically target edibles and stay away from the sharks, it is best to not use bait but to instead only throw spoons or lures.
A spoon that closely resembles the shape of a sardine is your best bet to tie in to one of the many game fish around.
Couta, kingfish and sharks are filling the reports from the sardine chasers.
Those that have been lucky enough to follow the sardine action have been treated to one of the best runs in many years.
The sharks have been following the sardines closely and have been taken on sardine bunch baits lobbed to them.
There have been too many great catches to mention each angler individually, congratulations to all those who have managed to land and release these magnificent fish.
With the cold water that is around, it is predicted that they will stay close inshore and should move further up the coast as the days go on.
Reports are in of shad being caught at various points on the South Coast.
Tight lines and screaming reels.
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