Herald Fishing: Fly anglers tie things up in style
The club has about 25 members, including one very brave young woman. It has been running for 24 years and members travel to different locations to fish in both salt and freshwater locations.
The 24th annual prize-giving function of the South Coast Fly Anglers (SCFA) was held at the home of Stephen and Olga Brand in Trafalgar last Saturday, with 24 members and their families attending.
In spite of heavy rain, it was a festive evening and everybody went home with a prize of some sort.
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The club has about 25 members, including one very brave young woman. It has been running for 24 years and members travel to different locations to fish in both salt and freshwater locations.
They also regularly get together to tie flies, an intricate operation that involves feathers, shiny cottons and all sorts of other materials to lure unsuspecting fish onto hooks.
PRIZE WINNERS
Chris van Wyk chairman’s award: Justin Ashington.
Most meritorious fish: Bianca Luther (3.6 kg rainbow trout).
Second most meritorious fish: Stan Park (2.5kg rainbow trout).
Most prolific angler: Sean Tharratt (69 fish).
Most species caught: Sean Tharratt (11 species).
Most improved angler: Liam van der Merwe (selected for the Protea junior squad to fish in the Czech Republic in October 2019).
Salt water fly tyer of the year: Dean Angove.
Fresh water fly tyer of the year: Dean Angove.
MERIT AWARDS
Rob Nicholas (lesser sandshark), David Schwartz (1.5kg tiger fish and 1.4kg blacktip kingfish).
Ken Schwartz (1.5kg tiger fish and 38cm wave garrick).
Werner Grobler (East coast sole and lesser sandshark).
Justin Ashington: Selected for the South African Sports Angling and Casting Confederation (SASACC) junior squad to fish in the Czech Republic in May 2019.
Winners of the raffle of fishing flies, run by SCFA were Neil Scott (1st), Dennis Graham (2nd) and Tony Leary (3rd).
GENERAL
The fishing has been extremely productive over the last week.
The offshore guys are having an absolute blast with the summer game fish.
Dorado, tuna and couta have been the main catches, and there have been some giants of all three species finding their way on to the hook and in to the hatch.
Reports are in of a couple of mussel crackers caught off Shelly Beach.
The inedibles being landed have been a mixed bag of the usual suspects including sand sharks, diamonds and brown rays.
There have also been plenty of edible fish for the rock and surf guys along with a few giants.
There have been reports of some absolute bomber bronze bream being caught over the last week and the sale of small orange floats has shown that the news has spread.
There have also been a few kob, pompano and some very nice stumpnose coming out.
The baits that have been producing the pulls are pink prawn as a base mixed with sealice or chokka. Cracker shrimp (mud prawns) is also a very versatile bait for any edible fish.
The offshore scene has been fairly active with the arrival of the shoal couta and the ever-present tuna keeping all the offshore guys busy, no matter their vessel of choice.
Tuna are out and about along the entire South Coast. Trolling lures have been the best method of catching these feisty football-sized tuna.
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Crayfish season has open and reports of some decent crayfish being bagged. Buy your permits at any port office to catch crayfish and the limit is eight crayfish.
Remember that you require a licence to collect anything from the sea or beach so make sure you have the appropriate paperwork before you go about using any natural bait.
Tight lines and screaming reels.
HAVE YOUR SAY
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