1FEC | March 2016

EC BAIT DEMO CATCH COMPETITION TIDES

FISHING

KAYAKCORNER

Brett Armstrong

BLAKESGrey Shark

BASSCLASSICPreview

TARGETLINEFreshwater Comp

WILD COASTWarner Brothers

ISSUE: 27

FREE

COPYPLEASE

TAKE ONE

MARCH 2016

WWW.FISHINGEC.COMYou can read the magazine on our website, find it on www.issuu.com or download the ISSUU app and read it on yourphone.

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Wild Coast 04

Bait Demo 20Whole flapped mackerelon circle.

Catch Competition 22Send us your photos and youcould win.

Tides 24Check the tide tables tomake sure you fishing theright times.

Target LineFreshwater Angling Club results after 11 competitions.

20

FEATURES

CONTENT

14

10

Blakes Grey Shark

Bass Classic Preview

Kayak Corner

18

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MAGAZINEEDITOR

Nigel Louw

CONTRIBUTORSThe Warner Brothers

Kelly Janse Van RensburgClint Lentz

Brett ArmstrongCarl Henn

Justin Du Preez

CONTACT

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email: nigel@fishingec.com

Mobile: 073 690 2606

Website: www.fishingec.com

Search: Fishing The Eastern Cape

Nigel LouwEditor

LETTEREDITORS

No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Fishing The Eastern Cape. The magazine

is published monthly and cannot be held responsible for inaccuracies in articles. The

views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the editor. Fishing The Eastern Cape does not accept responsibility

for advertising content.

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ON THE COVERBlake Janse Van Rensburg with his Grey Shark.

It has been quite a good warm season so far with lots of great articles and catches sent in. The humidity at the end of February was a bit of a killer and although we complain about the cold in winter I think the cooler weather is quite welcome now.

Up until and around Easter is a good time for the estuaries to produce. You can see in this months article, the good luck that the Warner Brothers had in the Tkei. Next month is part two of there trips.

Don’t forget to send in your catch photos for our Catch & Win page. You could be the next winner.

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Wild CoastFishingTargeting KobWords/pics: The Warner Brothers

After two weeks of a continuous east wind, the sea temperature was ice cold. However the addictive fisher-

man we are, we went for plan B. With swim-ming prawn being around, we headed off to the Transkei hoping to find some fish in the rivers where the water was a bit warmer and the food was a plenty. A late arrival on Friday night left us gearing up for an eager

two days of fishing. With the tide dropping at sunrise we decided to brave the cold wa-ter and do a sea session in the thick mist covering the fore shore. With the visibility so poor it was difficult to see any sand kick-ing up, but luckily we fish the area rather regularly and were able to use our instinct. After only landing one Kob on dropshot we decided to gear up for the river. We have

Part1:

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been landing numerous Kob trolling in the Transkei estuaries and we find the best times in summer are either early mornings or late afternoons. Preferably on a high tide. Missing the morning session and get-ting to the river at low tide, we decided to shoot up and get some swimming prawn. After drifting a few ledges we found where the fish were feeding and caught an abun-dance of Kob all between 45cm and 65cm. This was great fun on the light tackle. The advantage of using swimming prawn as bait is that any species will eat it. Together with the Kob, we also caught Spotties, Sand Sharks as well as a 40cm Stumpnose. Hav-ing so much fun, time flew by so quickly and the sun was setting, it was time to troll. We generally work one section of a river at a time. We start off trolling hard plastic lures, trying to have a variation of colour

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and sizes in the beginning. Different size lures have different actions and swim at different depths. Trolling normally rewards us with bigger fish, possibly because we tend to favour trolling the bigger lures. The Halco Lazer Pro 160dd would probably be our favourite. We have caught small Kob on huge lures, thus proving that Kob are aggressive eaters and they are not scared to attack any size lure that swims past it. If we find there is a lot of weed catching our lures, we tie a swivel on with about 50cm of 14kg leader. The swivel helps to catch the weed, before the lure does, this leaving your lure still swimming with a nice action. We have also landed Shad, Yellow Belly Rockod, and Garrick while trolling for Kob.Sunday, we trolled the sunrise session hooking into a few more decent size Kob. After some breakfast we did the same rou-tine as Saturday, only this time we learnt how the fish were feeding and where they were feeding at the different times of day and different water level. This particular weekend was extremely rewarding and just proved to us that if you put the hours

in, you will be rewarded. The conditions weren’t all that great but perseverance is an advantage. After such a successful weekend, we couldn’t resist but go back the following weekend. This time fish-ing higher up and targeting a variety ofdifferent species……..TO BE CONTINUED.

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Border Light Tackle Boat Comp 2015

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The Border Light Tackle Boat An-gling Competition was held from Saturday, 30th January 2016 from

16.00h through to Sunday, 31st Janu-ary 2016 7.00h on the Buffalo River.An Easterly wind blew which made it a bit uncomfortable for the anglers who were fishing in the harbour mouth. For-tunately the rain stayed away this year.We had approximately 80 – 90 boats participating as well as bank anglers.There were a total of 240 anglers par-ticipating.Overall it was a very successful competition with all fish being weighed by the marshals and released back into the river. A total of 72 edible fish and 47 non-

The results were as follows :

Heaviest edible Kob 9.90kg Dwayne Van RooyenHeaviest Non-Edible Thorntail skate 83.16kg Chris BodillHeaviest Bank Angler Spotted Grunter 3.45kg Derek Van Der LingenHeaviest Fish Junior Eagleray 5.77kg Cylie ClarkHeaviest Fish Senior Kob 9.75kg Pierre Van ReenenHeaviest Fish Lady kob 3.15kg Janine Klopper

edible fish were weighed and released.The interesting factor is that there was a yellowtail and sol-dier caught, which are deepsea fish.Our kitchen was run through the duration of the competition and sold out of food.All funds made from this annual com-petition are used to send teams to S.A. Nationals and to assist our development program, which has been running since 2001 and has produced Protea anglers.We would like to thank all our spon-sors for assisting in making this competition a success, as without them it would not be possible.

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All the weather reports had a dark cloud hanging over our Sun-day afternoon fishing trip, my

six year old son, Blake wanted noth-ing more than tight lines and big fish.We arrived at Bonza Bay just after 4pm and began setting up the rods. After a short game plan discussion he decided that he wanted to target a Great White! He fishes with a 10 foot Fenwick Eagle GT rod that I’ve paired with a Penn Fierce 4000 loaded with 20lb braid. The ter-minal tackle was a little of an overkill though, 5 meters of 0.7mm leader, a run-ning trace with a 50cm 90lb steel wire hook snoot. I opted for a 9/0 circle hook with a medium small rattler Dingle dangle

that we dressed with a small mullet head.The weight of the tackle was prov-ing a bit heavy for him to cast so I re-placed the 3oz sinker with a 2oz and let him take a few practice casts on the sand before we got our feet wet.The cast was good enough and after about five minutes he put the rod in the sand spike and took a seat on the cooler box. It didn’t take long and I noticed the enquiry through all the dragging seaweed. I handed him the rod and then was witness to just how observant our children are, everything from his body language to the way he used the whole beach to muscle the fish towards the shore was textbook perfect. After a very entertaining 20 minutes of tug of war

11FEC | March 2016

BlakesGreySharkWords: Kelly Janse Van Rensburg

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he adjusted his drag and changed gears, every meter of line that fish took was hard fought for, Blake had it under control, every aspect of the fight was calculated, even to the point where I was told to stop filming and go and pull the seaweed off of his line!Every piece of advice I gave was given only after having to swallow the lump in my throat, I’ve never been so proud. A friend of mine, Jaco, was waiting knee deep and made no mistake grabbing the shark’s tail and dragged it onto safer ground.A statement that had us all choking with laughter immediately followed Blake’s huge sigh of relief, he looked at the shark, gave his rod to Jannie and said “my work here is done”.After taking a couple of quick pictures we released a very strong and green Grey shark, just proving how well the shark was fought, not leaving it too tired to swim away.To add salt to the wounds of the adult an-glers, we had all put R10 into a pool to be given to the one that caught the biggest fish of the trip, not like he needed anything else to make his day better than it already was.Well done my boy, you deserve it!

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Can’t believe it’s March already! The days are just shooting by. Week-end appear to be full of wind and

undesirable ocean conditions. However, great fun was still to be had in the local rivers and dams. March and April should bring some better conditions for sure.

Product Review – Project Hobie Pro Angler 12So I have been very fortunate to have spent some time on my Hobie Pro Angler 12 over the last month. This kayak, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is manufactured in USA specifically for the extreme kayak fisherman, whether on inland water or the harsh ocean conditions we sometimes ex-perience. The Pro Angler users a foot pedal system, known as the Hobie Mirage drive, as apposed to the conventional paddling tech-nique we are accustomed to. It has the most amazing seating and chair system, which is fully adjustable and even tilts up to allow for easy standing while fishing. The kayak is only 3,66m long and 0.91m wide. Hobie have set this kayak way above the rest of the manufactures with their incredible use of space, efficiency in pedaling and just un-

KAYAK CORNERWords/pics: Brett Armstrong

believable layout, making it the ultimate fishing kayak. The pedal propulsion system is unreal and super fast. I was easily man-aging speeds far faster than when I was on a paddle kayak. The rudder system is also extremely effective allowing this craft to turn very easily and it is extremely re-sponsive to rudder controls and the torque from the pedals is instant. Checkout some of the photos and I look forward to more comprehensive write up in the next issues.

Mdumbi Kayak Fishing Trip – 27 April – 1 MayThe Kayak Fishing EC Club is really ex-cited about the planned trip to Mdumbi in the Transkei late April. Besides the fact that it has to be one of the most amazing places I have been to, it has an amazing river and even better ocean. The guys at-tending will stay at Mdumbi Backpackers and plans are already on the way to make

FISHING

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this the best trip ever. Both experienced and novice kayak fisherman are encour-aged to book your spot as place is running out really quickly. To book your spot and find out more information, please email Mark at admin@kayakfishingec.co.za.Kayak Safety Tip of the monthDon’t use the anchor unless you need to. Nailing yourself to the seabed removes a lot of the Yaks advantages. Drifting through reef sections is also a great way to catch fish. But also don’t go to sea without one! An anchor can be used as a safety device if you get blown out to sea or get injured. Of course you must also carry a drogue anchor for additional safety during strong currents should you loose your paddle for example.

Keeping your kayak cleanOkay, so I am rather OCD when it comes to looking after my stuff, however, it is impor-tant to keep your kayak in a clean condi-tion. Cleaning your kayak after a day out allows you to see if there are any cracks or leaks which may render your next trip unsafe. Be very observant when packing away, a small hole can course you serious problems when paddling the ocean. Pre-

ventative maintenance is the best kind. An-other helpful hint is a fishing bag for your catch. Try and get a bag, which enables you to initially store stuff in it, and then place your catch in it when you decide to keep it. This keeps all the blood and mess in the bag, and not lying at the bottom of your kayak, or even worse, draining through your scupper holes. You will soon get a visit from a inquisitive shark coming to inves-tigate where all the blood is coming from.

Kayak Club for East LondonEast London kayak fishing enthusiasts have a club under which we operate, namely, Kay-ak Fishing EC. We have a very informative and interesting website (with more updates to follow) at www.kayakfishingec.co.za and a Facebook page with the same name, Kayak Fishing EC, and would like to encourage you to go and checkout our site and to also Like us on Facebook and then share/spread the news. The club is focused on both ocean and river kayak fishing, so there is something for everyone here. We have a host of infor-mation and galleries available on the web-site, so check it out and join us on the water.

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Kelly Janse Van Rensburg with a Black Steenbras caught from his kayak.

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This month’s tip on rigging your kayak and some safety points:I would like to just highlight a few tips based on quite a few emails I have received over the last couple of weeks. Firstly, all rods and loose items, for example knives, fish grips and gaffs should be stored safely in the hatch when launching and beach-ing with your kayak in the ocean. Once you have pasted the danger zones, it is nor-mally fine to remove all the rods and items, based on the assumption the conditions are safe to do so. Rod leashes, other bun-gee leashes for other small items are very important. There is nothing that will spoil your day out like loosing a rod and reel or knife in the ocean. Another very impor-tant item to protect is your paddle. A good strong paddle leash is extremely important when fishing in the ocean. You will face a massive challenge, which could proof life threatening should you loose your paddle in the ocean. Another advantage of hav-ing a strong paddle leash, is if you should fall off your kayak while launch or beach-ing, you can always hold on to your paddle, which keeps you in contact with your kayak. This will allow you to get back on your kay-ak quicker and to the safety of the beach. But remember, the paddle leash must be securely connected to both the paddle and the kayak. The leash is as strong as the weakest link to either. Also ensure that any containers or crates are securely fasted to the kayak, you don’t want to loose your belongings before even starting to fish.Finally, the last few point, always kayak in the ocean with a friend or two, there is safety in numbers. Keep within a good distance with your fellow kayakers and always maintain communication with them. It is extremely easy to drift very quickly and be separated from your fellow kayakers in strong winds or currents. Don’t paddle off into the distance, rather paddle slower, but keep together. For more information on kayak fish-ing and related aspects, please do not hesitate to contact me at info@kayakfishingec.co.za. Also checkout

our website at www.kayakfishingec.co.za. To join our Whats app kayak fishing EL group, please email us and we will add you. It’s a great way to meet new guys and plan fish-ing trips and chat about our amazing sport.

Remember: Safety first and always respect our environment.

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The AMATOLA BASS CLASSIC is an event, which has been held at the Wriggleswade Dam, outside Stutter-

heim, since the year 2000. The purpose of the event is to raise funds for the Border team members who travel both locally and internationally to participate in inter-national, national and provincial events, thus representing the Border Province.This is a stepping-stone for anglers who have their sights set on obtain-ing National Honours to represent South Africa both locally and abroad.The next AMATOLA BASS CLASSIC will be held on the 12th and 13th March 2016.

Amatola Bass ClassicGet your tickets now!Words: Clint Lentz

The event has grown over the years from +/- 50 boats with an average of 90 boats annually.Anglers travel from as far afield as Gau-teng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu Na-tal to compete in this premier event with many Protea anglers in attendance. The event is covered by many nationally dis-tributed fishing publications, a testament to its stature as a leading event on the na-tional fishing calendar. Come join in and stand a chance at one of the many and great prizes on offer in the Eastern Cape’s best Bass Fishing waters. Ladies and juniorprizes available and encouraged.

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On Saturday 06-02-2016, Target Line Freshwater Angling Club had its 11th club competition for the season at Na-hoon Dam, rural side. This was to be our second over night competition at a venue many in the club were dying to fish through the night. The comp was set from 10:00 Saturday to 10:00 the Sunday.On arrival at the dam, we were greeted with a moderate headwind. Weather re-ports indicated that it would pick up and hammer us till the next morning.10:00 the siren blew and within 2min my dad was fish on…….looked like we were gona be in for a bumper comp. Against this headwind many anglers battled to get de-scent distance, but the fish seemed to be coming out at even closer distances. This was good news for all the anglers. The wind picked up to about 60km/h later in the day and even demolished a gazebo.At about 23:00 the wind died down com-pletely and the water looked like glass. We hoped that it would stay like that, but

against weather predictions it turned and came from behind. Fantastic for getting dis-tance, but not good for staying on your feed-ing spot and trying to keep the fish there.Anglers that battled the Saturday ham-mered the fish on Sunday morning as the wind blew the fish to them in coves.There were really great catches amongst the anglers, with Andy Warren leading the pack. His bag of carp hitting the scale at 52.990kg . Not feeling left out, Martin Piek weighed a mixed bag of carp and barbell for 48.722kg .Petra Piek, for the ladies, did not feel left out. She put together a bag of 30.787kg . A total of 125fish were weighed on Sunday, totaling 276.727kg . Not bad at all for fishing in shallows.We, as before after a 24 hour comp, decided to donate a large portion of the catches to the community. They were grateful and we were more than glad to give something back to them.

TARGET LINEFreshwater club results comp 11Words/pics: Carl Henn

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As I have mentioned before………no more overall standings available be-cause this the 2nd last comp for the season. Standings are close and sur-prises are imminent. For any enquiries on how to join our club or anything at all, feel free to call me on 073 857 2209, e-mail sales@targetline.co.za or join on face book at Target Line FAC, or send me a Whats app message. New on the shelves in Target Line, Vincent branch, East London…………. Gariep Super Dips, with ball dips and bullets, Magic Baits’ Liquid Gems to supplement the Floating Gem range, as well as other favorites, such as Conoflex ground feed. That is avail-able in 2kg and 4kg bags. We also stock the complete Conoflex’ Louwtjie Signi-ture Series and Competition Series in dips and ball dips. Come and check them out.See you all reel soon on the banks…PS: Komani Gun Cellars (Powered by Target Line) in Queenstown, nowalso stock all your carping needs.

Here are the results of the competition:

Seniors:1 Martin Piek 19 fish 48.722kg2 JJ Koch 9 fish 28.137kg3 Adam Barnard 4 fish 13.065kg

Masters:1 Andy Warren 14 fish 52.990kg2 Anthon Henn 12 fish 17.760kg3 Chris Koch 8 fish 15.646kg

Ladies:1 Petra Piek 12 fish 30.787kg2 Lezanda Engelbrecht 2 fish 4.317kg

Juniors:1 Jordan Barnard 7 fish 9.643kg2 Liane Husselmann 2 fish 2.438kg

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If our 2015 fishing competition left our club members with wide eyes and open jaws in terms of the level of public inter-

est, support and competitor numbers, then our 2016 competition has surely left them with a smile from ear to ear and chests swol-len with pride. It is truly satisfying to see the fruits of one’s efforts, when one has put in so much time and hard work (read: physi-cal manual labour), paying off in the end.Our second annual Rooikrans Dam Lun-ker Bass competition entry field expanded significantly from 2015, with a field of 80 competitors heading off in all direc-tions across the dam in search of some decent sized bass. What was wonderful to see was the numbers of juniors who tagged along with their moms and dads to come and try their hand at this bass fish-ing story. Many of our photos show the youngsters just having fun on the water.Some amazing prizes sat in the

shade and waited for the an-glers to return with their catches.All fish that were brought to the com-petition weighmaster were returned to the dam alive in accordance with our headline sponsor, Fishtube.tv and Roam Free, a fishing conservation initia-tive. Go to www.facebook.com/Fishtube.Three really special prizes were on offer for the angler who weighed in the heaviest two-fish-bag-limit and were awarded as follows:• The Rapala/RoamFree/Fishtube.tv prize of a week-long holiday accommodation voucher for 6 courtesy of Easy Holidays for the heaviest two-fish-bag consisting of one Largemouth bass and one Smallmouth bass was awarded to Richard Eldridge with his two fish weighing a combined 1.530kg.• The King Trellis prize of an in-stalled security product to the value of R3500.00 for the heaviest two-fish-bag consisting of only Smallmouth bass

KWT BASSMASTERS COMPETITION

23FEC | March 2016

was awarded to Nigel Maritz with his two fish weighing a combined 845g.• The Fabkomp/Peake Performance prize consisting of a braai stand, outdoor bread oven, potjie pot stand and a branded 12V leisure battery for the heaviest two-fish-bag consisting only of Largemouth bass was awarded to Morgan Hein with his two fish weighing a combined 1.465kg.The fish that qualified for these bag prizes did not qualify for the heaviest individual fish prizes so that more com-petitors stood a chance to win a prize. The individual heaviest fish prizes were split into categories for Largemouth and Smallmouth bass and then again into cat-egories for seniors, ladies and juniors.Only one lady competitor was able to catch a qualifying size bass, and for her efforts, Melissa De Beer walked away with 1st prize for a Largemouth bass weighing 410g.Eighteen junior anglers were trying their best to land a fish on the day, unfortunately,

only four anglers managed to weigh in a fish.Largemouth bass: • 4th place went to Wiehan Bester for his first ever bass weighing 345g• 3rd place went to Michael Kleinhans with a fish of 380g• 2nd place went to Mitch-ell Bennett with his fish of 455g• First place went to Luke Eberhardt with a fish of 510g. Luke also weighed in the only Smallmouth bass for junior anglers and thus was awarded 1st place with his fish of 995g – which, incidentally, was also the overall heaviest fish for the day.

For the senior’s Largemouth bass:• 5th and 4th place was awarded to Alton Arthur for his two fish weigh-ing 600g and 650g respectively• 3rd place went to Wal-ly Oelofse with a fish of 680g• 2nd place went to Brett McIn-tyre for his fish of 720g• 1st place, and all the bragging rights went to Paul Johnson with a fish of 910g.For the senior’s Smallmouth bass:• 5th place went to Jacques Ter-hoeven with a fish of 395g• 4th place went to Peter Hein with a fish of 400g• There was a tie for 3rd place shared between Peter-John Ferreira and Wal-ly Oelofse with their fish of 410g• 1st place, and all the bragging rights went to Graham Hansel with his fish of 560g

A special (sur)prize consisting of a brand new shiny baitcaster fishing reel, sponsored by Juluka Electrical Services, was awarded to the 1st junior angler to enter the com-petition, awarded to Nathaniel Baatjies.

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Words/pics: Justin Du Preez

THE

BAIT BOXTIPSWHOLE FLAPPED

MACKEREL ON CIRCLE HOOKThe mackie can be substituted with sard, mullet, streepie, shad ,yel-lowtail you name it just upsize or downsize your hook etc ...happy hunting

You need a knife side cutter trace with dingle on circle cotton cabletie and a mackie.

Measure till where you going to flap the mackie and tie off wire with loop for clipping.

Cut mackie from tail up to point of flap and remove middle bone.

Also cut open underneath so that the dingle and foam can be inserted.

1

3 4

2

25FEC | March 2016

SPARGS MALLBEACON BAY043 711 7700

Sponsored by

Insert circle hook and dingle into open mackie as such.

The completed bait with casting loop.

Lastly hook your sinker on and you are ready to

cast.

Cotton closed and put cabletie in place.

76

5

8

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Send us your best catch picture and you could win an awesome prize. (Photo must be of yourself holding the fish and preferably still alive. Photos of gutted fish do not qualify)Email your entry to nigel@fishingec.com with the followingdetails: - Anglers full name - Species - Location caught- Bait used - Size/Weight

Angler: Allan JonkerSpecies: GeelbekLocation: KasougaBait: SardineSize: 54cm

Angler: Darron BailingSpecies: Tuff tekkieLocation: KweleraBait: MudprawnSize: 5 or 6

Angler: Bernard Du PlessisSpecies: LeerieLocation: GonubieBait: Live MulletSize: 1kg

CATCH & WIN

27FEC | March 2016

January Winner

Angler: Daniel MinnieSpecies: Ragged Tooth SharkLocation: KabeljousBait: Shad HeadSize: 170kg

Angler: Mark GendallSpecies: KobLocation: XoraBait: Catfish LegSize: 102cm

Mark wins himself an asortment of Triton lures. Sponsored by Bilimoria Fishing Tackle + an Alcock’s book.

Keep sending in your catches and stand a chance of winning a prize plus a copy of the new Alcock’s trolling and spinning book.

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TIDE CHARTMarch 2016Information supplied by the Hydrographer SA Navy

The Hydrographer is not responsible for anytranscription errors.

TO ADVERTISEWITH

CONTACT:NIGEL@FISHINGEC.COM

073 690 2606

29FEC | March 2016

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