I once again had the pleasure of a trip to Hole in the Wall. This time with my wife, and a friend (whose late Father owned the house), her Mom and daughter, staying for 2 weeks. We left JHB on Saturday the 4th of May around 10:00 and travelled down to Aliwal North (6 hours), where we spent the night in a BnB. Sunday morning around 07:00 we headed to the Transkei. There are 2 stop/go road constructions between Aliwal North and Barkley East, but the road is in great condition. After Barkley East the road condition is still OK, but less Ok than JHB to Barkley East. A newish change of plan at Elliot, as the pass between Ugie and Mthatha is closed to traffic, so turn right at Elliot and head to Cala and Ngcobo (turn left a few km's out of town, and then left again). Scenery is spectacular, but road condition OK, but not the best. The road from Ngcobo to Mthatha is great. The Coffee bay road was better than expected, and even the sand road (17km) to Hole in the Wall was OK.
Consulted with my regular gillie about the fishing conditions and the state of the sardine run, the size of the shad coming out, etc. We agreed on a plan to fish the early mornings, from around 05:30 till about 09:30. I would spend the rest of the day with the people I was with, and maybe do a late fish in the afternoon, where I would be my own gillie. As per the Dumpie (my gillie), only one bait ball of sards had been through, the shad were small, and there were bream around.
Dumpie and I fished most mornings on the Queen, and then moved to Little Danger to look for some bream, (he brought his rod along.) We caught nice size shad - 35 to 40 cm. These only came out between the time it was light enough to not use a torch, and about 08:00'ish. There were not a lot, and mostly we walked home with 3 or 4 shad in the bucket. Shad fishing is mostly drift bait. Not too many people on the Queen, which was great. Blacktail were fairly plentiful. Also caught a bronze bream, a zebra, and 2 sea barble. The sea baeble are a bit of a mission to fillet, but are great eating. I hooked into a small shark of about 75cm plus from the Queen on my Berkley air 10 foot rod, which was great fun. We tried to get it to the pond so we could de-hook it and release it, but the line parted somewhere along the way. A small sand shark was also hooked at Little Danger on the Berkley Air. Great fun.
Some afternoons, we took a walk down to the Hole in the Wall, and threw a line in and watched the sunset from there. Never caught anything, but it was great anyway. Lost a good few hooks, sinkers and swivels at the Hole.
One of the locals pulled a nice garrick out at the Queen, which we purchased, and had fit for breakfast over the next few days.
Sards were available at the big general dealer at R50 a box, and we also got some crayfish from the locals to use as bait. Carol and I each had one on the braai and another in the salad.
Weather was great for the duration, with one day where it rained the afternoon and evening. This was welcomed as the rain tanks needed filling. Sea was chilly but swimable.
We saw a number of bait balls coming through, some dolphin activity (one school was hammering the sards), and one or 2 whales. There was not much bird activity.
The journey back was quiet. We overnighted in Bloem at GL's place (long time friend and fishing buddy), and arrived back in JHB on Sunday the 20th at lunch time.
I now have 3 weeks to prepare for the annual men's trip to the same place.