We left Johannesburg in the early hours of the 22nd of December and it started raining when we were at Soweto, rain all the way down to the coast. Drive was long and scary (#$*^&%$ idiots overtaking on blind rises with total disregard of their own and other people’s safety…) all 13 hours of it.
When you cross the bridge,
you almost there with minutes to go…..mmmmm until you get to the next little stream that’s in full flood.
Unfortunately I don’t have any pics but we had to wait 35 minutes in order to cross the stream safely.
Arrived safely at Wavecrest and it was lovely to see all the old friends again.
After unpacking I went to the bar and looked at the catch register to see what has been caught and the prospects looked rather bleak but stuff that, was on holiday at the coast having on a few cold ones with friends and family.
That afternoon we went to Coal reef to see what the conditions were like and made a few casts.
On the second cast I was on with a 55cm Cob. My fishing partner also got a Cob of the same size on his 2nd cast. We each landed 2 fish that afternoon.
During the next few days we often went back to coal reef and caught small Cob, our favourite spot Cob hole was totally unfishable with very high tides and strong current.
I just love Christmas in the Transkei, all the happy faces when Santa arrived.
With the very high seas we were forced to also try other fishing spots such as the Kobanjaba River.
We also caught a few small cob here and I was fortunate to meet the owner of McCarthy paddle tails here, we had some very interesting conversations and fished together a few times.
When the wind was howling I go to a little bay that’s only fishable on high tide and it is always rewarding. Very nice to see that the Yellow Belly Rockcods are back, albeit small still nice to catch.
Caught a very strange fish this year, Catfisheel or Catface Eel, landed 2 of them during the holidays.
We went to Cob hole on the 28th and the conditions was very rough. You go to the casting spot and then run back to safety.
The 2 guys fishing with me each landed a 60cm Cob and I was just loosing paddletail after paddletail to the greedy rocks. On the next cast it felt like I got stuck again but then the “rock” started moving. The fish took about 50 meters of line before I could turn it. The battle was intense and I had some VERY anxious moments landing it on the rocks, Man oh man what a beaut. The fish measured 94 cm and I was ecstatic with my pre-birthday gift. Unfortunately we couldn’t revive the fish. It did not go to waste as it made a great meal for all the hotel guests the next evening. Gera used: Adrenalin 10’ Extreme Dropshot rod, Penn Battle 4000 reel with 15lbs braid and McCarthy 6’ Olive/Pearl paddletail on a 2ounce head.
Please note that the last pic was taken AFTER I couldn't revive the fish
You know you are truly blessed when you are greeted with a sight like this, LOVE the Transkei.
The weather was nasty and the hotel arranged an outing to the Qolora River for cliff jumping. The beauty surrounding this place was breath-taking. We had great fun there and my daughter finally took the plunge after much pressure from the group….
My fishing companion caught a 85cm Cob the next day on a 4inch paddletail, same colour as what I used (Don’t have his permission yet to post pic, so I blanked the face).
What more can a man ask for than fishing the sunset….
Tried fishing for sharks and had a nice pickup on Yellowtail head but unfortunately the hook did not set.
It was another great holiday in the Transkei and we all had fun.
