We arrived in Kaysers Beach on Wednesday evening after a pretty hectic trip. The weather was drizzly so we had put our bags and Tug’s bed in black bin bags. Driving through Qumbu in bumper to bumper traffic, an affirmative shopper decided to help himself to the black bag closest to the tailgate. I would have loved to see his face when he opened the bag and found a huge, smelly dog bed
. Just before Umtata we stopped and I tied all our rods, cooler box and tackle bag in a spider web of rope. Even with the one way route through Umtata, the traffic was once again bumper to bumper, with congested robots and drivers ignoring red robots. Stuck in traffic but more alert to affirmative shoppers, we had another jump onto the tail bumper but on seeing everything was inaccessible, he casually stepped down and sauntered off
. Both Scotty and I threw our doors open but by then he was 30m from the bakkie – a few choice
of his heritage and character were yelled at him, much to the astonishment of the pedestrians. It is so infuriating that this is done so blatantly, with absolute arrogance and there is nothing that one can do as they disappear into the crowds.
We went to East London the next day to collect Dean’s new rod and reel from Bilimoria, stock up on bait and get some groceries. Later that afternoon Dean and I went to our favourite spot on the point at the lagoon. I had put out a challenge to Dean and the competition was on … well, the lightie proceeded to show the ballie how it’s done. He landed a small duckbill, a small sandshark, 2 barbel, dropped a stumpy at his feet and a black tail whilst all I managed was a 104cm sand shark. Round 1 to the lightie
.
We had been invited to go fishing with Roy who tags Ragged Tooth Sharks for a research institute, so Friday morning we packed up and met up with him. As part of the programme, he is allowed to drive on the beach, but very strict rules apply. No other fish may be targeted or removed – by catches must be safely released. No other living organism may be removed. No dogs are allowed (I had hoped to take my JR).
On arriving at our destination, we tried to net some mullet in the river but it was too deep and the mullet too wily, sounding as soon as they saw the net. We drove along the beach looking for mullet in the shore break. It wasn’t long and he spotted the tell-tale signs of a green tinge to the foam. The nets came out and the mullet again proved to be far too elusive. After an hour or so of netting we had enough to go fishing.
He took us to a nursery bay and we looked at each other in consternation – we were going to catch raggies here
? Had we been looking for a place to fish and come up on this bay, we would have never fished into it but off the points. Well, he is the expert (having tagged 580 odd raggies) who were we to argue. Live baits were hooked up and Roy instructed us to lob them a mere 20m into the centre of the bay. No way! This was going against everything we knew about targeting sharks. It wasn’t long and Dean got the typical raggie hold and chew bump. He struck and started reeling in – the tail surfaced and we realised that this was a totally different approach to fishing. But the pup had the last laugh, dropping the bait a meter from the edge, giving a lazy flap with its tail, as if giving him the finger and a fat
, it slowly swam off. The game was on and it wasn’t long after that Scotty got his bump. Same thing happened – 1m from the edge, it spat the bait out, a lazy tail flap and away it swam. Dean got another hook-up and landed a pup about a metre long, shortly followed by another. Roy dropped 2 then hooked one – 3 pups in the pool. Scotty had another 3 spit the bait. I had not had even as much as a knock. Dean landed a nice one of about 25kg which had a tag, so Roy and Dean measured, weighed and removed the ORI tag. Roy cleaned the area where the tag was and it was put into the pool with the others. Roy then landed another which also had a tag, so it was measured. This was one of his tags, so it wasn’t removed, only the number written down. By now the tide was pushing strongly and the pups went off the bite. The pups in the pool had all swam out on the rising tide. Scotty was fascinated by the pups. They are truly beautiful predators, with an awe inspiring set of gnashes even at that size. He picked one up by the tail as it had got into a shallow part of the pool and was studying it before putting it back into a deeper section. It showed its appreciation by whipping around and almost biting his hand. Needless to say, it got dumped into the water rather rapidly
. Total number of pups for the morning – Dean 5 and Roy 4 in 2 hours with about 12 dropped.
A rather unfortunate incident occurred while Dean was landing his first pup. He was so excited to get his new rod (Shimano Technium Heavy Elite) and blooding it. The rod was taken out of its tube, not put down on the rocks/sand once, even while tackling and baiting up, and as he lifted the pup over the kelp, we heard a sickening crack. I could not believe my eyes as I turned to see the cause of the crack – his heavy tip had broken off below the second eye. It was a clean break. Scotty took the tip back to Bilimoria on the Saturday but was told that the rep would have to be contacted but in all probability the tip would be replaced. He insisted that the complete rod be replaced but there was no commitment from the store manager. We are waiting for the return phone call that was promised …
Roy took Dean and I back to the same bay on Saturday but conditions had changed and the pups weren’t feeding. We tried live baits, dead baits, bloody baits, but apart from Dean who dropped 1, the few bites that were had were non-committal. The swell was up and although the water temperature had dropped, the wind was now from the south and the barometer had risen drastically. We gave up as the tide started to push.
That night Dean and I went with Roy to Gulu, another well known feeding area. We arrived at 9pm and again, this was so different to how we would have conventionally fished for sharks
. The bay is protected by 2 semi parallel reefs about 80m out, with a sharp drop off at the shore break. Roy suggested we throw the baits out at different distances to try and see where they were feeding. We fished hard, trying out all sorts of baits but nothing was happening. The sea was surging to a certain extent, but Roy thought that the high barometric pressure was influencing the feeding patterns. We decided to call it quits at about 1.30am. Roy and Dean were packing up the live bait well when I noticed Roy’s rod bouncing. He was fishing with a circle and hooked the fish. He gave the rod to me to reel it in and so I finally got a raggie – even if it was a half share in one
. This motivated us to try for a little longer, but finally at 2.30am we packed up.
Nursery bays – there are 4 such bays along the Border coast where the mothers drop their pups. She will come to the same bay every second year. As she swims past, she gives birth, the pup finds its way into the bay and she continues on her journey. It stays in that bay for 5 – 8 years, feeding on mullet and smaller fish. They also eat each other. At high tide the bigger raggies come into the bay to feed on the pups. This is why on the pushing tide the pups go off the bite as they have learnt to hide. If the pups aren’t feeding, one reason could be the presence of a larger raggie hunting them. Roy had dived in this particular bay and counted 56 raggie pups. The pups grow an average of 5kg per year. The mother starts with multiple eggs, but the first born will eat all the others as they “hatch” in the uterus. Very occasionally 2 hatch simultaneously and she will give birth to twins. We also learnt that the raggie has the fastest side swipe of all the sharks. This is how they catch their prey – by slowly swimming past or through a shoal fish then with lightning speed snatching the fish in a sideways motion.
A huge thanks to Roy for inviting us to go along with him; it was such a privilege. He has an enormous love for these sharks and shared his knowledge and passion with us. It was a highlight of my weekend and made even more special sharing it with my son
.
We tried Seavale on Sunday morning but the swell was pretty big – the guys were surfing where we were trying to fish – that in itself should say something
. I landed a small skaamhaai but Dean’s slide just tangled so the session didn’t last very long.
I have to eat humble pie as I issued the weekend challenge on FB by saying that I was going to teach a certain young man how to catch fish. I was well and truly given a carrot by my son who beat me with 10 fish and 5 species to my paltry 2 (and a half) fish. Well done Boet! You fished like a pro
. WJ, thanks for your invite to join you – I hope we can meet up next time we go down to Kaysers.
