ULTIMATE ANGLING - the Ultimate SA Fishing website
General Angling Topics => Saltwater Lure Angling => Topic started by: Tommo on February 10, 2011, 08:53:09 PM
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Well I know I have been quiet on Ultimate Angling over the past two months, but I have been busy.... Meaning I have been doing a bit of fishing. I have enjoyed a couple of amazing trips down to the Transkei, and fished a couple of estuaries on that wonderful coastline, and Man it has been great!
It has been a pleasure fishing without the pressures of being on camera, just getting back to enjoying my time on the water, and there is no better place to do it than on the wild coast.
There has been a lot of North Easterly winds down that way recently, resulting in the sea water being very cold and dirty. Also with the good summer rains we have had this season, there has been plenty of fresh water flowing into the rivers. The fishing in the rivers has been truly excellent. Many fish are virtually trapped in the warmer waters of the upper reaches of the rivers when the sea water is very cold, and subsequently the fishing up there is great. I have concentrated on dropshot fishing and also working surface lures and as a result caught ten different species of fish.
On drop shot My wife, my mates and I caught kob, bar tailed gurnard, GT, big eye kingfish, javelin grunter and cock grunter. On surface lures we caught river snapper sea pike, perch, GT's, Big eye kingfish, some kob and even a thornfish.
One of the highlights for me was catching kob on slow moving surface lures such as Rapala Skitter walks and MirrOlure 7M's. Very early in the morning when the kob are feeding on mullet in relatively shallow water they were striking viciously at surface lures twitched above them. This was in water from around half a metre deep up to just over a metre deep. I used six pound breaking strain braid for most of the fishing, along with a leader of 15 lb fluorocarbon. I did use stronger (15lb) braid and 25lb fluorocarbon when targeting the river snapper and was still cut off a couple of times. Those fish are incredible! The perch and river snapper were all caught on surface lures twitched very slowly over shallow rocky patches in the upper reaches of the river, mainly on an outgoing tide either early in the morning or late afternoon.
The dropshot lures that we used were mostly on 1/8th or 1/4 ounce jig heads.These were dressed with a variety of soft baits such as flukes, paddle tail minnows, shrimp imitations and sandworms. The most success was probably with white or transparent paddle tail minnows. We fished them slowly through the holes in the river and the deeper channels and had success on all tides, and at most times of the day. When we got into a shoal of kob we could land anything from five to fifteen fish in a session. We used a slow twitching retrieve, allowing the jig to make contact with the bottom between twitches and the kob grabbed them greedily. I also used bucktail jigs in the same spots, with good success, landing a number of kob on them, fished exactly the same way as the dropshots. The paddle tails can also be retrieved with a slow steady retrive, and no twitches, as the vibrations from the tail are enough to attract a strike from a kob. When they are fished slowly, they run deep, just above the bottom, which is where the kob are sitting during the daylight hours.
It was such a pleasure to drift quietly in a small boat, or stand on a river bank listening to the amazing birds in the forests, and target some wonderful fish. In fact the fishing was as good as any I have had in my travels, and it is just down the road! I certainly plan on spending more time exploring those transkei estuaries, it is good for the soul and the fishing is world class!
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some more pics
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and a few more
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Yeeeehaaa! The man's back! :wlcmbk Tommo!
As usual great report and awesome fishing!
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thats a beaut of of a snapper
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thats a beaut of of a snapper
And those Kobbies on 6lb line!! Must have been an awesome fight!
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Fantastic fun! I know kob aren't classified as the hardest fighters around, but on very light tackle they are great sport.
The nice thing is that they are clean fighters, and you can target them on very light tackle.
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Some awesome fish from our local waters ,good to see agreed Tommo ,estuary fishing is really peaceful and relaxing for mind and soul.. (clap)
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somehow I managed to double up on the one pic and didn't post a pic of my wife's lovely kingy, also on 6lb. Here it is...
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trying my best to work out which estuary this is umtata mouth maby
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great report & pics Tommo!! love the looks of that river snapper, yet to encounter one but looking forward to it...
(clap) (clap)
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Great to see & hear of some different fishing Tommo & having you back here on :ult:. Been wondering where you had disapeared to.
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Thanks Prego, I have been neglecting my computer for a couple of months, but will be more productive with posts going forward, between fishing trips....
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trying my best to work out which estuary this is umtata mouth maby
Way South. Trennery's region?
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Getting warmer.... I am not too keen to be too specific on a public forum, as I want to fish it again and have the same fun. I am happy to PM anyone specifically interested in the area and give them a heads up. I hope that is not being rude?
Here are some more snappers from last week.
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Getting warmer.... I am not too keen to be too specific on a public forum, as I want to fish it again and have the same fun. I am happy to PM anyone specifically interested in the area and give them a heads up. I hope that is not being rude?
Here are some more snappers from last week.
Not rude at all. Too many times great fishing spots have been totally ruined thro' them being made public on the forums. Please don't give out info to people that you don't know reasonably well on the forum.
Chaps (lurkers with no posts) will register just to bleed the info... it's unfortunate, but human nature.
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Great catches there Tommo!
He's back... with a vengeance!
fshg
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Hi Tommo,
That is great fun :happ: :happ:
In my opinion one of the most beautifull / relaxing / in touch with nature kind of fishing.
From time to time I need to go back to the estuary and have some light tackle fun, here I do it mostly on our winter when offshore slows down.
I just love those snappers, mean little buggers, with the right tackle it's just amazing, when hiting on the surface highly visual fishing action, can not avoid re-posting one of my favourite pictures from last year with those little buggers on the end of the line, that shows how much fun they can be.
My friend Marco on our Nzeto trip.
(http://i33.tinypic.com/21lo421.jpg)
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Awesome Catches Tommo .... (clap)... :tkx: for Sharing ... w;k
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Great to have you back, Tommo! Wow, you guys really know how to have fun. When you are not hunting Doggies and big GT's off shore, you're in the estuaries catching awesome fish. What a life! :hehe: I want to try those big paddle tails for the Kob here in our estuary. :tkx: for a great report.
@ Fedu, that rod looks like it is about to break. :hehe: Where is Nzeto? :dunno:
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Great to see you back Tommo, some great catches there, especially on the lighter tackle
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:wlcmbk :wlcmbk :wlcmbk
Awesome fish as usual !!!!
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Tommo,
you are REALLY not helping me to concentrate at work here ... :unhap :unhap :unhap
What's next, some live :merm at Santa Maria in October? ... :hnthnt:
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Love it! Welcome back Tommo!
We've caught some really good river snapper off number one at night, still to get one in an estuary. I am heading south for a camping weekend with the family next month, will chat to you before then to get some ideas of what lures to take if you don't mind? Don't actually know where, but I think in the region of the Kei River.
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Cool, Nico. It will be a pleasure to help.
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Great stuff Tommo
The in my humble opinion the Kei has the best estuaries on the east coast by far! Lets hope they stay that way as I've noticed signs of deterioration in quite a few over the last 10 years and they are probably the last decent nursery grounds left for the major edibles that roam our coast.
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Tommo,
Out of interest, did you see or hook any skipjack? I didnt see any mentioned in the catch list? Most of the rivers used to hold decent numbers of them, but like most places, they disapeared the last few years. Some have been taken in east London, so wondered about the kei rivers. The skitter walks etc should ahve got them interested, and I used to catch good numbers of them on fly when the water was discouloured from rain.
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:wlcmbk Tommo, at least I read it today and not Monday then I would really have been :sadd, are you not doing a show of the trip ??
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Hi Adam
No skippies at all. I was keeping an eye out for them, but no sign whatsoever of any skippies in either of the rivers I fished, which is sad. There used to be a lot in the one river and I have caught them there on mirrOlures in the past. They are definitely getting scarcer in our rivers. A mate of mine phoned me from PE the other day and said he had had an awesome session with skippies down there, so that is encouraging. I think that skippies prefer a river with a deep mouth, and that is the problem these days, all the rivers are getting shallow in the mouth area.
CLS, I didn't have a cameraman along on this one, but did shoot some footage in January on a transkei estuary, so we will do a show on that one. Doing a shoot up at Vidal this coming week on some surf fishing, so hopefully you guys will get to enjoy a bit more local content on Inside Angling...
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Now that will get the R/S guys foaming at the mouth and raring to go to Vidal again , look forward to that one.. (clap)
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Awesome report there Tommo. I love fishing the Wild Coast rivers with a small inflatable and a electric trolling motor. Even the blind rivers hold some nice fish.
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Amazing fish Tommo well done :happ: :resp:
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Nice post Tommo!! Good to see some of the rivers still producing!
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Nice fooshies there
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Absolute heaven! Great catches there Tommo, especially those snappers.
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Yor, how did I miss this one. Excellent report there Tommo and those catches got me drooling at the mouth.
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Hi Tommo,
That is great fun :happ: :happ:
In my opinion one of the most beautifull / relaxing / in touch with nature kind of fishing.
From time to time I need to go back to the estuary and have some light tackle fun, here I do it mostly on our winter when offshore slows down.
I just love those snappers, mean little buggers, with the right tackle it's just amazing, when hiting on the surface highly visual fishing action, can not avoid re-posting one of my favourite pictures from last year with those little buggers on the end of the line, that shows how much fun they can be.
My friend Marco on our Nzeto trip.
(http://i33.tinypic.com/21lo421.jpg)
I love the colour of the rod just as much as the expression on the okes face!!! Brilliant! (clap)
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Tommo
You really set the bar high with these catches. Awesome stuff.... :resp:
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Cool, Nico. It will be a pleasure to help.
I've only now found out where I am going next weekend (I've been busy!) - apparently it's a place called Double Mouth, close to Morgan Bay. Anybody been there? Looking at google earth it seems to have a nice lagoon, and also a beautiful beach and some good rocky structure. Hoping to get in some diving and R&S fishing, but would like to spend most of the time fishing the lagoon with my 7 year old daughter (so it will be a mixture of bait and artificials).
Has anyone been here? Is the lagoon in a decent condition?
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The lagoon was closed the last time I've been there. It is however one of the better lagoons I have fished before. It is very deep at some places (deepest 14m). I've caught alot of cob, flathead and rock cod there and have been busted up by what could only be big River Snapper. We only fished with live mullets but I am sure there must be some grunters. I am going back there the end of the year. Try the beach in front of the mouth. It is a very nice place for cob and pignose grunters. Give me a call if you need more info. I will send you a PM.
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Excactly the info I need for this week end. Need to stock up on some paddle tails, etc.Fishing is allowed in the estuary just north of Mtentu. Will also be targeting Bronze Bream in the gullies.
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PH if it is the estuary that I am thinking of, then you must take some smallish topwater lures. That river has been closed to the sea for some time, but opened up a few weeks ago after some heavy rains. A lot of the water has run out, creating some interesting options. It fishes well from 4pm to around 9pm, with most action around just after sunset. A lot of the river is shallow at the moment and you can wade to within casting range of rock structure that you want to fish around. A fishing ski would be a good option to getting around, I think the whole fishable area of this river is about 4km max. You want to concentrate your fishing around the rocks, working surface lures very close to them. Lures I would recommend would be Rapala X-Rap Walk 9cm, Heddon Zara Puppy and Rapala Shallow shad rap 7cm. The shad rap should be worked very slowly with small twitches, allowing it to float to the surface between each short twitch (you only want it to dive about 10-15cm). Work these lures close in to each and every rock and crevice around dawn/dusk and you will have sport. Casting accuracy is key, you must get your lure to land within centimetres of the rocks.
The lagoon part near the mouth area is mostly sandy, with rocks in the mouth itself. I would focus most of my efforts on the rocks that you can see exposed about 600m upriver from the mouth. There are some rocks in the middle of the river and then a whole lot along the south bank at the same spot, (just below the bay/creek inlet) That is where I had most action on my last visit a few weeks back. I am sure you will have some fun there. PM me if you want any more details
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Thanks for the valuable info Tommo. I also read your latest article in RS&D April issue re estuary fishing. (Which was discussed on UA some time ago, I think.)
I just hope the estuary north of Mtentu is accessable with the ski.
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There is a road, but you have to go quite far inland as there are big waterfalls etc on that river. If you drive back to the Xolobeni school on the road you came in on, then take a right turn you can make your way down to the river, the road is barely a track in places and is definitely 4x4 country but it will get you here. Otherwise the mouth is only about 3km north of mtentu mouth if you want to paddle there, which may be the easier option... depending on the sea and the wind.
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:+ cred: Thanks. We have a "soft" 4X4 (Subaru Forester) and should make it, depending on the road conditions.
Info much appreciated.
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PH, send me your phone number in a PM and I will give you a ring and give you more detail.
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Thanks very much Tommo. Will do.