http://www.fishtrack.com/fishing-charts/south-africa_58689Very warm water around inshore..very very warm water..most fish are not feeding now and fishing been slow..Your top spoon looks like it should do the trick, if you can get some calamari under your ships lights at night they make excellent bait and the local one is of the best eating in the world. You will need "chokka" jigs for that though or fashion some from sewing pins like I heard been done. Sea barbel usually hangs around a local fish, cob, and in that area and at 30m of water you will surely encounter them. The species is severly threatened so have means to release large specimens if you hook any, they grow to 150lb. They will take a spoon or that sand eel imitation as it looks like a large marine worm or baitfish, but the mackerel that you caught would be the best bait alive on a large 8/0 or bigger hook and send to 2-3 fathoms above the bottom. You'll also probably encounter in that warm water the cousin of the cob, the geelbek (translation "yellow mouth") or "cape salmon" as it is known. It is a croaker and not a salmon and related to the white sea bass of california and mexico. Where you find one of those you find many and they feed freely, there is a limit of 2 a day as the species has been exploited in the past and is threatened. It is quite likely that you will encounter them at night if the mackerel are around. You will most likely encounter sarda sarda, local bonitos, in the day when the sun is high and bait is around. Look for birds feeding on bait driven up in balls..when you see bonito jumping clear outa the water with anchovies spraying everywhere throw that top lure into that mess and be prepared for the time of your life if they stay around. Often they are gone as soon as they arrived. Bleed and ike jima them as soon as they are onboard, even before unhooking them and they make great sashimi and grill or fry. Geelbek is unbelievable eating, an oily large firm white flake that you can prepare anyway you like. Cob is similar but not as oily.
For the mackerel, the best bait is a piece of the flesh of one of their siblings on a small hook and float in the current behind the vessel..if you want them and other bait fish to come to you chum, gamefish should follow the baitfish. Catch some mackerel, a sabiki is best once you have brought a shoal to the boat in a chumline, and you can make your own on the boat easily with coffee packets and mono, look up handmadefisherman on youtube. Keep some mackerel iced down for eating, for bait for later/tomorrow and drop one down alive with a big hook in him while you catch more..we have had some amazing fishing like that..I stress put large breeding fish back and do not remove large cob from the water even, stick to 2 fish limits if you happen on shoal of geelbek. Make some calamari jigs and fish under a big light at night, handline works great, the limit is 20 in possesion per licenced fisherman/woman. Most of our stocks are in the state of recovery coming form collapse or near collapse and some have not yet recovered so one needs to be conservative if you happen to find good fish, reef fish one has to be VERY selective about what one keeps for food in South africa, most are endangered or stock is collapsed and most are slow growing.. If you go to shore, get a licence for fishing at a local post office, it will cost you $20-30 in rand eq. for all the required permits, you might get boarded by a big red boat at sea and checked if you are fishing but the chances of that happening or them having diesel to actually do it is next to nil to be honest.. ;) Enjoy and if you do get to shore book with one of the local rock and surf guides, for a day fishing that will probably blow your mind, large edibles and huge sharks from the shore in big waves and heavy seas and on long rods with heavy gear..good fun. The mossel bay area is central to a few of the best guides around, shawn ninja mey, franna, etc..and really good shore fishing on its day.
