Author Topic: Transkei estuary spinning (Read 20621 times)

Tommo · « **on:** February 10, 2011, 08:53:09 PM »

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!

Tommo · « **Reply #1 on:** February 10, 2011, 08:55:45 PM »

some more pics

Tommo · « **Reply #2 on:** February 10, 2011, 08:57:49 PM »

and a few more

REEFMAN · « **Reply #3 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:03:19 PM »

Yeeeehaaa! The man's back!

Tommo!
As usual great report and awesome fishing!

Rory mundy · « **Reply #4 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:07:56 PM »

thats a beaut of of a snapper

REEFMAN · « **Reply #5 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:12:21 PM »

Quote from: Rory mundy on February 10, 2011, 09:07:56 PM

thats a beaut of of a snapper

And those Kobbies on 6lb line!! Must have been an awesome fight!

Tommo · « **Reply #6 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:16:14 PM »

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.

MIKE PIKE · « **Reply #7 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:17:21 PM »

Some awesome fish from our local waters ,good to see agreed Tommo ,estuary fishing is really peaceful and relaxing for mind and soul..

Tommo · « **Reply #8 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:18:52 PM »

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...

Rory mundy · « **Reply #9 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:22:03 PM »

trying my best to work out which estuary this is umtata mouth maby

aquadementia · « **Reply #10 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:27:54 PM »

great report & pics Tommo!! love the looks of that river snapper, yet to encounter one but looking forward to it...

Prego · « **Reply #11 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:31:51 PM »

Great to see & hear of some different fishing Tommo & having you back here on

. Been wondering where you had disapeared to.

Tommo · « **Reply #12 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:35:03 PM »

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....

REEFMAN · « **Reply #13 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:40:45 PM »

Quote from: Rory mundy on February 10, 2011, 09:22:03 PM

trying my best to work out which estuary this is umtata mouth maby

Way South. Trennery's region?

Tommo · « **Reply #14 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:48:25 PM »

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.

REEFMAN · « **Reply #15 on:** February 10, 2011, 09:54:42 PM »

Quote from: Tommo on February 10, 2011, 09:48:25 PM

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.

John F · « **Reply #16 on:** February 10, 2011, 10:21:25 PM »

Great catches there Tommo!

He's back... with a vengeance!

fedu · « **Reply #17 on:** February 10, 2011, 11:48:37 PM »

Hi Tommo,

That is great fun

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.

Kumz · « **Reply #18 on:** February 11, 2011, 05:42:38 AM »

Awesome Catches Tommo ....

...

for Sharing ...

SAfish · « **Reply #19 on:** February 11, 2011, 07:40:04 AM »

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!

I want to try those big paddle tails for the Kob here in our estuary.

for a great report.
@ Fedu, that rod looks like it is about to break.

Where is Nzeto?