Hannes Cronjé landed a 27,6kg cob (salmon) on live shad off Margate pier last week. He said it took him quite a while to reel it in, still in the dark.
It’s perhaps ironic that he’s been fishing these parts for more than 20 years, getting up at around 4am most mornings, without this kind of success. And now, in the past 10 months he’s caught four fish like this, but this latest one is the biggest.
He’s a former train driver and said the odd hours don’t bother him and he’s normally at the pier for two or three hours in the morning before heading off to work.
A huge shoal of sardines, believed to be two to three kilometres long, coursed past the Umgababa and Illovo areas on Tuesday this week.
One fisherman described it as ‘unbelievable’ and something he might see once in a lifetime. He said they were out on the backline in what was described as a solid mass, wider than the N3.
Another described the sighting as similar to a black tar road, with no break in it, all the way through. Some wondered if what we’ve already experienced were merely pilot shoals but the real deal still coming.
One can hope. Wouldn’t that be something?
Unfortunately the big seas meant it was no good for fishing and even the shad seemed to have gone a bit quiet, after feeding frenetically up until Sunday night.
Some serious shark activity is expected or may have already occurred by the time you read this.
Meanwhile, Louis Grobler, after reading in last week’s Herald about rock cod being caught in various tidal pools, ventured down to the Port Shepstone pools to try his luck.
He saw a fisherman net a kingfish out of a tidal pool so decided to throw his line in the hole inside the pool – and landed two fish on light tackle – a 3kg yellowbelly rock cod and 2kg cave bass.
He used prawn bait on drift trace with 30lb leader line. Both fish were his personal best on light tackle.
In terms of deep sea, there was some good fishing, especially at Shelly Beach Ski-boat Club where most boats got in on the action.
Mary-Anne Vincent landed a bomber yellowfin that might just be the top women’s catch of the year so far.
According to reports, there were many fish in the 15 to 25kg range. There have been some decent bottom fish around as well.
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