Grumpy’s fishing report

The shark anglers had a feast this past weekend with some huge bronze whalers being caught at Long Beach.

Brothers Shawn and Tiaan Labuschagne went hunting for sharks in the area right in front of the ablution facility. It wasn’t long after casting their mackerel heads out and patiently waiting that Shawn’s rod doubled. Five minutes later Tiaan’s rod also got doubled over and the two brother were on as the sharks went on the bite. After landing the first two big bronzies, they tried their luck again. Shawn succeeded in landing a total of three big bronzies. Well done. It is not every day that one gets to land three big sharks.

Here’s a tip. When fishing in areas that have sand bars (sand banks), it is advisable to use a lot of float to get the bait of the bottom due to sand crabs quickly destroying the bait. If it is off the bottom the crabs cannot reach the bait thus giving the angler a better chance of hooking a fish of a life time.

While some anglers struggled others were lucky enough to land some good fish. Divan van Vreeden tried his luck at Mile 8. He targeted spotted gulley sharks and was rewarded with a beautiful specimen. Hans Breedt, he went further north and fished at the Canopy area, in search of galjoen and steenbras. He landed a beast of a galjoen.

The skiboats are getting fish at Vierkantklip with the most fish landed being kob and blacktail. They also fish the area right next to Vierkanklip called Patrysberg which is a hot spot for blacktail. Use white or black mussel to target these fish.

Anglers also went in search of big kob at the fence which is the most northern fishing area before you get to the gate that enters the Skeleton Coast national park. They landed a lot of barbell and spotted gulley sharks. This could change quickly though so keep your ears on the ground for when the bigger kob arrive. It is about this time of year when the big fish come in.

This Saturday there will be a high tide at 05:23, low tide at 11:17 and a high tide again at 14:39. This should work in the anglers favour as high tide is mostly better for fishing.

Obviously one gets low tide angling spots but in general high tide seems to produce better catches. Also with full moon the fish activity increases, so this week should be better. Calm conditions for the week and the weekend could prevail so we can possibly expect some great catches.

Tight lines!