South African Fishing

What can I say the fishing has been nothing but hard work for the last week or two.  I lost what I thought was a very big steenbras at Rowwe Klip in Hermanus last Thursday.

On my very first cast baited up with fresh wonderworm, I had just taken the slack out of my line when the fish just gently picked me up, I set the hook immediately, the fish did not even know I was there, it just casualy swam on through the rocks, for just a moment my line snagged then nothing, the fish was gone.

I think the lead got stuck behind a rock as the steenbras swam through a gap causing the hook to pull free.

If you fish our coast on a regular basis looking for galjoen you must have experienced a steenbras making you look like a beginner many times, these fish are just too powerfull to control between the rocks.

Whenever you do manage to land a steenbras bigger than 5 kg off the rocks you know the fish was meant for you.

I felt only the one fish that afternoon. The rocks at Rowwe Klip have opened up very nicely, the water is just a little clear with too little wave action.

Blaasgat near die Neus has been open for about a week now and very nice galjoen have been taken, a very nice steenbras was also lost, this would be a very difficult area to land any of the bigger fish.  The galjoen did not want to take redbait , but was feeding very well on prawn.  Strange as this area is usually fished with redbait.

I am very glad to hear that some steenbras are being hooked as they have been very scarce for quite some time now.  Lets hope some nice fish get taken by the boys.

Pearly Beach has also been very quiet with the water being to clear and a little cold.

Being up early in the morning with the sun coming up and the cold see air in your face still beats sleeping in  by a long shot even when the fish are scarce. 

What a disappointing galjoen season we have had so far, a few very nice galjoen have been caught here and there, but no great shakes.

The water has for the most had that very clear blue colour that the fish in Hermanus don’t seem to like at all.

I have always wondered where the fish go and what they eat when the water is so clear for such a long period of time.

Surely they have to eat, or do they? Are they there hiding under rocky ledges and simply not taking the bait? What do they do? Where do they go? It’s very frustrating looking forward to weekends that end up delivering not even a bite, no matter what bait you present to them.

Some galjoen fisherman seem to think that they move to deeper water and feed there, yet others say they move out of the area only to return once the water picks up and gets some colour.

Then there are the people who study the habbits of galjoen and find that most galjoen are territorial and stay in areas as big as maybe two rugby fields?? Who knows?

Tagged galjoen have been recaught many hundreds kilometers from where they were originally tagged in a very short period of time, amazing.

The galjoen fisherman in Hermanus are all hoping something happens soon, some of the guys are even hanging up their rods with so few fish arround.

SNOEK seems to be getting closer to our area, there are quite a few fisherman getting their gear ready to harvest some of this Cape delicacy.

Another fishless weekend, clear skies even clearer water and no fish to be had in the Hermanus area.  The water was so clear that every single rock and gully could be seen as clear as day.  For the first time in the 10 odd years that I have lived in Hermanus, could you see the bottom at Die Gang, we always wondered how rocky it must be with the huge amount of lead we have lost over time.

The bottom at the Gang is actually very beautiful, with lovely rock formations and gullys, quite understandable why so many cob have been caught there over the years.  Plenty of places for a predatory fish to lie in ambush. One would think there would be more gully sharks and such caught within this perfect environment.

I could not believe what it looked like in the corner where we always manage to get a Galjoen or two.  This area lies on top of the rock shelf not more than a meter or a meter and a half under the water, but always with the water foaming over that area.

Some of the Gansbaai fishermen got some good sized galjoen on the upper plaat area near Die Kelders entrance to the Plaat, many undersized galjoen were also caught.

Last week my friend Brian Mcfarlane managed to get one very fat Galjoen at Rowwe klip and a 3kg Steenbras, all taken on hardworm, some small fish were caught and released.

Overall the fishing in Hermanus has been very slow over the last couple of weeks.

Large shoals of mullet are moving up and down the plaat area with seemingly not a worry in the world since the Gansbaai fishermen have not been allowed to net these fish for some time now.  With this in mind one would think there should be more Steenbras in the bay as they move with the Mullet and were previously netted in large amounts with the Mullet.

Very few fisherman actually target the Steenbras in Hermanus these days, they never seem to be around any more, Steenbras would quite often take the bait meant for a Galjoen in very shallow water right under your feet.  This has been a wake up call for many an unexperienced angler, some of these fish are really huge and can take a lot of line in a very short time.  This would leave most fishermen with a line broken off in the rocks and a total look of shock on their faces when they realise they have once again been outsmarted by the ever elusive White Steenbras.