Hermanus Rock and Surf Fishing Competition
The Hermanus Rock and Surf fishing club decided to have a open day fishing competition on the 4th of November 2006 to get the guys in gear for the Summer season coming up. Unfortunately there was a cold front approaching and many of the less seasoned anglers decided to give it a miss. Only 7 fishermen took part for the cash prizes of R400.00 R300.00 and R200.00.
The area allowed was from The Hawston Lagoon to Die Damme. My morning started at 5am to give me enough time to get to Die Damme early enough for the low tide. what a lovely day it started out to be, hardly a breath of wind and mostly clear skies. My son and I picked up my fishing buddy Yster at 5.30 and took a nice leasurely drive down to Die Damme. The sea was as calm as a lake, and of course low spring tide as well, we saw rocks sticking out that we did not even know existed.
We were met by 3 other fishermen taking part in our competition and decided to start fishing the area below the caravan park as very nice Cob and Steenbras are often taken in this specific bay, with the odd Belman also making its appearance every now and then.
We spent a half an hour tryng different baits but the water was just too low for any fish to be around. We then decided to head to an area called The Wreck/Die Wrak that lies towards Quin Point. As we got closer to this area you could see the water had much more movement that looked very promising. The hole we always fished in was looking very good for Bronze Bream/Hotnots vis, the hole is only about 10×10 meters wide which meant that you have to be very accurate with your casting or you would end up in the kelp that totally surrounds the hole. I baited up with fresh Sardine on a 3/0 hook and made my first cast into the middle of the pool, tap tap vas! I landed a very fat Bream of around 1kg.
This got my 15 year old son very excited. He was all thumbs getting his hook baited giving me a second cast before he got in his first. The bait landed perfectly in the middle of the hole again, tap tap vas! another very fat bream. This was the end for the kid. He made a terrible cast into the kelp and broke off, I cast again and caught another 2 Bream before he made his next cast, a total overwind!! From there on it was all downhill for him, he could do nothing right, breaking off and casting overwinds for the next hour, the 2 or 3 times he did manage to get into the hole he missed the strike and of course broke off again. By this time the poor guy was just about in tears, I could do nothing to help him but give advice. He had to slow down and not let the moment get to him. The next moment there was a sudden downpour of the coldest sleaty rain I have felt in a long time. The guys were running in all directions to try to stay dry.
The rain lasted for about a half an hour then suddenly cleared up again with quite a stiff breaze coming from the South West. We were all soaked to the bone but not quite ready to give up yet. Ampie managed to catch and release 2 size Galjoen where he was fishing and 1 Bronze Bream. Yster managed 4 Bream at his spot.
The rain came and went for the rest of the morning with one or two more fish coming out before the high tide forced us off the rocks. I had managed 8 fish in total, Yster 4, Ampie 2 and my son Michael managed to catch an under sized Galjoen that he released. At least he had something to smile about.
We decided to pack up and go to our favourite fishing spot called Soetfontein. On most days you can only reach this spot if you have a 4×4, but with all the rain of the morning I am sure you would have got there with just about any car as the sand was nice and hard.
When we got there at about 12.00 the water was very high with a little colour that showed promise for a Cob or two. Fishing was very slow with little peckers taking off the bait before the big boys could get to it. I started casting bigger baits hoping one of the big Gulley sharks would take the bait for fun while there was nothing going on, but the little guys just upped there tempo stripping bait off our hooks quicker than before.
At about 2.30 one of the guys standing to the left landed a Cob of 2.2kg getting us all trying a little harder. They followed this up with 2 more fish soon afterwards. They were on a rocky outcrop and were managing to get their baits an extra 20 meters or so out.
We decided to join them on the rock as we had less than an hour to go before it was lines up. My first cast was short of the target but I decided to leave it where it was for a while. Then that lovely feeling of your rod being pulled all the way down, and vas, the Cob was just under 2kg so it might still be in the points.
We had 10 minutes left so we all made one more cast, nothing moved and before long it was time to pack up and head for Hermanus and the weigh in at 5 o’clock.
Ampi’s mate, Marais took first prize with his Cob weighing in at 2.2kg giveing him the cash prize of R400.00. I took 2nd and 3rd prizes for the second biggest fish, 1.8kg Cob and the heavest bag of the day, 6.2 kg Bronze Bream.
The day was ended off with a couple beers and fresh bream on the braai, and of course the big one that got away.