South African Fishing

Hot off the press, Pearly Beach is still cooking!  The galjoen and steenbras are still on the bite with some very large galjoen and steenbras being landed.  Keeping in mind that one may not catch steenbras anymore, I don’t know how many of these fish are being kept, most are under size in any case.

The Hermanus Shore Angling Club is having a competition on the 28th of July between Palmiet and Die Dam and I am sure many of the guys will be going to Pearly Beach to target the steenbras and galjoen, lets hope the weather plays along and lets the fishermen get close enough to get a line in the water.

The fish are being landed on mostly prawn and worm so be sure to have some in your bait box.  Castle Beach is the place to be, no kelp in the water and the gully that has opened within easy casting of the beach.  See you there.

Red bait is most probably the most common bait used in the Western Cape to target galjoen.  Red bait is a good bait to use when the sea is rough with lots of wave action.

Galjoen are at their best in rough foamy water with lots of oxygen.  However if the water is too rough this is not good either.  At times like this the sea will have a lot of pull in the wave action, move away immediately and find water that is deeper with less pull making it easier to present your bait.

With the water being much stronger with lots of foam the smelly red bait is much easier for the galjoen to find than your smaller worm baits.  The angler should also note that the water is not to cold, no galjoen likes a shriveled up piece of bait, these fish prefer a softer well presented bait.

The colour of the water should ideally be a milky brown or a dirty green colour similar to cob water.  The calmer the water the fresher your red bait can be, also a good time to use your worm baits again.  Red bait is better in the winter months when the winter storms break the red bait heads off the rocks causing them to lie on the ocean floor and rot making an easy meal for the ever hungry galjoen. When this happens the galjoen will focus on finding red bait only.

Many fishermen have been dumbstruck by this phenomenon where they have had the freshest worms and don’t get a single bite while the bloke next to them are pulling them out one after the other, these fish are focused on the red bait only.

Mooi visse Gert, vertel ons so bietjie waar jy hulle gevang het, ek is seker die ander manne wil ook weet.  Behalwe as dit natuurlik ‘n geheim is.