It’s almost unbelievable that the Christmas period is already behind us. The kids have gone back to school and we are all getting back into the swing of work and everyday life – time flies when you are having fun.
But how did it go on the fishing front? The summer period between November and now has certainly been a very interesting and testing period for us anglers.
We haven’t seen much big seas or string wind that affect fishing. We experienced some absolutely stunning days in December with beautiful colour in the water, but yet the fishing was extremely quiet.
The biggest problem has been a lack of south-easterly winds. We keep seeing this pattern of straight southerly or even south-westerly winds, but absolutely no solid south-east wind blowing.
This has meant that the water temperature in False Bay and all the way up the coast past Stilbaai ranged between 20 and 24 degrees, which is extremely warm and makes fishing very difficult. The warm water holds less oxygen which makes fish lethargic and they don’t readily feed in these conditions.
I distinctly remember fishing improving around 20 December after a few days of proper south-easterly winds. In that week a friend of mine caught a beautiful kob at Macassar, measuring in at 16kg.
Since then we have only seen southerly winds and warm water with very few fish in between.
There were of course quite a lot of small kob between 35 and 45 cm caught on the reefs in Strand, especially at night.
Unfortunately most of these fish are juveniles and are being kept by the poachers. Bags full of them! This is a sad state of affairs as our fish stocks are already under huge pressure from all sides; it’s always the blame game.
It’s time that we as rock and surf anglers also start taking responsibility for the fish we have left, stand together and put pressure on those who simply plunder our resources. This needs to be done before there is nothing left for future generations.
Let’s look at what there is to look forward to on the fishing front as we start heading towards Easter.
The really good fishing starts from February and runs through Easter into winter until the end of July, which would be my favourite time to fish, especially if yoe are an edibles angler.
Now is a great time to whip out the spinning rod and start throwing some lures, bucktails, slow pitch jigs, paddle tails, plugs and spoons, to name a few.
Main target species would be kob, elf, and the ever elusive False Bay leeries, which make there presence felt at this time of the year. Lure fishing is a great challenge, but the reward of hooking your first big kob or leerie on a lure is even greater, the fish of a thousand casts as I was told by my oupa.
Of course chokka and sardine bait remains a favourite at this time of year. Guys fishing plain chokka or sardien bait with some flotation and a 6/0 hook will always be in the game.
Fishing for kob remains good until at least the end of April.
Geelbek is a species that most guys catch between the kob on the reefs in Strand, but geelbek can also be actively targeted. Areas like Strand, Hangklip, Betty’s Bay can be looked at as areas to actively target geelbek.
There are also other species to target, especially once we start heading into autumn, when one can start fishing for white steenbras, belman and other reef species like stumpnose and blacktail. We will delve deeper into fishing around Easter and autumn in an upcoming article.
Fishing is fishing. It will always remain a challenge and that’s what keeps bringing us back to the water. Let’s hope the sea temperature drops and the wind direction changes in our favour, so that we can all enjoy some epic fishing in 2025.
Unfortunately, we don’t have space for more in this article. However, please feel welcome to visit Fishing Republic if you need any help setting up your old fishing gear, if you are a new angler seeking advice on new tackle and setups, or if you simply need some bait. We are more than willing to help out and give the best possible advice we can. We are, after all, passionate anglers ourselves.
Fishing Republic is located at 73 Beach Road, Strand. For more information, call the shop on 072 552 4400. Alternatively, visit the Fishing Republic Facebook page and Instagram account for fishing content and updates.
