Fishing the area a week after the world champs and I reckon alot of people were probably worried about the fish not coming on the bite!
Our Club guys met at the Engen 1 stop outside langebaan the morning at 5:00am where Donovan aka Angler1 assisted the captain by setting out the areas to be fished as the west coast is his "homeground" so to speak.
With most our guys spread across the Varkvlei area to Soverby we were confident we made the right call with the teams set out and off we went!
Armed with only live mullet in my aresnal we started the morning at Varkvlei reefdancing as the tide was still out and we pushed on as far as we could looking for those warm pockets of water in search of some Blue/Spearnose/Black/duckbill rays.
I think early morning I fished amongst Ray Hall and some of his mates not sure... but all we managed to get was skaamies! plenty of them, so we all decided to move out to another bay.
I decided to fish to the right of "Wit Klip" where some TRS okes were not sure who was all there but I saw Henning and Craig there, anyways funny thing happens here i'm about 200m in water in the middle of nowhere and i see this splashing behind me and a tail and head breaches the surface I nearly jump right outta my skin! its a COW SHARK! I though it was chasing some bait fish! and I start throwing my live mullet at it at least 4 times :lol:1 when I looked up again I saw it was actually one of my cluib mate who's hooked in to the fish and busy reeling it in thank god I did not cut him off! and Reza lands his 1st ever 121cm Cow.
30 minutes later the Reza hooks another one 20m behind me! and lands another Cow of 134cm!
Jislike now I was desperate, changed my rig from Blue rays to heavy steel using 2 x inline 10/0 Hoodlums and some massive mullet that I managed to get.There's about 4 of my club mates with me now on the rock in the middle of nowhere and as I look back there is a small swarm of anglers pithcing up as the call obviously went out the Cows were coming on the bite.
I launch my mullet at a shroud of bamboo about 30m in front of me and and just as my bait hits the water one of our guys right next to me goes VAS!!! he hops of the rock and has to swim the Cow:ssswim: out as there is no more standing room and has to be landed back on the shore! he lands it a 114cm Cow! well done Paul!
As i tell my captian we looking good to get some i fell bump bump bump sinker rolling and as I prepare for that pull it drops I set those hoodlums in and i'm VAS!!! yes man i'm on and yislike did this COW give me trouble! firsat it towed me left as i wanted to go right then it came straight back at me then it breached right there where our guys were standing in the middle off the ocean! and Marcc got the fright of his life when the mouth of this COW hit his leg:shark! in this frenzy my line got tangled with 2 of my fellow anglers rods which Paul quickly managed to untangle and then i managed to swim this COW brute out, a 143cm PCL! :woohoo
By this time cows were coming thick and fast and our club managed to get 6 consecutive cows with Nizaam aka Karma hooks into his one and also swims it out but the tide has pushed in so much fighting this fish is very difficult and just as Karma finds his feet on some solid rocks he is reefed and loses his Cow.
Sadly we had to move off this rock as it was almost imppossible to stand on as we were chest height in th water and getting klapped off it.
What inspired me was the little piece of rock we were standing on would have been impossible to find
, not for one Thys Kemp Jnr from Tygerberg who hopped on to it after some guidance from ourside, he casts in and is rewarded 30 minutes later with a 164CM PCL Cow!
I think oh my goodness that shoulda been mine! I rig up a massive mullet chop the tail off and wait for Thys to clear from the spot with his fish and swim :sc::ut to where the little rock was and lob and my bait to more or less the same proximety, unfortunately it proved too difficult to stand there and decided to swim back to solid ground and leave bait in the water till i get a bite and as I guessed it 30 mintes later i feel bump bump and vas! I land my 2nd Cow of 125CM PCL.
Now we all standing on the shore and I notice every so often a cow is caught on "Wit Klip" and we cant get our baits there as its just out of range but the guys do get them a bit closer in as Angler1 managed to get a Cow.
it about 2:00pm and I tell my team look over at the next bay the guys are standing thick there do we know whats happening there? perhaps we should move as we arent getting fish at the same rate as earlier, so a team of 5 move over and what do we discover?
Those guys have been getting Blue rays!!! plenty of them and the odd sandy, quickly i see a blue ray left of me right of me and with only 45 minutes left I was soo hoping for 1 or 2 myself, Daryll goes vas a Blue ray of 52cm, and so i changed my rig to single Circle hook, I immediately got vas with a sandy of 92cm,
last couple casts with mullet and nothing more its 3:00pm and lines up!
Phew what a friggin day! As always in hindsight its easy to say we could have done things a little different to produce a better outcome with so much fish coming out
but I would like to thank God for the opportunity and ability to hook and land the catches and that nobody was injured during some of the epic battles with the toothy critters!
Well done to those who got fish!!! toughies for those who did not, this certainly was a good day of fishing for the bulk of anglers!
Our Club guys met at the Engen 1 stop outside langebaan the morning at 5:00am where Donovan aka Angler1 assisted the captain by setting out the areas to be fished as the west coast is his "homeground" so to speak.
With most our guys spread across the Varkvlei area to Soverby we were confident we made the right call with the teams set out and off we went!
Armed with only live mullet in my aresnal we started the morning at Varkvlei reefdancing as the tide was still out and we pushed on as far as we could looking for those warm pockets of water in search of some Blue/Spearnose/Black/duckbill rays.
I think early morning I fished amongst Ray Hall and some of his mates not sure... but all we managed to get was skaamies! plenty of them, so we all decided to move out to another bay.
I decided to fish to the right of "Wit Klip" where some TRS okes were not sure who was all there but I saw Henning and Craig there, anyways funny thing happens here i'm about 200m in water in the middle of nowhere and i see this splashing behind me and a tail and head breaches the surface I nearly jump right outta my skin! its a COW SHARK! I though it was chasing some bait fish! and I start throwing my live mullet at it at least 4 times :lol:1 when I looked up again I saw it was actually one of my cluib mate who's hooked in to the fish and busy reeling it in thank god I did not cut him off! and Reza lands his 1st ever 121cm Cow.
30 minutes later the Reza hooks another one 20m behind me! and lands another Cow of 134cm!
Jislike now I was desperate, changed my rig from Blue rays to heavy steel using 2 x inline 10/0 Hoodlums and some massive mullet that I managed to get.There's about 4 of my club mates with me now on the rock in the middle of nowhere and as I look back there is a small swarm of anglers pithcing up as the call obviously went out the Cows were coming on the bite.
I launch my mullet at a shroud of bamboo about 30m in front of me and and just as my bait hits the water one of our guys right next to me goes VAS!!! he hops of the rock and has to swim the Cow:ssswim: out as there is no more standing room and has to be landed back on the shore! he lands it a 114cm Cow! well done Paul!
As i tell my captian we looking good to get some i fell bump bump bump sinker rolling and as I prepare for that pull it drops I set those hoodlums in and i'm VAS!!! yes man i'm on and yislike did this COW give me trouble! firsat it towed me left as i wanted to go right then it came straight back at me then it breached right there where our guys were standing in the middle off the ocean! and Marcc got the fright of his life when the mouth of this COW hit his leg:shark! in this frenzy my line got tangled with 2 of my fellow anglers rods which Paul quickly managed to untangle and then i managed to swim this COW brute out, a 143cm PCL! :woohoo
By this time cows were coming thick and fast and our club managed to get 6 consecutive cows with Nizaam aka Karma hooks into his one and also swims it out but the tide has pushed in so much fighting this fish is very difficult and just as Karma finds his feet on some solid rocks he is reefed and loses his Cow.
Sadly we had to move off this rock as it was almost imppossible to stand on as we were chest height in th water and getting klapped off it.
What inspired me was the little piece of rock we were standing on would have been impossible to find
, not for one Thys Kemp Jnr from Tygerberg who hopped on to it after some guidance from ourside, he casts in and is rewarded 30 minutes later with a 164CM PCL Cow!I think oh my goodness that shoulda been mine! I rig up a massive mullet chop the tail off and wait for Thys to clear from the spot with his fish and swim :sc::
ut to where the little rock was and lob and my bait to more or less the same proximety, unfortunately it proved too difficult to stand there and decided to swim back to solid ground and leave bait in the water till i get a bite and as I guessed it 30 mintes later i feel bump bump and vas! I land my 2nd Cow of 125CM PCL.Now we all standing on the shore and I notice every so often a cow is caught on "Wit Klip" and we cant get our baits there as its just out of range but the guys do get them a bit closer in as Angler1 managed to get a Cow.
it about 2:00pm and I tell my team look over at the next bay the guys are standing thick there do we know whats happening there? perhaps we should move as we arent getting fish at the same rate as earlier, so a team of 5 move over and what do we discover?
Those guys have been getting Blue rays!!! plenty of them and the odd sandy, quickly i see a blue ray left of me right of me and with only 45 minutes left I was soo hoping for 1 or 2 myself, Daryll goes vas a Blue ray of 52cm, and so i changed my rig to single Circle hook, I immediately got vas with a sandy of 92cm,
last couple casts with mullet and nothing more its 3:00pm and lines up!
Phew what a friggin day! As always in hindsight its easy to say we could have done things a little different to produce a better outcome with so much fish coming out
but I would like to thank God for the opportunity and ability to hook and land the catches and that nobody was injured during some of the epic battles with the toothy critters!
Well done to those who got fish!!! toughies for those who did not, this certainly was a good day of fishing for the bulk of anglers!