You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Anyone fished Ponta recently
- Thread starter Richard M
- Start date
Our annual trip to Ponta Malongane is now behind us and it was a pretty poor trip from a fish caught perspective. The trip started okay until we arrived on the Moz side at the Kosi border and the Moz Customs guys hit us with a 125% import tax on the 5 cases of beer we had (no duty free allowance on beer apparently). Not worried about anything else except the beer (not even the extra fuel we had). Must be an easy target for them. Anyway R700 later we cleared the border.
Launching at Malongane was tricky the entire week thanks to a southernly wind/swells and extremely short wave period between irregular waves. Made getting the boat through the shore break a bit hectic. After that though the sea was okay with only one really rough day on the water and one blow-out out of 7 days. Not bad.
On the fishing side, the game fishing was poor. We managed to get a few huge green jobfish and a small yellowfin the entire week. Not a lot of birds around and the sharks absolutely wasted us. No couta either. Did not see any come out at Malongane the entire week we were there. We tried, liveys, spoons, drift baits (sards and mackerel), slow trawl, nothing worked. Even the GT's were scarce, but the few hook ups we had with spoons, were taken by massive sharks. A big shark on a heavy jigging rod and grinder with 80lb braid is not fun. I have never seen this many sharks in this area before. Yes they are always there and you get taxed on the odd fishand but this year it seemed as if they were just everywhere. i have been fishing there for many years during January and this is the most I have ever seen. Within minutes of stopping over any structure, the big tigers and grey's were circling the boat. Almost a 100% tax rate from the sharks (worse than the customs tax on beer if you add in the terminal gear and rods we lost/broke).
Looking back a hard trip with memories of deep burn, sore arms and backs and few edible fish (we still had fun though). Will have to try a bit later in February next year to see if the sharks are a bit less. Maybe the divers are attracting the sharks on purpose to chase the fishermen away? Conspiracy LOL :sc::::sha
Launching at Malongane was tricky the entire week thanks to a southernly wind/swells and extremely short wave period between irregular waves. Made getting the boat through the shore break a bit hectic. After that though the sea was okay with only one really rough day on the water and one blow-out out of 7 days. Not bad.
On the fishing side, the game fishing was poor. We managed to get a few huge green jobfish and a small yellowfin the entire week. Not a lot of birds around and the sharks absolutely wasted us. No couta either. Did not see any come out at Malongane the entire week we were there. We tried, liveys, spoons, drift baits (sards and mackerel), slow trawl, nothing worked. Even the GT's were scarce, but the few hook ups we had with spoons, were taken by massive sharks. A big shark on a heavy jigging rod and grinder with 80lb braid is not fun. I have never seen this many sharks in this area before. Yes they are always there and you get taxed on the odd fishand but this year it seemed as if they were just everywhere. i have been fishing there for many years during January and this is the most I have ever seen. Within minutes of stopping over any structure, the big tigers and grey's were circling the boat. Almost a 100% tax rate from the sharks (worse than the customs tax on beer if you add in the terminal gear and rods we lost/broke).
Looking back a hard trip with memories of deep burn, sore arms and backs and few edible fish (we still had fun though). Will have to try a bit later in February next year to see if the sharks are a bit less. Maybe the divers are attracting the sharks on purpose to chase the fishermen away? Conspiracy LOL :sc::::sha
Richard M wrote:
I think the international trawlers poaching all the fish stocks has/is decimating their natural prey , hence they have now learnt to follow the ski boats for a quick and easy meal without expending too much energy ?
Looking back a hard trip with memories of deep burn, sore arms and backs and few edible fish (we still had fun though). Will have to try a bit later in February next year to see if the sharks are a bit less. Maybe the divers are attracting the sharks on purpose to chase the fishermen away? Conspiracy LOL :sc::::sha
I think the international trawlers poaching all the fish stocks has/is decimating their natural prey , hence they have now learnt to follow the ski boats for a quick and easy meal without expending too much energy ?
About Time
New member
Hi Richard M,
I'v send you a PM.
I'v send you a PM.