Whaler
Sealiner
As some of you already know a new club has been formed here on Sealine, with the successes of the sealine social edibles club quite evident I contacted Emperor and asked if I could start a new club using the sealine name, the difference between us and the SSEC was that we would affiliate to SASAA and compete in the leagues of the union that we would affiliate to!
As I am currently living in the free state(bloem) I started looking for interested anglers who wanted to take their angling up to the next level or anglers who wanted to learn while fishing in a environment where you are competing with other like minded anglers. It took me only a few days to realize that there plenty willing anglers from here and quite a few sealiners from other city’s that wanted to give this thing a go!
The next step was to contact the the local Angling union and ask for a copy of their constitution as any new club has to have a constitution that is aligned with the union they want to be part of, it took me a good few months to wright a constitution that I felt would suit a club that is both competitive and still “user friendly†for the angler who wants to use this platform to learn and one day compete on the SASAA circuit, after our application was approved by the angling union we started out planning our first comp, and Sealine’s first entry into competitive angling arena.
With the first comp of the year only a few weeks away we had to jump to get all the arrangements done and with the help of all the new members we got it done without any serious hiccups!
So after negotiating the gravel road to Mazeppa we finally arrived at our home for the next few days.
Louis and Anita unpacking their gear!
Louis with his game face on!
we spent the rest of the afternoon comparing tackle, making traces and sharing knots and various secrets that could give us a advantage during the 2 day comp that was waiting for us. The first afternoon would be spent scratching for edibles and obviously checking out the area for the comp! there were already reports of Raggies and some huge sharks lost and it looked like the weather was going to be kind to us with hardly any wind and not to big seas until Monday.
The view from our house
Darkness came quickly and we all went down to the back of shark point to find a few edibles!
wium and yours truly baiting up!
Louis Baiting up right in the corner were the boulders start!
I quickly got stuck into a few edibles while the others watched some TV! I managed a cob and 3 buss Blacktails on 4 consecutive casts! Awesome! We have food!..
I gave Wium sum advice and he managed a cob just before the tide pushed us of the spot and we couldn’t reach the fish anymore.
The next morning we headed to Shelly Beach to target some Sandy’s and to give a few bait presentations for the new members, we also wanted to get everybody into a fish before the comp the next day.
Look at the awesome water behind us!
Everybody quickly got stuck into the lessers and I was happy that there would be know jitters the next day when the serious fishing was to start, at this stage I was quite happy that all the anglers would be able to get on the board for their first comp as it is extremely important for your mindset as a competitive angler to catch fish, even if they are small, just catch fish! The big fish will come when they come, but always hand in a card.
Back home we had a good chow and then I dropped the bom on the team! Tomorrow morning we are not going to scratch as everybody thought but we are going to the bricks to look for Raggies…there were a few VERY surprised faces and a few concerned ones too! I have been doing my home work and the amount of Raggies that were being hooked justified my call to send everybody to the bricks for a hour at least, we split up in two groups, 4 of us went to the island and the other 4 went to the Boiling pots.
I don’t really like the island as I absolutely HATE the Bridge!lol but as Captain I puckered up and took my small band across that damn thing and we walked in the darkness to the front as lines in was at 6am.
I suggested to my team that I cast for a Bag of the front while the rest of them try for a cob of the back to see if they are around? There were already a few guys with slides out and they had dropped a few bags in the front as the ledges in front of the island had washed open and the swell was pushing the lines into the bricks as soon as you made your throw, I decided to give it a go any way even though I was throwing baits with the grinder and probably less chance of landing a bag in these conditions then the guys with slides out.
The pulls were coming and Dirk from Blue Water managed to get one to stick and landed a nice smallish raggie of the front of the island, I got a pull next and got cut of almost immediately, losing 50meters of braid was not what I wanted on my first pull of the round and I packed up and moved my group to the boiling pots were the rest of our gang were already landing their third Raggie!
Eugene(Volcom) landed the first Raggie in the small Gorge next to the Pots of 187cm a really nice start to the round and a tricky place to land a fish! A big thanks to Bruce (spinnekop) for assisting everybody in landing their fish, he selflessly put his rod down and in the middle of a smash he helped with the landing of his fellow anglers catches! That is a very hard thing for any angler to do and he deserves huge kudos for this selfless act.
While Eugene was landing his Bag Ferdie(Bossotter) went tight with his first Raggie and as luck would have it it went strait for the Beach and was easily landed on the beach with the help of Bruce who by now had resigned himself to being the “gaffer†as Nico(NM5) was also making his way to the beach with a Bag in tow!
This was Nico’s first Raggie on the Grinder set up I convinced him to get and he pulled the Bag like a champ, the AFAW and the Gossa filled with Novateur Braid made short work of the Raggie even though it was hooked in the Bum and gave him a hard time on the drop, apparently his moans could be heard all the way back on shark point!
After some hand shakes and congratulations I quickly decided to make a throw…and the Raggies had moved of! Ouch. We stood around for another 2 hours without a touch! I then decided to change tactics and put a longer trace on and a small chokka bait, my plan was to get a hammer or something just to get on the bord at least, I was in the water for maybe 5minutes when I got some slack and then got pulled FLAT!! ON! The “hammer†then decided to take a good 200meters of 50lb braid on its first run..ok so maybe it’s a Blackfin? It was arcing right and I decided to take the walk down to the beach to maximize my chances of landing it quickly, halfway down the side of the mountain it decided to double back and I had to run past it again to manipulate it to turn the other way again! After some negotiating it turned and swam were I wanted it to go and I made it onto the beach without to much trouble..
At this stage I started to pull on the fish still thinking it was a 60 to 80kg fish, how wrong I was! As soon as I gave it some heat it turned and took a good 300meters of braid on a VERY tight drag and it was then when I realized I was hooked into something serious, an hour in any fish that can take that kind of string on that drag was PROPER!
Here I am trying to get the fish to go right toward the beach, little did I know what was waiting for me when I got there
For the next 2 hours this fish just did what ever it wanted! I would lock the drag and strait stick it all the way to the front gutter and as soon as its nose hit the front bank it would turn and make a 3/400 meter run against a 20000Gossa with the drag set so tight that the spool got hot!
After 4 hours I was starting to get very worried as the fish had shown no signs of tiring and it still took the same amount of line every time I managed to get it to the front! My consern was that my braid was taking a beating and all I needed was one shell to end this thing, and as I thought about it..it happened! BOEF! It was gone.
There is no doubt about what the boys in this bakkie fish with! It’s SHIMANO Country of course!
We still had a few hours left of the first day so I popped down to the rocks to see if I couldn’t scratch out something just to get on the scoreboard, luckily this small grunter jumped on board and took away my blob!
Louis and Anita also stuck to their guns and Louis managed a nice Sand shark in the dark putting him on the board as well!
The next morning the dreaded wind arrived and fishing was going to be difficult! We again decided to split up in to two teams, the guys that got pulls the previous day would go back to the pots and the rest of the guys would go look for sandy at shelly beach.
At first light we were all tackling up and I heard Eugene scream like a girl! He was pointing at his gumboots, he had a fearful look on his face, someone had dropped some powdered red dye in his boots and as soon as he stepped into some water it looked like someone had chopped his toe of!!! We had a good laugh and he promised that Bruce would not go un punished!
Eugene’s orange toes..
Things didn’t go our way and 4 sharks were lost in a short while! The wind was blowing the swell right into the pots and the bags were coming strait to the ledge and cutting us of at our feet, and we ran out of tackle fast, a call was made and we decided to go scratch for edibles and Sandy’s as our chances of getting a Raggie out in these conditions were not very good!
The Shelly beach gang was also struggling and had only landed 2 Sandy’s that side so there was no reason for us to head that side? We decided to hit the boulders again and try for some small edibles again, I managed 2 small lesser’s and Eugene got a nice Cob that would put a huge smile on his Wife’s face!
Eugene’s Cob.
Me taking a sandy selfie…
Lines up was at 3 and not much else was caught on the last day, we managed to land 14 fish in total amongst out 8 members and I truly believe we did extremely well for a club that just came together a few days before the comp, to put it into perspective, only 27 fish were caught by 4 clubs and Sealine caught more then half of the fish! Watch this space this club is going to be GREAT!
As I am currently living in the free state(bloem) I started looking for interested anglers who wanted to take their angling up to the next level or anglers who wanted to learn while fishing in a environment where you are competing with other like minded anglers. It took me only a few days to realize that there plenty willing anglers from here and quite a few sealiners from other city’s that wanted to give this thing a go!
The next step was to contact the the local Angling union and ask for a copy of their constitution as any new club has to have a constitution that is aligned with the union they want to be part of, it took me a good few months to wright a constitution that I felt would suit a club that is both competitive and still “user friendly†for the angler who wants to use this platform to learn and one day compete on the SASAA circuit, after our application was approved by the angling union we started out planning our first comp, and Sealine’s first entry into competitive angling arena.
With the first comp of the year only a few weeks away we had to jump to get all the arrangements done and with the help of all the new members we got it done without any serious hiccups!
So after negotiating the gravel road to Mazeppa we finally arrived at our home for the next few days.
Louis and Anita unpacking their gear!
Louis with his game face on!
we spent the rest of the afternoon comparing tackle, making traces and sharing knots and various secrets that could give us a advantage during the 2 day comp that was waiting for us. The first afternoon would be spent scratching for edibles and obviously checking out the area for the comp! there were already reports of Raggies and some huge sharks lost and it looked like the weather was going to be kind to us with hardly any wind and not to big seas until Monday.
The view from our house
Darkness came quickly and we all went down to the back of shark point to find a few edibles!
wium and yours truly baiting up!
Louis Baiting up right in the corner were the boulders start!
I quickly got stuck into a few edibles while the others watched some TV! I managed a cob and 3 buss Blacktails on 4 consecutive casts! Awesome! We have food!..
I gave Wium sum advice and he managed a cob just before the tide pushed us of the spot and we couldn’t reach the fish anymore.
The next morning we headed to Shelly Beach to target some Sandy’s and to give a few bait presentations for the new members, we also wanted to get everybody into a fish before the comp the next day.
Look at the awesome water behind us!
Everybody quickly got stuck into the lessers and I was happy that there would be know jitters the next day when the serious fishing was to start, at this stage I was quite happy that all the anglers would be able to get on the board for their first comp as it is extremely important for your mindset as a competitive angler to catch fish, even if they are small, just catch fish! The big fish will come when they come, but always hand in a card.
Back home we had a good chow and then I dropped the bom on the team! Tomorrow morning we are not going to scratch as everybody thought but we are going to the bricks to look for Raggies…there were a few VERY surprised faces and a few concerned ones too! I have been doing my home work and the amount of Raggies that were being hooked justified my call to send everybody to the bricks for a hour at least, we split up in two groups, 4 of us went to the island and the other 4 went to the Boiling pots.
I don’t really like the island as I absolutely HATE the Bridge!lol but as Captain I puckered up and took my small band across that damn thing and we walked in the darkness to the front as lines in was at 6am.
I suggested to my team that I cast for a Bag of the front while the rest of them try for a cob of the back to see if they are around? There were already a few guys with slides out and they had dropped a few bags in the front as the ledges in front of the island had washed open and the swell was pushing the lines into the bricks as soon as you made your throw, I decided to give it a go any way even though I was throwing baits with the grinder and probably less chance of landing a bag in these conditions then the guys with slides out.
The pulls were coming and Dirk from Blue Water managed to get one to stick and landed a nice smallish raggie of the front of the island, I got a pull next and got cut of almost immediately, losing 50meters of braid was not what I wanted on my first pull of the round and I packed up and moved my group to the boiling pots were the rest of our gang were already landing their third Raggie!
Eugene(Volcom) landed the first Raggie in the small Gorge next to the Pots of 187cm a really nice start to the round and a tricky place to land a fish! A big thanks to Bruce (spinnekop) for assisting everybody in landing their fish, he selflessly put his rod down and in the middle of a smash he helped with the landing of his fellow anglers catches! That is a very hard thing for any angler to do and he deserves huge kudos for this selfless act.
While Eugene was landing his Bag Ferdie(Bossotter) went tight with his first Raggie and as luck would have it it went strait for the Beach and was easily landed on the beach with the help of Bruce who by now had resigned himself to being the “gaffer†as Nico(NM5) was also making his way to the beach with a Bag in tow!
This was Nico’s first Raggie on the Grinder set up I convinced him to get and he pulled the Bag like a champ, the AFAW and the Gossa filled with Novateur Braid made short work of the Raggie even though it was hooked in the Bum and gave him a hard time on the drop, apparently his moans could be heard all the way back on shark point!
After some hand shakes and congratulations I quickly decided to make a throw…and the Raggies had moved of! Ouch. We stood around for another 2 hours without a touch! I then decided to change tactics and put a longer trace on and a small chokka bait, my plan was to get a hammer or something just to get on the bord at least, I was in the water for maybe 5minutes when I got some slack and then got pulled FLAT!! ON! The “hammer†then decided to take a good 200meters of 50lb braid on its first run..ok so maybe it’s a Blackfin? It was arcing right and I decided to take the walk down to the beach to maximize my chances of landing it quickly, halfway down the side of the mountain it decided to double back and I had to run past it again to manipulate it to turn the other way again! After some negotiating it turned and swam were I wanted it to go and I made it onto the beach without to much trouble..
At this stage I started to pull on the fish still thinking it was a 60 to 80kg fish, how wrong I was! As soon as I gave it some heat it turned and took a good 300meters of braid on a VERY tight drag and it was then when I realized I was hooked into something serious, an hour in any fish that can take that kind of string on that drag was PROPER!
Here I am trying to get the fish to go right toward the beach, little did I know what was waiting for me when I got there
For the next 2 hours this fish just did what ever it wanted! I would lock the drag and strait stick it all the way to the front gutter and as soon as its nose hit the front bank it would turn and make a 3/400 meter run against a 20000Gossa with the drag set so tight that the spool got hot!
After 4 hours I was starting to get very worried as the fish had shown no signs of tiring and it still took the same amount of line every time I managed to get it to the front! My consern was that my braid was taking a beating and all I needed was one shell to end this thing, and as I thought about it..it happened! BOEF! It was gone.
There is no doubt about what the boys in this bakkie fish with! It’s SHIMANO Country of course!
We still had a few hours left of the first day so I popped down to the rocks to see if I couldn’t scratch out something just to get on the scoreboard, luckily this small grunter jumped on board and took away my blob!
Louis and Anita also stuck to their guns and Louis managed a nice Sand shark in the dark putting him on the board as well!
The next morning the dreaded wind arrived and fishing was going to be difficult! We again decided to split up in to two teams, the guys that got pulls the previous day would go back to the pots and the rest of the guys would go look for sandy at shelly beach.
At first light we were all tackling up and I heard Eugene scream like a girl! He was pointing at his gumboots, he had a fearful look on his face, someone had dropped some powdered red dye in his boots and as soon as he stepped into some water it looked like someone had chopped his toe of!!! We had a good laugh and he promised that Bruce would not go un punished!
Eugene’s orange toes..
Things didn’t go our way and 4 sharks were lost in a short while! The wind was blowing the swell right into the pots and the bags were coming strait to the ledge and cutting us of at our feet, and we ran out of tackle fast, a call was made and we decided to go scratch for edibles and Sandy’s as our chances of getting a Raggie out in these conditions were not very good!
The Shelly beach gang was also struggling and had only landed 2 Sandy’s that side so there was no reason for us to head that side? We decided to hit the boulders again and try for some small edibles again, I managed 2 small lesser’s and Eugene got a nice Cob that would put a huge smile on his Wife’s face!
Eugene’s Cob.
Me taking a sandy selfie…
Lines up was at 3 and not much else was caught on the last day, we managed to land 14 fish in total amongst out 8 members and I truly believe we did extremely well for a club that just came together a few days before the comp, to put it into perspective, only 27 fish were caught by 4 clubs and Sealine caught more then half of the fish! Watch this space this club is going to be GREAT!