Fish Identification Required
- Thread starter pnaylor
- Start date
sorsjoubert
New member
Klein Leervis
Dr halibut hoffman
Moderator
Kalk bay pier used to the be "the spot" for spinning for leeries in the old days..Long before I knew of the fun that some were having an older neighbor used to tell me of the leerie sessions he'd go up to velddrif for, he's spin off the wall at the entrance to the river towards the seaside and he'd know exactly when the fish would pitch up. There is a separate west coast population but the cold current keeps them far north, in Angola and Namibia..The ones in langebaan and directly north and south are the furthest extent of our normal southern population.
If you apply the basin effect and the fact that the stock is SEVERELY depressed then the first places you would notice the stock disappearing from is the outer extent of the range, this being up east and north (where this year they DID notice that the leeries were far less than prior) where the breeders go over-winter, and on the west coast. The adults spawn up in Natal and the larvae rides the current all the way down collecting in bays where it eddies all the way down to false bay and around cape point to the lower west coast. I've also seen lots of little leeries in my thrownet the last two years so these guys are the result of a good spawn last 2 years. If we conserve them and start returning breeding stock to the sea in Natal they can make a serious comeback, they grow quickly and there is ample of their favourite bait like mullet, mackerel, anchovies and razor shads..There is just few breeding fish left compared to before. They grow so quickly that in 3 or 4 years time if we release the young ones in the southern cape as most do, and there starts a culture of conserving them in Natal, they can come back to enough to in 3 or 4 years again they can be back all time like..
From Bidens' "Sea Angling fishes of the Cape" second ed. 1948:
"During a good season at the Cape, approximately 200 leerfish, including catches made on handlines, are taken from the kalk Bay pier. They are of fair size ranging from 20-45lb, with a few larger ones up to 50 and 55lb."
He then goes on to describe a notable catch in 1922 by Mr Terence C. Ferguson, who caught the record 55lb'er "leerfish" which was verified being weighed at the train station, and taking 3/4 of an hour of hard work to subdue the fish and land. Onlookers thought he had hooked a large shark. This was on a day where 500 yellowtail (ave. size 25lb) were taken from the pier in the mornings session by professional and recreational anglers alike, "breaking four gaffs in the ordeal". When last did you hear of a leervis coming out from kalk bay pier, and a yellowtail for that matter..? And they still allow unlimited trekking/beach seine netting of the nursery fish and juveniles of a barely recovering yellowtail stock so gov' aint gonna help us with recovery of our fisheries, it is up to us. One must also understand that the shad in langebaan is the furthest extent of the southern stock too and in the old days the large breeders of the stock would over-winter there as well as up in natal, more so in langebaan. There were a few industries on the go that would shock us today, one was the netting of huge tonnages of these large 20-30lb elf in langebaan which were so full of oils that they would be cooked down to fish oil in huge iron cauldrons that was an export industry to europe/uk. Another shocking industry was in veldrif and langebaan as far as I know and was the bokkoms industry which in those days was not based on harders/mullet but on those little yellow leeries which would be beach trekked by the ton and dried into a local bokkoms delicacy, which would be a major item of trade too. Eish if they only knew..We cannot concieve fisheries like that today, those were the breeder elf and the fishery has never recovered from that and those were the recruitment leervis where the breeders got removed over the next few decades and now compared most are gone. You dont see the same number of young'uns like they would in days past, which was enough to base a major bokkoms industry on. I can find the figures and tonnages if anyone is interested but it was not a small industry.
Oh, if we had any idea how good our fishing should be in South Africa..We are fishing the tail-end of collapsed stocks. Maybe one day if we are smart, our kids could experience what it should be like again.
If you apply the basin effect and the fact that the stock is SEVERELY depressed then the first places you would notice the stock disappearing from is the outer extent of the range, this being up east and north (where this year they DID notice that the leeries were far less than prior) where the breeders go over-winter, and on the west coast. The adults spawn up in Natal and the larvae rides the current all the way down collecting in bays where it eddies all the way down to false bay and around cape point to the lower west coast. I've also seen lots of little leeries in my thrownet the last two years so these guys are the result of a good spawn last 2 years. If we conserve them and start returning breeding stock to the sea in Natal they can make a serious comeback, they grow quickly and there is ample of their favourite bait like mullet, mackerel, anchovies and razor shads..There is just few breeding fish left compared to before. They grow so quickly that in 3 or 4 years time if we release the young ones in the southern cape as most do, and there starts a culture of conserving them in Natal, they can come back to enough to in 3 or 4 years again they can be back all time like..
From Bidens' "Sea Angling fishes of the Cape" second ed. 1948:
"During a good season at the Cape, approximately 200 leerfish, including catches made on handlines, are taken from the kalk Bay pier. They are of fair size ranging from 20-45lb, with a few larger ones up to 50 and 55lb."
He then goes on to describe a notable catch in 1922 by Mr Terence C. Ferguson, who caught the record 55lb'er "leerfish" which was verified being weighed at the train station, and taking 3/4 of an hour of hard work to subdue the fish and land. Onlookers thought he had hooked a large shark. This was on a day where 500 yellowtail (ave. size 25lb) were taken from the pier in the mornings session by professional and recreational anglers alike, "breaking four gaffs in the ordeal". When last did you hear of a leervis coming out from kalk bay pier, and a yellowtail for that matter..? And they still allow unlimited trekking/beach seine netting of the nursery fish and juveniles of a barely recovering yellowtail stock so gov' aint gonna help us with recovery of our fisheries, it is up to us. One must also understand that the shad in langebaan is the furthest extent of the southern stock too and in the old days the large breeders of the stock would over-winter there as well as up in natal, more so in langebaan. There were a few industries on the go that would shock us today, one was the netting of huge tonnages of these large 20-30lb elf in langebaan which were so full of oils that they would be cooked down to fish oil in huge iron cauldrons that was an export industry to europe/uk. Another shocking industry was in veldrif and langebaan as far as I know and was the bokkoms industry which in those days was not based on harders/mullet but on those little yellow leeries which would be beach trekked by the ton and dried into a local bokkoms delicacy, which would be a major item of trade too. Eish if they only knew..We cannot concieve fisheries like that today, those were the breeder elf and the fishery has never recovered from that and those were the recruitment leervis where the breeders got removed over the next few decades and now compared most are gone. You dont see the same number of young'uns like they would in days past, which was enough to base a major bokkoms industry on. I can find the figures and tonnages if anyone is interested but it was not a small industry.
Oh, if we had any idea how good our fishing should be in South Africa..We are fishing the tail-end of collapsed stocks. Maybe one day if we are smart, our kids could experience what it should be like again.
Dr halibut hoffman
Moderator
Sure there are a still a few off veldrif too 
Just put the big ones back..Ja those sandvlei fish are the hardest to hook in SA! They have had every plug and lure go past them so many times by now...seen a MONSTER in there, a 55lb'er. Saw her/him many times it used to do the same patrol past the same point most evenings around the same time, got it to follow me once, lazily and I saw how long it really was when its back broke. But that was before the sewerage and gaff and foul hook crew at the mouth incident..But mates tell me the fussy fish are still there in hoards. In those days a livie would go down the hatch but you can't use livebait there anymore which isn't a bad thing after the very leervissy looking dorado was bust being sold down the road at a local kalkbay restaurant! LOL Most heavy metal polluted dorado ever! Ja nee there are still fish around..shame last 2-3 years the leeries took a beating, but back the big ones and limit your keep and they'll bounce back, there are loads of younguns in all the rivermouths.
Just put the big ones back..Ja those sandvlei fish are the hardest to hook in SA! They have had every plug and lure go past them so many times by now...seen a MONSTER in there, a 55lb'er. Saw her/him many times it used to do the same patrol past the same point most evenings around the same time, got it to follow me once, lazily and I saw how long it really was when its back broke. But that was before the sewerage and gaff and foul hook crew at the mouth incident..But mates tell me the fussy fish are still there in hoards. In those days a livie would go down the hatch but you can't use livebait there anymore which isn't a bad thing after the very leervissy looking dorado was bust being sold down the road at a local kalkbay restaurant! LOL Most heavy metal polluted dorado ever! Ja nee there are still fish around..shame last 2-3 years the leeries took a beating, but back the big ones and limit your keep and they'll bounce back, there are loads of younguns in all the rivermouths.