Hi Guys.
Fishing Report: St Lucia 4 July 2009 to 14 July 2009.
Traveling:
We traveled from Heidelberg via Leandra Kinross Bethal etc as earlier reports indicated lots of potholes via standerton. Everywhere road works were being conducted. We knew that serious roadworks were being done between Piet Retief and Pongola in total 9 stops. Lucky for us our trip down was extended with another 50 mins of drive and the back travel 1 hour longer.
So if there are any of you deciding to visit the north coast, expect a delay, rather get going a hour earlier and when you do reach the stops, relax, take time to get out of the vehicle and stretch your legs as you are over the halfway mark.
The one section of road works (59 km) will be completed November 2009 and the other 39 km only in May 2011.
Fishing:
The fishing was great and still is, the weather was excellent.
9 garricks were taken on the 4[suP]th[/suP] July.
5 garricks on the 5[suP]th[/suP] July
and so it kept on going 20 odd garrick in 3 days. The least amount of garricks taken on one day was 3.
All of the garrick taken was between 5kg to 11 kg and the bait used was live shad. Except for one being taken on a small stump nose.
Most of the garrick were caught 100 meters to 1km north of the swimming beach
Shad were as scares as hoeder tande, so when you got one, you had to safe keep it as if it was gold. Shad were reluctant to take spoon and mostly caught on drift bait. The size of the shad was on the small side with the odd one, big enough for the frying pan.
Pompanos were in abundance (all in the 1.5 kg mark to 2.5kg) the odd one of 5kg was also bagged. These were feeding on sealice. My son got 3 pompano on the low tide, and as the tide swung, I got one myself.
I did visit Cape Vidal, and found that the whole bay was now really big as big seas calved all the sand away. A big cast could normally reach the rocks in the front of the bay, not anymore. The waves are washing up one the beach, where you enter the beach, so no real long walks.
Shad are also very scares at Vidal. I did take a dead shad with and cast a shad belly and fillet, hoping a kingie would make a meal of it.
Instead a honeycomb ray took to the shad belly, and + 30 mins later I had it landed, the one hook could not be removed and so we left it in the mouth. This was my first real big flattie, at one stage it looked like a fish in the wave and I got really exited, but when I saw that it was a flattie, ag jaaaaaaaaaaa.
It really gave a good account of itself. A quick snap shot and we released it, to give someone else a bull fight. We did not measure the fish, so I don’t know how much it weighed.
The fish was caught using a Purglass 400/5 grandwave 50 king fisher giant abrasion 0.50mm with 0.70mm leader.
I had really bad luck getting the fish on daddy, garrick would visit my shad, but just to drop it. That comes from fishing pension pipe stile. The drag would be set so soft, that even a big wave would set it off. Looking at the locals, garrick would take there shad and wont drop it no matter how tight the drag was set on the reel. Twice the garrick would get the shad off the hooks. I also had a strange pull, the rod was in a pipe when I got the pull, just before the pull, the rod tip vibrated and the the pull, slack was given but nothing. I reeled in the shad and found it to be kicking like it was just caught. My only explanation was that a fish swam into my line causing the fake pull.
We decided to head down to the umfolozi mouth. St Lucia mouth is still closed and is quite far from the sea + 400 meters.
The umfolozi mouth is so small a mere stream is visible, one can cross the stream on low and high tide without getting your pants wet. At the section, shad were more abundant with lots of grass in the water.
One afternoon15h00 we went down to just left of the umfolozi mouth, I got a shad and as I taxied it in, a garrick nailed the shad, giving slack line did not matter as the garrick bit the hooks into the shad and also dropped it.
I struggled getting another shad and eventually got a sizer, the size only 30 kg daqggas eat. I was sure that this time, I would get the dagga. The shad was sent in. and 12 mins later the pull was there. Knowing the shad was really big, I gave about 60 meters of line for the fish to feed at leisure. I set the hooks and the fish came quickly and in the shore break did the fish realize in was in trouble. I managed to land the fish, and found that it was a garrick of + 7 kg. There was no way that, the garrick would have gotten that shjad in its belly. Just shows you, even fish think their bellys are much bigger.
Another garrick was caught 120meters left of me, while it was already dark. Strange but true. This angler also had a fight with what was suspected to be a big ray. As after 1hour 30 mins the line parted.
Salmon:
We tried getting salmon at night but to no avail. Belly’s fillet etc came out untouched.
A visit to the north of the swimming beach produced another pompano.
A dead shad, Shad belly and fillet was set out for any fish, these came back untouched.
Although the pulls were there, indicating plenty of fish, I’m glad that I got what I got, cause sitting with a freezer of 40 kg+ fish is really a waste. As the fish get old and the freshness is gone.
This also leaves more fish for my trip in sept/ oct 2009.
The week after I left, garrick were still being cought, as well as two kob of 24 and 26 kg came out north at the slides (+ 4 km north of the swimming beach).
Weather:
I had the best weather we ever had at st. lucia. 2 days were all we had of a medium north easter. So thanks to the weather gods for assisting us there.
Until next time.
Regards
Pottie
Please wait for the pictures before any comments.
Fishing Report: St Lucia 4 July 2009 to 14 July 2009.
Traveling:
We traveled from Heidelberg via Leandra Kinross Bethal etc as earlier reports indicated lots of potholes via standerton. Everywhere road works were being conducted. We knew that serious roadworks were being done between Piet Retief and Pongola in total 9 stops. Lucky for us our trip down was extended with another 50 mins of drive and the back travel 1 hour longer.
So if there are any of you deciding to visit the north coast, expect a delay, rather get going a hour earlier and when you do reach the stops, relax, take time to get out of the vehicle and stretch your legs as you are over the halfway mark.
The one section of road works (59 km) will be completed November 2009 and the other 39 km only in May 2011.
Fishing:
The fishing was great and still is, the weather was excellent.
9 garricks were taken on the 4[suP]th[/suP] July.
5 garricks on the 5[suP]th[/suP] July
and so it kept on going 20 odd garrick in 3 days. The least amount of garricks taken on one day was 3.
All of the garrick taken was between 5kg to 11 kg and the bait used was live shad. Except for one being taken on a small stump nose.
Most of the garrick were caught 100 meters to 1km north of the swimming beach
Shad were as scares as hoeder tande, so when you got one, you had to safe keep it as if it was gold. Shad were reluctant to take spoon and mostly caught on drift bait. The size of the shad was on the small side with the odd one, big enough for the frying pan.
Pompanos were in abundance (all in the 1.5 kg mark to 2.5kg) the odd one of 5kg was also bagged. These were feeding on sealice. My son got 3 pompano on the low tide, and as the tide swung, I got one myself.
I did visit Cape Vidal, and found that the whole bay was now really big as big seas calved all the sand away. A big cast could normally reach the rocks in the front of the bay, not anymore. The waves are washing up one the beach, where you enter the beach, so no real long walks.
Shad are also very scares at Vidal. I did take a dead shad with and cast a shad belly and fillet, hoping a kingie would make a meal of it.
Instead a honeycomb ray took to the shad belly, and + 30 mins later I had it landed, the one hook could not be removed and so we left it in the mouth. This was my first real big flattie, at one stage it looked like a fish in the wave and I got really exited, but when I saw that it was a flattie, ag jaaaaaaaaaaa.
It really gave a good account of itself. A quick snap shot and we released it, to give someone else a bull fight. We did not measure the fish, so I don’t know how much it weighed.
The fish was caught using a Purglass 400/5 grandwave 50 king fisher giant abrasion 0.50mm with 0.70mm leader.
I had really bad luck getting the fish on daddy, garrick would visit my shad, but just to drop it. That comes from fishing pension pipe stile. The drag would be set so soft, that even a big wave would set it off. Looking at the locals, garrick would take there shad and wont drop it no matter how tight the drag was set on the reel. Twice the garrick would get the shad off the hooks. I also had a strange pull, the rod was in a pipe when I got the pull, just before the pull, the rod tip vibrated and the the pull, slack was given but nothing. I reeled in the shad and found it to be kicking like it was just caught. My only explanation was that a fish swam into my line causing the fake pull.
We decided to head down to the umfolozi mouth. St Lucia mouth is still closed and is quite far from the sea + 400 meters.
The umfolozi mouth is so small a mere stream is visible, one can cross the stream on low and high tide without getting your pants wet. At the section, shad were more abundant with lots of grass in the water.
One afternoon15h00 we went down to just left of the umfolozi mouth, I got a shad and as I taxied it in, a garrick nailed the shad, giving slack line did not matter as the garrick bit the hooks into the shad and also dropped it.
I struggled getting another shad and eventually got a sizer, the size only 30 kg daqggas eat. I was sure that this time, I would get the dagga. The shad was sent in. and 12 mins later the pull was there. Knowing the shad was really big, I gave about 60 meters of line for the fish to feed at leisure. I set the hooks and the fish came quickly and in the shore break did the fish realize in was in trouble. I managed to land the fish, and found that it was a garrick of + 7 kg. There was no way that, the garrick would have gotten that shjad in its belly. Just shows you, even fish think their bellys are much bigger.
Another garrick was caught 120meters left of me, while it was already dark. Strange but true. This angler also had a fight with what was suspected to be a big ray. As after 1hour 30 mins the line parted.
Salmon:
We tried getting salmon at night but to no avail. Belly’s fillet etc came out untouched.
A visit to the north of the swimming beach produced another pompano.
A dead shad, Shad belly and fillet was set out for any fish, these came back untouched.
Although the pulls were there, indicating plenty of fish, I’m glad that I got what I got, cause sitting with a freezer of 40 kg+ fish is really a waste. As the fish get old and the freshness is gone.
This also leaves more fish for my trip in sept/ oct 2009.
The week after I left, garrick were still being cought, as well as two kob of 24 and 26 kg came out north at the slides (+ 4 km north of the swimming beach).
Weather:
I had the best weather we ever had at st. lucia. 2 days were all we had of a medium north easter. So thanks to the weather gods for assisting us there.
Until next time.
Regards
Pottie
Please wait for the pictures before any comments.
