Fishing St Lucia Cape vidal

[willem wikkel spies]

So with Jaun down there it was clear that he needed to get fresh bait first!!!
so on Saturday he managed to get some good shad at Maphelane.
between him and the girl friend, they managed to get quota of shad!!!

 

[willem wikkel spies]

with the tide being low and not much going on at Maphelane, Jaun decided to return to St Lucia.
looking for better water and being closer to "home" allowed him to fish the hole day.

around 12isch it all started happening.
Jaun had a pull on a dead shad.
the fish eventually dropped the bait.......

on inspection of the bait "dead shad", it was clear, that the shad was picked up by a Kingie!!!
the shad had proper puncture holes and the shad was also smashed "pap gebyt"

 

[willem wikkel spies]

unfortunately none of the hooks stuck!!!
the other side of the shad

one needs to take notice of the shad, the skin was damaged with the bite and the flesh started peeling out of the shad

 

[willem wikkel spies]

the day was far from over.
just before high tide, Jaun had another 2x pulls on dead shad.
both bites were sharks.
the one shark also managed to drop its food.
the other shark, was a large black tip shark as it was seen jumping!! my thinking is, that it might have been a spinner shark, in any case.

not long into the fight, the shark managed to bite through the 150lb steel leader.
this is the shad which was dropped

 

[willem wikkel spies]

the bitten off steel trace.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

knowing how to fish is obviously a big aspect in getting fish on the line.
we have been fishing St Lucia since 1994 and Jaun is now already 25 years old.
so Jaun does know, more then the basics.

having knowledge is key and it again proved to be key in getting fresh live bait.

we all know that nothing is attracting shad to St Lucia due to nothing "calling" the to congregate there.
there s no open mouth, and bait fish is scare.

i told Jaun, that he needed to persist in trying for shad as they will be there, but they might not be there in numbers.

Jaun then set out to get live shad, using the drifting bait technique method he managed to 2x live shads.

Jaun had a pull on 1x live shad, which is suspected to have been a Garrick.
they are not aggressive feeders and they do tend to drop bait quickly.


the weather turned south with rain and a big sea and Jaun called it a day.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

high tide was early in the morning 31 August 2020.
so by the time the live bait was in, the water was out already.
Jaun again managed to get 3x live baits with no pic ups for the session.
the 1x shad was a proper one, around 45cm.
both the shads came back untouched and still very alive.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

we will see what the afternoon session holds for them.
Jaun was the only one who managed to get live bait in the 2x days at St Lucia.
so, it is clear, that the shad are there but not in numbers.

 

[Stefan001]

willem wikkel spies wrote:

and do note, the quicker you learn from your mistakes, the sooner you might get to land some fish!!!

i have a bottle of some bend open hooks.
all of them were Mustad Kendal Round 4826td.
currently im using Grip hooks.
i have yet to have one open on me.
they are also stainless steel hooks.
so rust do not affect them

Here Spies is showing off, bend open hooks.
ok, twice now in 1 trip!!!!!

jy kort beter hoeke Spies!!!

The tin Kendals bent open like nothing unfortunatly. The brown kendals dont open so easily and are still my go too hooks for live baits.

I see BKK have also come out with stainless hooks. Thought they banned stainless hooks? Would rather fish with hooks that rust away than stainless hooks in my opinion.
Always a great report Willem. One day I will also be up there sliding shad for my kingie.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

i agree, tin kendals were good hooks, but better hooks are on the market.

i only fish with stainless steel hooks.
i also only target game fish in kingies/ garrick and kob.
the odd shark is also hooked.
what they do with the hooks is their concern.

staying up in gauteng our hooks do last longer.
the tips do not break off like in hardened steel hooks.

nothing much happened yesterday apart from some rain.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

Andre Spies had a joy of a time in Maphelane bay this morning.
shad were full up and they got quota on shad quickly.

Andre managed to bump a lift back to St lucia where he slid out 3x live bait.

while waiting for a bite, he threw his shad spoon looking for more shad "keeping ourselves busy at times"

in any case, Andre managed to catch a Bonnie on the shad spoon.

obviously they do not stay alive, so he will be sliding it later this afternoon.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

in the mean while, Jaun has been getting his stuff right to do a afternoon session.
here Landi is all dressed up, ready for the fishing session.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

searching for the spot does take long...but in the mean while it is important to take note of what the water is doing......
here Jaun picked up a sprat, so this is the reason why Spies got the Bonnie.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

choosing the right spot to put the baits out is obviously very important.
Jaun decided to put his baits out on a rather big point.

here he drew the sand bank point on the beech to ask for advise.
with this and some videos on whatsapp it was decided that Jaun will put out his baits here.
one can fish these points.
the in coming water should advise you if the spot will be good in 2 hours time.
it is also much closer to the open ocean, so big fish could come rushing in over and onto the bank and rush out again back into the deep sea.
high tide will be 15:46 today, this was at 13:00 give or take.
lets see if they manage to get some fish today.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

well, getting reports as they come in is really nice.
it enables me to update the tread as things go along.

it just shows one, that when things switch on, it happens at once.
Andre was the first to give a catch report.
he has been sitting the whole day with live shad and eventually he managed to get hos 2nd garrick of the season.

well done Andre!!!!

 

[willem wikkel spies]

just after this catch report from Andre i received a picture from Jaun.

he was again unfortunate with the tax man!!!
well the steel trace did not last.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

the sad thing was, that Jaun saw the pull and before he could get the rod in hand, the steel trace was already bitten through.

this just shows us that there are decent critters about in St Lucia.
we have never targeted sharks before, thus it is a learning curve for us.
another view of the steel trace

 

[willem wikkel spies]

so we have decided to up scale a bit.
lets try out the 200lb blood line steel wire for some shark action.

one needs to remember, that we do not target sharks.
will the torium 30, with 450meters 50lb braid backing and 270meters 0.53mm top shot be enough?

we will have to wait and see.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

so, aanhouer wen!!!

the baits were set again.....
and as nature wanted it, Jaun managed to drop 2x garricks.

how do we know, well the shads were tied to the hooks.
when retrieving the baits, they are inspected for bite marks etc.
both shads scales were "missing/ removed"
no puncture marks present etc.

this does make one frustrated, doing the hard work and nothing sticks.

but perseverance does pay off!!!
one needs to keep on trying, fishing and its failures are the same as in life.
nothing is cast in stone and you need to make your own glory!!!

 

[willem wikkel spies]

High tide was 15:46 and by 17:30 i was wondering why Jaun was so quiet!!!
eventually at 18:00 i received a whats app message from Jaun.
their cell phone batteries were flat, but he did manage to get a fish.
so dad had to call him to enquire what the fuss was all about!!!

Its done, i got my Kingie dad!!!!!

lekker man, lekker.

With flat cell phone batteries, no pictures could have been taken.
so Jaun decided to keep this one, his biggest so far, all on his own!!!

some damage was done to my aluminum pole.
Here my bend pension pipe.
no worries, there are about 8x at the flat!!!