last esa show a shocker

Noweeds

Sealiner
Geez guys..........i'm one of the biggest advocates of C&R but now you are taking the piss!! If i got my hands on freshly caught bonnie in the middle of a shark feeding frenzy i'm telling you you would have to prize it out of my cold dead fingers!!

Did they throw it on the beach to dry out and spoil and then get chucked into the freezer at home....NO....they used it for bait there and then, nothing wasted!!

Do you guys think that the bonnies you buy for bait are brought by the tooth fairy and die of old age!! Come on......get real!! Oh and lets not forget the number of 15kilo + cuda they released the day before..........but no......shame on them for killing a bonnie for bait!!:?:crazy1
 

BRENDON

Senior Member
agreed weeds, if i catch a shad,and i know theres bonzies in the water, i am gonna send that fish back out, whether i must cut it or swim it out, its going for bait.

 
 

Raggieman

Senior Member
Well Said Noweeds and Brendon - especially like the tooth fairy reckon she can provide us with bait for Comps ????
 

Reefman

Sealiner
My 2c worth on ESA... I was once their biggest critic - had words with their ownership on several occasions. But I have to admit that their show has improved dramatically over the last year. There have been a few episodes that will go down as "classics" in fishing terms. The Bronzie smash in last weeks episode was one of them, the shark attack on the surface in transkei was another - brilliant photography, capturing stuff that most of us will only dream of seeing.  Catching Couta/Kingies on dropshot, lovely stuff. Sometimes it can be a bit repetitive, but it still keeps me glued....

Their mag, well there ain't nothing that even comes close...

So well done to Andre Henn and Matthys Potgieter, you guys have upped your game Big time... :clap12
 

Poseidon

Senior Member
Guy Guys!!! It seems that some of us need to have a re-think on why we fish and probably have a change of (to what some of us is)……. “a favourite pastime ”.No doubt fishing in South Africa has changed tremendously especially in terms of competitive angling, however many anglers seem to have forgotten the ground principles upon which fishing has evolved/ originated from, this was to provide and sustain many families as a stable source of food and is still continued up to this very day. Guys I’m not been bias, as I am only stating what I think is right and is merely my opinion. Fishing, just like hunting is a sport that involves the slaughter of animals for money, fame, prizes and glory or just to provide a decent meal. I’m not in any way a professional angler but to me a fish that is on the brink of death been released and most probably shortly will endure an agonizing death in the water is better of been kept for the pot or for bait which will be used to catch something worthy to be proud of. At times the guys on ESA go to great extents to provide us with a riveting and very entertaining show and therefore we should give credit where it is due and when it is due. The ESA team have achieved in terms of fishing what many of us only dream of, Wesley been a professional South African angler has the expertise and the experience to rationalize a situation and sometimes know what’s best for the fish. Coming to the point of my little story, what I’m saying is that for those individuals who sit all comfy an there lazy boy at home and are judge-mental when it comes to ESA, rather change the channel and watch cartoons…more especially if you get uptight about a few fish (used for bait which will catch sharks that will keep us the viewers on the edge of our seats with enjoyment) that been kept then rather patrol the beaches during your fishing time and watch for merciless fisherman that catch hundreds of fish and raid the reefs and rocks for bait taking home anything and everything that they can get there hooks into from the sea.
 

BRENDON

Senior Member
jasso, talk about bad timing. doubt i will be able to. its peak Season and i so hate driving during this time,and i am already going to Hamburg next month
 

Old Sea Dog

New member
I would like to comment on a couple of posts which seemed to indicate that fishing close to Aliwal Shoal is in some way wrong or undesirable behaviour. I totally disagree with that sentiment.

Aliwal Shoal has been declared a protected area and the area where fishing is prohibited is very clearly defined, namely the area inside the contour at 25m depth. Based on how this protected are was defined, the intention of the conservation authorities is pretty clear to me: it is to relieve the pressure on the resident reef species, which will have a knock-on effect on the health of the Aliwal fishery as a whole. The authorities could have done something like protected the entire area from Umkomaas river mouth to Scottburgh, for example, but the fact that they didn't, means that their intention was to simply shift the pressure from the reef species to the pelagics that are drawn to the reef. To now state that fisherman should for some reason also ignore those pelagics is taking things a bit far in my opinion.

I think Aliwal is going to recover amazingly over the next few years and I think that we are going to see some excellent gamefish catches around the outside of the protected area as a result. For that very same reason I am very much in favour of declaring more marine protected areas offshore and also on the coastline. But for heaven's sake, allow fisherman to then use the areas adjacent to these sanctuaries and don't whine when they do. It's a win-win situation.

I think we must recognise how far we have come with instilling conservation-minded practices amongst sports fisherman. It's not so long ago that every fish that was hooked off a skiboat ended up in the hatch. I am also sorry to say that those practices do still occur, but at least it's not the norm any more, so let's at least acknowledge that. Considering that the fish taken on that ESA show were all of the tuna species, which is one of or least protected species, for the simple reason that they still enjoy a relatively healthy population size, I think the overall reaction of some posters on this thread was a bit over the top. I have also taken exception in the past when ESA have specifically targeted huge tuna on very light tackle, because you can really have only one outcome to that scenario, namely a dead fish, but in this case I don't think they were acting irresponsibly.

 
 

Orca

New member
Hi All

The words below are those of Raymond  on ESA forum

 

thanks for that , however its not really annoying but rather a very naive statement, aliwal is only closed for fishing after 6 in the evening and before 4 in the morning. and as for cutting bonnies ,these are shoaling baitfish and very abundant in our waters,not much wrong with keeping it whether as a meal or as bait.

chumming for tuna is common practice all over the country and considering that over a period of six hours only 5 kilos of sardines are chummed ,i dont think sharks even had a chance of getting one morsel considering the abundance of tuna in this area.

as for keeping a few, well considering we have released aroound 7 tons of fish fishing offshore in the last year why not keep a few,nobody ever said release everything,rather just limit what you keep. fresh fish is great from time.

thanks again

Raymond
 
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