aquadementia
Sealiner
My dad, Morne (skipper) and I launched at the Gamtoos Ferry Hotel around 10am this morning, tried a few spots and settled on an exposed sandbank near the mouth.
Our target was the spotted grunter, a fish which has somehow managed to elude me. We parked the boat on the sandbank and put our lines in. One look at our spot and I KNEW there had to be a flathead around there. Second cast with a 4inch mcarthy minnow and I was ON! looks like my retrieve I figured out the last time I targetted flathead is very effective...
The very next cast I went on again!! Smaller this time, a little garrick. Quickly released him and worked my way down the sandbank, throwing into a deep channel. On again, another little garrick, and in the mean time Morne was on with a grunter
OK so I had had my fun with dropshot, time to get that grunter. nibble nibble suck give line strike on! hahaha, a small steenbras, not a grunter. By this time the ballies had caught a couple small grunter.
Stick another prawn on and quickly get another tug on the line, only when I strike this time it pulls me flat and starts peeling line!! Yeeha ON DAD lol..
I felt the line rub across its large dorsal spines so I knew I had a grunter this time... This guy wasnt giving up without a big fight and took several short and one long run against a tight drag (fishing 8lb).. Eventually coaxed him over the lip and I had my target species, a 58cm FL spotted grunter
allspeciescalc's grunter length/weight ratio was calculated from fish from the Swartkops River (1 up from Gamtoos), so we will assume its pretty accurate with its 2.6kg guestimation
After that fish I decided I could take it easy so I rigged a prawn up and a 1/0 mustad fine wire demon circle hook. After a little wait I got a run and was on. I got a nice surprise when it was revealed that I had hooked a bloody Riverbream of all things!
A close up. You can see the well set circle there in the corner of its mouth
Later my dad caught another decent size grunter, 42cm FL. After a quick pic it was released with a tag, as mine had of course been.
Morne thought it a good time to try dropshot for the first time, so I gave him a 5inch pearl watermelon powerbait to try and on his first EVER cast with dropshot he caught a garrick! rather impressed he was
There were 2 or 3 more small grunter caught later on in the afternoon but on the dropping tide it got quiet. We trolled up and got a couple hits from small garrick but none stuck.
Here's a pic of how I rig the prawns with a circle hook. I had to remove this ones pincher as it was a safety concern :fst:
We caught around 20 fish between the 3 of us. A great day had by all, especially me
Our target was the spotted grunter, a fish which has somehow managed to elude me. We parked the boat on the sandbank and put our lines in. One look at our spot and I KNEW there had to be a flathead around there. Second cast with a 4inch mcarthy minnow and I was ON! looks like my retrieve I figured out the last time I targetted flathead is very effective...
The very next cast I went on again!! Smaller this time, a little garrick. Quickly released him and worked my way down the sandbank, throwing into a deep channel. On again, another little garrick, and in the mean time Morne was on with a grunter
OK so I had had my fun with dropshot, time to get that grunter. nibble nibble suck give line strike on! hahaha, a small steenbras, not a grunter. By this time the ballies had caught a couple small grunter.
Stick another prawn on and quickly get another tug on the line, only when I strike this time it pulls me flat and starts peeling line!! Yeeha ON DAD lol..
I felt the line rub across its large dorsal spines so I knew I had a grunter this time... This guy wasnt giving up without a big fight and took several short and one long run against a tight drag (fishing 8lb).. Eventually coaxed him over the lip and I had my target species, a 58cm FL spotted grunter
allspeciescalc's grunter length/weight ratio was calculated from fish from the Swartkops River (1 up from Gamtoos), so we will assume its pretty accurate with its 2.6kg guestimation
After that fish I decided I could take it easy so I rigged a prawn up and a 1/0 mustad fine wire demon circle hook. After a little wait I got a run and was on. I got a nice surprise when it was revealed that I had hooked a bloody Riverbream of all things!
A close up. You can see the well set circle there in the corner of its mouth
Later my dad caught another decent size grunter, 42cm FL. After a quick pic it was released with a tag, as mine had of course been.
Morne thought it a good time to try dropshot for the first time, so I gave him a 5inch pearl watermelon powerbait to try and on his first EVER cast with dropshot he caught a garrick! rather impressed he was
There were 2 or 3 more small grunter caught later on in the afternoon but on the dropping tide it got quiet. We trolled up and got a couple hits from small garrick but none stuck.
Here's a pic of how I rig the prawns with a circle hook. I had to remove this ones pincher as it was a safety concern :fst:
We caught around 20 fish between the 3 of us. A great day had by all, especially me
