St Lucia February fishing
- Thread starter archieboo
- Start date
Ja I was speaking of eds. Some guys were complaining there were few fish, but they were there...you just have to work for them. Just after you left on Monday I saw what looked like a bronzie of about 1.5 meter come out where you were fishing and quite a number of blacktips of about a meter so you were in the right place. I see a lot of the toothy crittur anglers are fishing hard along the front of that last carpark so I guess they know something!
Gone.fishing4
New member
Archieboo great report and good job hard work pays off, as long as there is a line in the water you got a chance.How safe is the Car & bakkie at the Car Parks and Down by Mission Rock?
Waiting for the Picture of the
ONE!!!!Tight lines Great report
Cars seem very safe. There are car guards at the carpark. Mission rocks no guards but I dont feel there is a problem because of the restricted entry to the park.
Heres the next report..
9[sup]th[/sup] day and the fishing is getting better. I am getting the feel of the sea conditions and the fish and am catching more fish. Nothing big landed though. Biggest Pompano about a750g and some black tip sharks of one meter. This Saturday morning I was on the beach near slides at about 5am. I worked back towards the car park trying to find big kob. For about 2km there was nothing but small kob of about 25 to 35cm. Plenty of them. Once I got the hang of their bite I could land one on nearly every cast. They pull long and steadily and you need to give them time to swallow. They are obviously carrying the bait off without swallowing.
I spent a morning at mission rocks but also did not catch anything earth shattering! A few 1kg zebra. I packed it in eventually because I was battling to bait up in torrential rain.
Now for a very big winge on my part. All the Durban boys and other Natal coastal guys are here. (Over 20 or more N registration vehicles in the car park). There must have been over 40 fishermen on the beach this Saturday morning. All were landing undersize kob. As I was packing up I watched for a while. I don’t want to make a sweeping statement but it looked like none of those those kob were being returned to the sea! Those who did, a big thumbs up. Well done. Most of the kob were going into buckets and bags. Whats going on? How do we expect to carry on fishing if we go on like that? I thought the size limit was 60cm and one kob per day, or am I on the wrong page here? This despite KZN wildlife officers checking licences this morning. Why don’t they check bags? Or are they not allowed to? Very confused and sickened by this spectacle I must say.
Has anyone considered approaching the Department at a club level or something and proposing honory fish wardens or something similar? The guys who practice catch and release or who are ORI taggers would be well qualified to do this. They don’t even need to make arrests, but could have a hot line to the Wild life officials to come and apprehend these bandits.
Monday morning and the sea is very clean. Absolutely no bites! Very strange! I think the sea may be too clear. I will go back to mission rocks and give the gulleys a go at low tide this afternoon.
cheers rich
Heres the next report..
9[sup]th[/sup] day and the fishing is getting better. I am getting the feel of the sea conditions and the fish and am catching more fish. Nothing big landed though. Biggest Pompano about a750g and some black tip sharks of one meter. This Saturday morning I was on the beach near slides at about 5am. I worked back towards the car park trying to find big kob. For about 2km there was nothing but small kob of about 25 to 35cm. Plenty of them. Once I got the hang of their bite I could land one on nearly every cast. They pull long and steadily and you need to give them time to swallow. They are obviously carrying the bait off without swallowing.
I spent a morning at mission rocks but also did not catch anything earth shattering! A few 1kg zebra. I packed it in eventually because I was battling to bait up in torrential rain.
Now for a very big winge on my part. All the Durban boys and other Natal coastal guys are here. (Over 20 or more N registration vehicles in the car park). There must have been over 40 fishermen on the beach this Saturday morning. All were landing undersize kob. As I was packing up I watched for a while. I don’t want to make a sweeping statement but it looked like none of those those kob were being returned to the sea! Those who did, a big thumbs up. Well done. Most of the kob were going into buckets and bags. Whats going on? How do we expect to carry on fishing if we go on like that? I thought the size limit was 60cm and one kob per day, or am I on the wrong page here? This despite KZN wildlife officers checking licences this morning. Why don’t they check bags? Or are they not allowed to? Very confused and sickened by this spectacle I must say.
Has anyone considered approaching the Department at a club level or something and proposing honory fish wardens or something similar? The guys who practice catch and release or who are ORI taggers would be well qualified to do this. They don’t even need to make arrests, but could have a hot line to the Wild life officials to come and apprehend these bandits.
Monday morning and the sea is very clean. Absolutely no bites! Very strange! I think the sea may be too clear. I will go back to mission rocks and give the gulleys a go at low tide this afternoon.
cheers rich
Final report..
Ja my wife and daughter are pretty awesome when it comes to my fishing. However I always try and fish somewhere where they can sun bathe, snorkel or swim. I also spend most afternoons taking them places. Ha Ha! It all comes from years of experience and manipulation!:addn
Packed up at St Lucia reluctantly on the 23rd.
A great 3 weeks I must say. February is a great month to fish the north coast.
I caught a pb shad of over 2kg, a pb kingy of 2.4kg and by the last day did not feel that compulsion to go fishing like "if I dont, I am going to lose out" Ya know what I mean huh??? In the last week I caught my one 60+cm kob(salmon) twice for the pan.
I didnt count but must have caught over 40 kob (salmon) of about 25 to 40cm.. All returned. It was all great::H
Security at the beaches at st lucia was great. If you go to the lookout beach there is a guy called colin who is very reliable. I gave him a 10 each day and he also washed my car He's a ok dude. Just give him a bucket and a cloth. Best bait was from raggies, thanks Deon. Very fresh red eye and chokka. If you like seafood, then bring your own. Almost zero available in St Lucia. Only oldish Frozen hake, mussels and prawns from Spar and Banana box. Prices in St Lucia were not the rip off I was expecting, and I suspect that Spar and others have had to back off the exploitation thing because too many savvy fishermen were bringing their own groceries.
If anyone is coming to fish the Chobe for tigerfish or Nembwe get in touch! I will make sure you dont get ripped off in Kasane too much, although in my opinion, Botswana in general is a huge tourist rip-off compared to South Africa. Problem is, the wildlife and the fishing is pretty hard too beat.
cheers rich
Ja my wife and daughter are pretty awesome when it comes to my fishing. However I always try and fish somewhere where they can sun bathe, snorkel or swim. I also spend most afternoons taking them places. Ha Ha! It all comes from years of experience and manipulation!:addn
Packed up at St Lucia reluctantly on the 23rd.
A great 3 weeks I must say. February is a great month to fish the north coast.I caught a pb shad of over 2kg, a pb kingy of 2.4kg and by the last day did not feel that compulsion to go fishing like "if I dont, I am going to lose out" Ya know what I mean huh??? In the last week I caught my one 60+cm kob(salmon) twice for the pan.
I didnt count but must have caught over 40 kob (salmon) of about 25 to 40cm.. All returned. It was all great::HSecurity at the beaches at st lucia was great. If you go to the lookout beach there is a guy called colin who is very reliable. I gave him a 10 each day and he also washed my car
He's a ok dude. Just give him a bucket and a cloth. Best bait was from raggies, thanks Deon. Very fresh red eye and chokka. If you like seafood, then bring your own. Almost zero available in St Lucia. Only oldish Frozen hake, mussels and prawns from Spar and Banana box. Prices in St Lucia were not the rip off I was expecting, and I suspect that Spar and others have had to back off the exploitation thing because too many savvy fishermen were bringing their own groceries. If anyone is coming to fish the Chobe for tigerfish or Nembwe get in touch! I will make sure you dont get ripped off in Kasane too much, although in my opinion, Botswana in general is a huge tourist rip-off compared to South Africa. Problem is, the wildlife and the fishing is pretty hard too beat.
cheers rich
..........And the worst conditions I fished! Brown water after heavy rains for a week. Yet there were still fish coming out. Plenty of sharks (not by me) and a few kob. interesting that Both hunt by smell. I dont believe there is ever conditions that are totally unsuitable for any fish. As soon as this dirty water cleared, the starved eds went ballistic! Fish on every cast. In hind sight I would try large baits. Too many small fish were getting to the baits before the equally hungry big fish got there. I caught only two salmon over the size limit against about 40 or so under size.....the next two or three days immediately after the seas cleared.
