Witsand - Learning the lay of the land

[Uli@84]

HI Guys,

Following a few trips to the breede over the last two years, I wondered if anyone would be able to help me in terms of structure from the beach side at Witsand.

Witsand - Beach.jpg

My last time at Witsand, we stayed at a nice place in the little residential block right above this beach area. I still predominently fished the estuary for Leeries, Kob and Grunter.

I couldn't help but notice at low tide the tide receded quite a bit allowing one to wade out quite a bit. In the pic the rock area gets covered in water at high tide and I believe the pic was taken at low tide.

Does anyone know whether it is actually worth the effort to try and fish from these rocks on artificials/flies. Maybe at low and once the tide starts pushing??

I know a lot of the conventional guys fish these rocks but haven't really seen anyone spinning from the rocks. Also when I was last there the wave action did not seem extremely big, so I am not sure but I think there is a lot of underwater structure there, which would probably make fishing artificials a bit costly in terms of lost tackle.

Would be nice to hear of anyone else experience here.

Thanks

Ulrich

[Andre]

Only way to know, is to try. Conditions vary, which will always be a factor, but if theres water and fish, they can be caught. Give it a go.

[white death]

Once when we went to Breede Mouth, the river was coming down and the water was muddy so we took our boats through the mouth and caught Leeries and Skippies (Elops) just behind the breakers on 1/0 white poppers and Clousers. Concentrated on where the dirty water met with the clear sea water. I reckon if the sea is flat enough you will take them on an incoming tide early or late in the day. I have caught Leeries off the side at Beneke's Klip at Hartenbos also using big flyrod Poppers but conditions have to be perfect - incoming tide and flattish sea.

[Mark]

I've never given those rocks much thought for fly fishing but def worth checking out! I'm not sure if the area behind those rocks drops off, it used to but the sea floor seems to have filled in and evened out a lot over the last few years. I used to surf in Witsand but I haven't seen a decent wave there in years. There's a little gulley towards the mouth I've been eyeing out which always has schools of baitfish in. Apparently not much coming out of the river at the moment being winter etc...


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[JadeDsantos]

Once when we went to Breede Mouth, the river was coming down and the water was muddy so we took our boats through the mouth and caught Leeries and Skippies (Elops) just behind the breakers on 1/0 white poppers and Clousers. Concentrated on where the dirty water met with the clear sea water. I reckon if the sea is flat enough you will take them on an incoming tide early or late in the day. I have caught Leeries off the side at Beneke's Klip at Hartenbos also using big flyrod Poppers but conditions have to be perfect - incoming tide and flattish sea.

I have been going to the breede my whole life and never heard ever of someone catching a skippy. Never thought they came that far down the coast

[swsmith]

Howzit Jade....my uncle caught a pretty decent size one on a whole octopus leg fishing for kob in the 90's......

[JadeDsantos]

Howzit Jade....my uncle caught a pretty decent size one on a whole octopus leg fishing for kob in the 90's......

That is pretty incredible. I am still surprised.

[white death]

Jade, It was in the early 1990's. We were also surprized to catch them. I never thought they were in Little Brak until I heard that some had been netted by some team doing research. If the warm currents penetrate far enough down the coast, the sub tropical fish follow. My wife caught a Dorado and a small Kingfish from the boat off the Bakke one morning but that was on Rapala. Kingfish have been caught at Struis and if my memory serves me right, even off Cape Point. We used to catch them (Elops)in numbers ( sometimes 10 in a session over the mudflats at the top. Early season they would follow the tide in over the flats that had been baking in the sun.)in Knysna lagoon but lately been extremely rare.

[JadeDsantos]

Jade, It was in the early 1990's. We were also surprized to catch them. I never thought they were in Little Brak until I heard that some had been netted by some team doing research. If the warm currents penetrate far enough down the coast, the sub tropical fish follow. My wife caught a Dorado and a small Kingfish from the boat off the Bakke one morning but that was on Rapala. Kingfish have been caught at Struis and if my memory serves me right, even off Cape Point. We used to catch them (Elops)in numbers ( sometimes 10 in a session over the mudflats at the top. Early season they would follow the tide in over the flats that had been baking in the sun.)in Knysna lagoon but lately been extremely rare.

Thats really incredible - Yeah I have heard of Dorado off Struis etc, but after all these years its nice to know I can still be surprised by the fishing in and around the breede.

[firephish]

I understand that skippy's do not appear in Breede every year, some years (including the last few years) they are completely absent ...