News From the Garden Route

[Pierre]

Look i am sure you can target the smaller leeries during the day. Look systems differ but what i have heard late evenings at Sandvlei doesnt produce the goods like first light. But its not Sedgefield so late evenings can produce. But i wont cansel out first light, you might just be well rewared. And looking at the time of the year you will be visiting this spot i'd do it first light, while everyone is sleeping off their babalas. All the activity during the day on the water can limit your success.

[draadkar]

i have found that most closed or semi-closed estuaries fish better in low light conditions, early morning and late evening. Of the two the morning is always better. The extra effort pays of sooner or later.

Regards

[rols]

Pierre,

This means that I have to be up at Owls fart then, which is earlier than sparrow's!? Sheit I'm on holiday.....

Do you think the same will apply to the evenings i.e. when the sun is off the water? Sedgefield is closed at the mouth so no tide. I once hooked into something BIG after sunset - it was chasing 20-25cm mullet! Most of the fishing will be there as it's close to the house and kids during the day time (6 weight and small poppers;-)

do yourself a favour and reserve one early morning session.....preferably at the beginning of your holiday. the rest of the stay might be the best holiday the family have had. dad onto some big mothers in the early hours, the family don't even know you've gone, and you get this great feeling in the nether regions every morning and mommy can't understand why you whisteling "don't worry..be happy" while you with her in the shopping mall .
do the morning shift. if it does'nt work....the evening sesssion with a cooler of cold beer will be hell to get through, but someones got to do it

[Scythe]

the evening sesssion with a cooler of cold beer will be hell to get through, but someones got to do it

Ja, don't you just feel tons of pity for the poor guy ...

[rols]

Ja, don't you just feel tons of pity for the poor guy ...

makes me dizzy with all the options. (sorry dizzy from jhb)

[chris williams]

[QUOTE=Pierre;46019]

i'd do it first light, while everyone is sleeping off their babalas.

Is this why you never get Wiets's early morning capes?? I'm off for the meteor eyeing/bass bashing..it's strange after a few nights of doing this the body's becoming adjusted to the 'jet lag'.

Good info re Garden Route, I used to fish there when I had a 'gap' year in 1976 working as the barman in the Beacon Island's Grapevine bar. Grunter in the Keerbooms and Piesang estuaries, blacktail and other little gully fish off the BI rocks, and off Robberg....well, all the big boys, including being terrified whilst durfing by the 'Great Train' white shark (or was it a green shark? ). Often a trip to Knysna lagoon or Storms River was called for to break the monotony. I used a lot of fly on the estuary/rock gully fish but off Robberg I was chucking out the usual metal stuff for leeries etc. It was wild back in those days, and so was I. Luckily the local police and I also played in the same rugby team on a Saturday, and the gangsters from the local location and I also played rugby on a Sunday, so I had both angles covered so to speak for my nefarious nighttime activities with a master key to the hotel rooms and a duplicate key for one of the hotel combis..my mate's dad used to own the underground disco at Archerwood, and the other guys were Chris Stroebel at Formosa Inn and some wench at the Lookout hotel. It was great as we could trade off drinks on inter-pub visits like Cornish rum smugglers. If Rory, Lardbeast and myself had only been in business then, 'Pirates of the Caribbean' would have to have been renamed
'Pirates of the Beacon'!

[Arthur]

Jees Chris those were the days - wish I had been doing the salty fly thing back then the fishing must have been fantastic.I remember fishing Plett(with bait) the first time I was there back in 1984 and it was awesome - still the best rock and surf angling I have experienced in my lifetime.Can just imagine what the estuaries were like.

Oh yes I also remember going to the Formosa Inn back then -there was a fight the night we went.Us 2 fresh faced matrics made sure that we didn't check anyone "skief" after that!

[chris williams]

Well done, Arthur, spoken like a true gentleman. Fights at Formosa were the order of the night. The winners used to come down to the Grapevine for a play-off at low-tide on the sandbanks. I nearly got skewered by a 20g dart embedded in the optics behind my back by someone 'aiming' from outside the door. Probably one of Rory's relations..cheers and good fishing down there!

[anton]

Hello All

Just thought that i would keep all informed on the happening down here. I was on the water at 5 this am in Knysna to see if i could sneak a fish or 2 before work and never saw a thing in the 2 hours that I was on the water.

Been cursing all day. Local paper came out today with a photo of two folks holding two leeries. One of 15kg and the other 17kg caught at Island Lake this weekend on live mullet. They caught them on Saturday. i was there Sunday and caught %*%#all, be it that I was throwing small plugs.

Two great fish. As mentioned earlier in this thread this lake has huge fish potential. My time will come.

[Yellowfever]

"Aaarrrghhh you should have been here yesterday!! I thought of just taking my 6 weight for the occasional plug around Sedgefield - now I will have to take the 9 weight and the BIG PROFILES.