Viadl Report Back

[Adrian]

Hi Guys as promised the Cape Vidal report back from this weekend


Day 1 – Friday

Arrived at Cape Vidal at 8:15 am and walked south for 1 km or so and met up with another guy from our group .The wind was a strong SE and I then realised I needed to perfect my back cast as this was the only way my line was going to touch the water . We fished the sandbanks and gullies from the beach. 2 Cape Moonies and a Wave Garrick were caught but none by me. We then moved further south 500 m or so to a nice bay with some gullies. At the smaller bay conditions looked great for shad and we changed to larger flies and gave it a shot from the bricks into the white water. We had some chases and a couple of knocks from the shad. One was hooked but was lost and the things went quiet as the shad moved on. I then changed to a Jerry Glassy size 4 and fished the gullies for smaller fish; I had lots of chases from Moonies and other smaller fish but no hook ups yet. I then was advised to changed to a white crazy Charlie size 6. After 5 mins or so my line went tight knees went weak and then I knew here comes my first saltwater fish ever. After a brief tussle I saw my trophy, a Cape Moonie 15 cm in length. After a few quick pics, the line was back in the water and another cape Moonie of equal size came out. I casted my line a bit to the left in the rip and after 2 strips I felt a huge tug on my line , I knew immediately this was no Cape Moonie , after a brief strong fight I saw the fish , MY FIRST KINGFISH . It was a yellow fin Kingfish and measured 15 cm in size. Another mate of mine on the right a huge stone bream that filled his stripping basket nicely and also took some smaller ones. The tide was coming in and we decided to get off the bricks and head back to camp and fish our way back. This was no success, but I did not really care as I had 3 fish already. We headed back to camp to get settled and rested for the afternoon session.

That afternoon we came down at 3:30 pm and met up with 3 guys from our party who had stayed on. They fished the main bay to right and picked up 40 Shad between them, 27 for one guy, 12 for the other and 1 for the last guy. We fished the bay as the tide was full, we found a shoal of shad hungry for the fly and after 20 mins or so we had 9 shad caught. I took 2 of these strong fighters on a pink/white clouser size 2. The shad were in close and 3 – 4 M after the shore break was some nice white water they love to be around. Flies that worked for the shad were Blondes, Clousers – pink/white, green/white, white, and white salty buggers. We packed up around 5 pm and headed back to our rondavels.

Day 2 – Saturday

Second day we were up early and headed North for +- 6 kms. The wind was a moderate NE. After a brisk 1h 20 m walk we arrived at the ledges at spring low tide and began our tactics. I fished an orange crazy Charlie size 6 and in an hour or so had picked up 4 waves Garrick and a Cape Moonie. All other guys caught wave garrick , bastard mullet , Moonies and a blacktail also came out . We fished the way back and some nice wave Garrick and stone bream came out. Wet shoes and blisters filled my long walk back and I vowed never to go cheap on shoes again  . The wind came up strong in the afternoon and we went back down to the bay at 4:00 pm and 1 shad came out.

Day 3 – Sunday

We went south again and I had no luck fishing the gullies and sandbanks. A few guys caught some 1 spot snappers, Moonies, wave Garrick, stone bream. We headed back to camp at 9 am and headed back home as the wind came up quite bad.

All in all it was a great trip for me, caught 10 fish and 4 species. The good spots are the main bay and its ledges, Ledges 1.5 km south and ledges 6km’s north. The shore break north was a great spot to fish also. Overall I would say between 9 of us we got 150 or so fish , species caught were Stone bream , Black tail , Shad , One spot snapper , Moonies , Yellow fin kingfish , Wave garrick , Bastard mullet

Flies and colours that worked well were

Clousers – Pink/white, white, green/white, chartreuse/white
Crazy Charlies – pink/white, orange/white
Salty Buggers – chartreuse, white, orange
Blonde – yellow/white

All flies had plenty flash

I know this was a long post but hope this helps guys who want to fish Vidal in future

[Kevin James]

Good one mate...sounds awesome!

Vidal....my wife and I spent 2 weeks in the dunes (camp site) here for our honeymoon!
I kid you not! Who says you don't get understanding woman, and it was June nogal

Lots of keeping warm!.... and we got some awesome fish.

Nice report.

[Adrian]

Sorry for the wrong spelling in the post title it is meant to be Vidal report back

Some more advice

Rods i would recomend are 10 weights for the windy days and 6 weights for the calmer days while fishing the gullies . Lines i would use are intermediate and sinking depending on conditions .

Dont speed on the reserve roads as there are speed traps , although i did not see any they are there from time to time . Monkeys are a curse and all car , room and kitchen doors must be closed at all times .

I would also recommend taking enough drinking water with you as the water there is murky and tastes cr@p .

[swsmith]

Thxs adrian....nice report.glad you got into some fish...

[Dieter]

Hi Adrian,

thanks for the nice report, any pics of the kingie?

Sounds like you had an excellent time.. Now I'm itching to go there...

Cheers

[Adrian]

Hi Adrian,

thanks for the nice report, any pics of the kingie?

Sounds like you had an excellent time.. Now I'm itching to go there...

Cheers

Sorry man the Kingie pic is on another mates camera , when i get that i will definately post it

[Jono Shales]

Hey Adrian, get report dude, it's good to see guys out there in SA fishing the spots.

Congrats on your first saltwater species and first kingy too, what a great feeling it is popping your swoffing cherry.

Well done again
Jono

[rols]

At last, some local saltwater action. Nice one Adrian, sounds like you guys had a blast. Can't wait for our turn in the sea..

[HolyGT]

Nice one, Stinkies(Stone Bream) are great light tackle fun!

Vidal has not been fishing that great this year, so it looks like things are taking a turn for the better.

Any other fish that came by the conventionals? How did the live shad brigade do in the Bay? And the boats?

[Scythe]

Well done ... after my first juvenile Leerie and smallish Kob of about 2kgs nearly a year and a half ago ... I've been waking up every morning saying "I wonder what time it's high tide today" ever since.

Now the serious addiction starts, luckily for you, you're close to the ocean.