Eels in the Molenaars

[Chris Shelton]

Attachment 5072

and a photo of my dad holding one

[gkieser]

Freek bru!!

If I see one of those muthas I swear I will pee my pants!!

[Herman Jooste]

Freek bru!!

If I see one of those muthas I swear I will pee my pants!!

On a 000 I don't blame you. Uglier than a snornek

[chris williams]

Attachment 5072

and I photo of my dad holding one

Nice pic, Chris, when was that taken?

[Chris Shelton]

Nice pic, Chris, when was that taken?

Hi Chris, thanks. I took it last year with my little Optio...off a page of an old Piscator. Just check the definition hey!

Seriously though it appeared in Piscator No.84 in the Autumn of 1972, so I would imagine the photo was taken either in that year, or the Summer of the previous year.

An extract of my dad's accompanying report reads as follows;

"After about 15 minutes the line tightened in my hand, followed by two tugs, and I got to my feet and struck. At first there was a solid resistance and then juddering vibrations and the rod bent dangerously, compelling me to let out line which melted from the reel with a sceaming ratchet as the eel headed for the depths. Straining our eyes in the dark, we made out the ghostly shape of a long white eel, threshing about wildly and making for the far side of the pool with the line tracing a wake behind it."

[NeilRowe]

Andre

I encountered a meter long eel on Smalblaar 1 about 5 years ago. I was wading in thigh deep water when I saw a long black shape swimming directly at me! At the last moment I dipped my rod tip into the water and waved it about rapidly which caused the creature to veer past me and disappear under a large rock. as it passed me I saw it was an eel. This encounter of the strangest kind left me a little weak kneed, I can tell you. A while later, near the end of the beat, I hooked a nice trout and was playing it when a huge fish appeared from under a large overhanging rock and chased after my fish. This fish appeared to be about 30" long! Anyway, it disappeared back into its hole rapidly. In subsequent trips I tried to lure that monster out many times but never saw it again. I've spoken to Chris about this and he surmised that it might have been one of the large stockies from the Molenaars that migrated upstream whilst other people have speculated that it could have been a large smallmouth. Baffles me to this day.

(En passant, the largest wild fish I ever caught in the Elandspad/Smalblaar system measured the length of the Argus newspaper (57cm or 22.5 in). I caught this on a Caribou Spider on beat 3 in about 1983. Those big fish are still around as I believe Darryl caught a 21.5" fish the other day and another well known angler caught a 23" on the hotel beat!)

[Scythe]

I love stories/myths about the denizens of the deep and dark waters we fish.

[Chris Shelton]

Yes Neil, the section of the Molenaars that you refer to has often been home to some extraordinary fish. A bit lower down, in the swingbridge pool there used to be a resident shoal of 'uncatchable' Witvis, absolute monsters in the 10 pound class! We would see their dark shapes cruising about whenever we negotiated the high granite rock face on left hand bank, but they would not even look at a fly. In hindsight, and having caught a few Witvis elsewhere I am sure that a stealthier approach would have produced the goods. That high vantage point was the problem, they could see us a mile off!

[schmoose]

They are tributaries of the breede which mouths at witsand. This is between cape point and cape aghulas - i am not 100% as to where the Indian ocean ends and the Atlantic starts, but it is pretty close to the Indian ocean.

The Breede does pop out at Witsand, but Witsand is definitely not between Aghulas and Cape Point, its north of Die Hoop - which to me would mean its popping out bang into the Indian Ocean. Furthermore I’ve heard stories of Mozambiquean eels being pulled out during studies of the estuaries in Cape Town.

[NeilRowe]

The Breede does pop out at Witsand, but Witsand is definitely not between Aghulas and Cape Point, its north of Die Hoop - which to me would mean its popping out bang into the Indian Ocean. Furthermore I’ve heard stories of Mozambiquean eels being pulled out during studies of the estuaries in Cape Town.

Stilbaai is not far from Witsand and there are plently of eels there! There is even a tourist attraction involving eels. There is a tiny stream which starts off as a spring in someone's garden and joins the river near the mouth. The pool formed in the garden has a number of these eels (Mozambique eels?) which are fed twice a day. For the grand sum of R 5 or so, one can observe this. I took the kids a few years back and was amazed to see the size of these things and the manner in which they can disappear into the tiniest crevice. Scary looking creatures though.