Reef fishing at night

[Chris Shelton]

While I am waiting for my lift to arrive I thought I would get this off quickly. We are about to hit the Strand reefs at night. This will be a totally new experience for me...hardcore R&S at its most extreme, but looking seriously forward to it. Going lean and mean, rod and a small bag containing the bare necessities. Will let you guys know tomorrow how it went......if I am not shark bait yet?

Ciao
Chris

[rols]

While I am waiting for my lift to arrive I thought I would get this off quickly. We are about to hit the Strand reefs at night. This will be a totally new experience for me...hardcore R&S at its most extreme, but looking seriously forward to it. Going lean and mean, rod and a small bag containing the bare necessities. Will let you guys know tomorrow how it went......if I am not shark bait yet?

Ciao
Chris

enjoy chris, but be carefull. I'm hoping to a session on the weekend.
good luck and tight lines

[Rendier]

Good luck Chris. Come back in one piece!

[Chris Shelton]

Sheeeeet, well that certainly was something different!

Firstly I fell my gat off when I tripped and slipped on a hidden obstacle in one of the many gulleys that we had to wade through in order to reach 'our' spot on the reefs some 200 metres out to sea. But, apart from my rod and reel taking a bit of a pounding on the rocks as my full body weight came down on it, and the column of water that shot down my neck, no harm was done.

So that was the first set of obstacles 'negotiated'

Since we were already tackled up, baiting up was quick and easy under the light of our headlights,...no problem there at all.

And so, the next obstacle lay ahead; Now take my word for it, teatering on a somewhat precarious little outcrop of rocks in the middle of the d@mn ocean at night and attempting to cast any reasonable distance out into the darkness ahead of you with a 14ft rod that is threatening to throw you off balance (and back into the drink) can get veeeery interesting indeed! Since I wasn't too keen on landing in said drink again, and not half as sure footed as I would have liked to have been, I gave a little woosie attempt of a cast, which resulted in a "vrrrrrrrrrrr....doooooof!!!!!",..my sinker landing about 10 metres in front of me as the line on my reel for some strange reason exploded out of orbit and brought everything to a grinding halt! I immediately realised my mistake, I had changed from my usual 6oz sinker to a 4oz without adjusting the tension on my spool. The 4oz obviously didn't have the inertia to pull the line out faster than the reel could spin and my woosie attempt of a cast, if anything, just aggravated the problem.

The next 15 minutes was spend trying to unravel the ensuing mess of criss-cross loops. That done, I then discovered to my dismay that I was hopelessly sitting 'vas' in the hidden structure ahead of me and had to break off. The next 10 minutes was spent constructing a new rig, re-baiting, adjusting spool tension and finding a better perch to cast from.

I managed a reasonably good cast, and immediately my spirits started lifting. I was fishing at last!

Things were initially a bit dead. Clyde, who was now about half an hour up on me fishing wise confirmed the same. Since the tide was still on the receed, I consoled him by saying that the fish should come on the bite shortly after the turn and on the push.

I took advantage of the quiet time and checked the temperature, 16.5 deg C, absolutely perfect! Conditions were almost flawless with a slight SE breeze in our faces threatening to pick up at times.

After 20 minutes or so, I reeled in and rebaited with a fresh Anchovy and gave it a nice soft wrap of chocca. Next cast went off flawlessly, and slightly further out, and I was happy.

Clyde's misfortunes started at about that point when he lost three rigs on the trot due to hanging up on structure.

About a half an hour into the pushing tide I felt a slight heaviness on my line, followed by a bit of a pull and a split second later my reel went into overdrive as something akin to a steamtrain took off with my bait. After my experience on Sunday when a large fish stipped me of 100 metres of line against a stiff drag and burst my swivel knot after taking my into some structure, I decided to try to turn this fish as quickly as possible to keep it away from the same reef that claimed my last prize. The fish had already stripped about 30 metres of line and was now at full speed, so I tightened up some more on my drag and leant back into it, straining my rod sideways for all I was worth, but no way...no flipping way could I turn the fish! This fish, like the other, had taken the bit between his teeth and was heading exactly where it wanted to go, and not where I wanted it to go! The fight was short lived when I felt the first rasping on the line, and knew he had taken me over a reef. This time my knots held, but it was the trace that went, tell tale signs of the abuse it was subjected to over the reef could be felt on the remaining piece of trace.

Shorlty after that Clyde came and joined me. The bottom where I was fishing was far less foul than where he had been casting, and since he was already down to his last bits and pieces in terms of swivels and sinkers and the likes, this seemed like a much better option.

Hardly 5 minutes into his first cast to my right he got a huge pickup followed by a blistering run of about 40 metres and then his line went slack. The fish had bent his long shank 6/0 open! (Taking Sunday's loss into account, this was 3rd BIG fish on the trot that we have been unable to subdue!)

By this time the tide was coming in fast and we decided to make tracks before the gulleys behind us filled up too much with water.

All in all, it was a fruitful three hours that we spent out there, if only from a learning point of view, and knowing the potentual of what one might expect in the dark. This was our 3rd visit to the reefs, but our first in the dark. We are going through a major learning curve at the moment, and are constantly in the process of refining our setup. It is potentually dangerous out there and definitely not for the faint hearted. Extremely care needs to be exercised out there at all times, and one needs to be even more sure of one's footing. It all adds to the excitement and adrenalin rush though. All I can say is, at the end of a session on the reefs, I feel TOTALLY exhilirated. It is great fun and highly exciting!

So,........ we'll be back...and we will conquer!

[ShaunF]

Interesting reading Chris. Any speculations on what keeps picking you guys up that you can't hang onto? Sharks?

[chris williams]

Excellent, Chris, I can even share some of your excitement from the way you wrote that. Definitely not for the faint-hearted! As Shaun asks, would be good to hear what you reckon these leviathans were?

Maybe you should just cast from shore beyond the kelp, it's safer!

[Chris Shelton]

Hi Shaun. Since I am only ever targetting edibles I have very limited experience with sharks, so I'm not really qualified say with any reasonable amount of certainty if it is or isnt a shark. The only fairly big sharks I have caught whilst targeting edibles are Spotted Gully and Cow shark, and I found them to be very different from what we experienced on the reefs. The Cow shark I have landed (in the 20 to 30kg class) for example tend to come in quite a bit initially, followed by a gentle pull before all hell breaks loose, but they'll seldom run out more than 30 to 60 metres of line. These fish on the other hand are picking up almost straight away and running. From my once again limited experiences with big fish, I would liken it to the big Steenbras that I have on a number of occassions encountered along the Namibian coastline.

[ShaunF]

Cool! Well I hope you come right soon. Looking forward to seeing some fishy pics around here again!

[Buf Aloe]

Great report Chris. Hats off to you standing on those reefs at night, I sukkle standing on them during the day. I would love to know what is taking you like that?

[swsmith]

chris,i gaurentee you those are spotties or smoothhounds.i doubt even a 20kg steenbras will bend a 6o open.you need to up ur tackle.15m of 1mm leader onto ur main line.and the same for trace line.9o hook and block ur drag that u cant pull line off it....then hold on tight!