Legendary fishing feats and legends

[Chris Shelton]

I would like to dedicated this thread to all the fishing legends that have gone before us. If any of you have any stories from the past to share, please do. It does not have to be from personal encounters either, something interesting that you have perhaps read about would be just as good.

[Nepptune]

Jackie Wheeler - 186 lb Yellowfin Tuna from Rooikrantz Ledges... sometime in the 60's..... For me that is the pinnacle of angling....

[chris williams]

Yep Nepptune that's one of the all-time greats. I think I've got a copy of his description on fighting the fish in the old 'Strike' by Schoeman - wasn't it in the forties or fifties? Maybe I've got it wrong, will check up tonight unless someone like CS can elaborate? They bred them tough in those days - always hard...

[Surly Ghillie]

Jackie Wheeler? Now there's a blast from my own past. How about his black marlin caught off mossel bay? cant remember the exact weight, but it was way over 1000 lbs. Strangely enough i bought his ski boat, the Bonita, I think it was in 1972, or there abouts. What a boat!. i scored a real luck. i was 22/23 and he was in his late 40's . He had just had a heart attack & felt he couldn't do the small-boat-in-big-seas thing anymore. Without really knowing what i was doing, i became the skipper of the best off-shore fishing ski boat ever built; designed by renato Levi and built by Munna, both giants in their field.
Spent a couple of years fishing False Bay & the tunny grounds from her decks. What a blast. That boat & I created some legends off Cape Point!!!
What a boat!

then there was Tim Condon's 300 plus point marlin speared off lookout rocks at plet. He landed the fish off Keurbooms River mouth ...about 7 miles from where he speared it.

And who can forget the gargantuan great whites and tiger sharks caught from the mole at the old whaling station in durban harbour, back in the 1950's. O *** I cant stand it! I've lived through it all and now we got Yuppie poofter scum that spend their days going virtual fishing on websites, f'rkrissake!!!!

[Wade]

And who can forget the gargantuan great whites and tiger sharks caught from the mole at the old whaling station in durban harbour, back in the 1950's. O *** I cant stand it! I've lived through it all and now we got Yuppie poofter scum that spend their days going virtual fishing on websites, f'rkrissake!!!!

The Natal Shark Brigade.............

I was reading about them the other day. One of the few time i wish i were older....

[Korrie]

A couple of years ago, there was a series of articles in the Stywe Lyne.
In these series of articles they discussed the legends of the R/S.

The only contempary that was mentioned was Michael Peterson.
Having met Michael, and chatted to some of the more recent R/S anglers, I must confess he is somewhat a legend in his own lunchtime.
Maybe there are some Flytalkers that want to share some of his anecdotes.

[Scythe]

then there was Tim Condon's 300 plus point marlin speared off lookout rocks at plet

Please explain this point system or was it just a quick way of referring to pounds/kgs ?

[Nepptune]

More from the Shark Brigade of South Pier

Reg Harrison - 1660 Lb Great White 1953 6.5 hour fight time....
Wyn Moxley - 1480 Lb Great White 1952 2.5 hour fight time...

Both fish taken on bamboo rods, centre pin dragless reels, 18 cord flax line.... nothing but a leather palm pad for a drag....

Bertie Puttocks baby Blue Marlin of approx 30 lbs off North Pier on a shad rig... 1930's... first Blue Marlin of Terra Firma in Africa...

Some of Len Jones's Spearfishing tales are worthy of legend in my book... Hunting giant Brindles in Durban Harbour under the jetties....


CW - I would love to get a copy of Strike again... I seem to have misplaced mine over the years... anyone know wher I can get it? I may well be off on the dates of the big YFT of Jackie's....

[Chris Shelton]

Jackie Wheeler? Now there's a blast from my own past. How about his black marlin caught off mossel bay? cant remember the exact weight, but it was way over 1000 lbs. Strangely enough i bought his ski boat, the Bonita, I think it was in 1972, or there abouts. What a boat!. i scored a real luck. i was 22/23 and he was in his late 40's . He had just had a heart attack & felt he couldn't do the small-boat-in-big-seas thing anymore. Without really knowing what i was doing, i became the skipper of the best off-shore fishing ski boat ever built; designed by renato Levi and built by Munna, both giants in their field.
Spent a couple of years fishing False Bay & the tunny grounds from her decks. What a blast. That boat & I created some legends off Cape Point!!!
What a boat!

then there was Tim Condon's 300 plus point marlin speared off lookout rocks at plet. He landed the fish off Keurbooms River mouth ...about 7 miles from where he speared it.

And who can forget the gargantuan great whites and tiger sharks caught from the mole at the old whaling station in durban harbour, back in the 1950's. O *** I cant stand it! I've lived through it all and now we got Yuppie poofter scum that spend their days going virtual fishing on websites, f'rkrissake!!!!

Yes!!! That was an epic struggle if ever there was one, 15 hours and 20 minutes it took to bring the fish to gaff. They covered a distance 85 miles during that time! :eek:

Your weight is slightly out Wolf, only slightly mind you, but being a fisherman, what else did we expect :D Just checked my records, the Marlin weighed 720lbs, the man140lbs. The man was 5ft 9 1/2", the fish 13ft 9". Tailspan was 4ft. Girth 5ft.9" - Bill 3ft.3 1/2".

After he landed the fish, everyone embraced and kissed him, all saying it was one of the greatest moments of their lives.

[Surly Ghillie]

Please explain this point system or was it just a quick way of referring to pounds/kgs ?

old fashioned lbs (pounds)

[Chris Shelton]

Sorry, I forgot to mention the date. Jackies marlin took the Comerson King Fish bait at exactly 5pm on the 16th of Feb, 1957. The time of surrender was 8.20am the following morning.

Can you imagine fighting a fish for 15 hours? Apparently, as the story goes, during that time, he took about 3 sips of whiskey, that's all!

[Surly Ghillie]

Your weight is slightly out Wolf, only slightly mind you, but being a fisherman, what else did we expect :D Just checked my records, the Marlin weighed 720lbs, the man140lbs. The man was 5ft 9 1/2", the fish 13ft 9". Tailspan was 4ft. Girth 5ft.9" - Bill 3ft.3 1/2".

.

"Fish are the only creature on ***'s Earth which enjoy a pronounced degree of posthumous growth" ~ David Profumo

[Chris Shelton]

Jackie Wheeler - 186 lb Yellowfin Tuna from Rooikrantz Ledges... sometime in the 60's..... For me that is the pinnacle of angling....

Here's a few more bits and pieces. The date was the 6th of May, 1956. By Andre's account, this is another fish enjoying a pronounced degree of posthumous growth :D

The yellowfin tuna weighed 156lbs and took Jackie just under two hours to land. The length from fork of the tail was 5ft.2 1/2" and it's girth 3 ft.6", with a tailspan of 2 feet.

In Jackie's own words "Never in my life had I felt so utterly exhausted"

[Korrie]

Sorry, I forgot to mention the date. Jackies marlin took the Comerson King Fish bait at exactly 5pm on the 16th of Feb, 1957. The time of surrender was 8.20am the following morning.

Can you imagine fighting a fish for 15 hours? Apparently, as the story goes, during that time, he took about 3 sips of whiskey, that's all!

If that is true and if you look at todays fishing shows, on ESPN etc.
The guys have special drinks etc, hosed down to keep cool etc.
Think that nowadays the fisherfolk are a bunch of "M@Ff and softies:D :D

[Korrie]

Hi Chris

Can't you add to this thread also "characters"

Or should we start a new thread "characters"

Think that there are a couple of charaters that belong in this thread.

[Chris Shelton]

Interestingly, he only had 400yards of line on his reel. Everytime the fish ran, it would turn at about 300 yards before heading in another direction. Three quarter way throught the struggle a poephol in his boat came to within 150 yards of where Jackie was fighting the fish and dropped anchor! Can you imaging! Apparently those Rooikrans ledges errupted in a cacophony of verbal abuse by all the onlookers and fishermen, and the boat promptly up anchored and buggered off.

[Chris Shelton]

Hi Chris

Can't you add to this thread also "characters"

Or should we start a new thread "characters"

Think that there are a couple of charaters that belong in this thread.

Of course yes Korrie. For example, I would love to see a few of Tom's stories related here aswell. There were some very colourful characters from his time, not the least of which was John Beams. I will see what I can dig out aswell

[Nepptune]

Chris - Thanks for the correction on the size of Jackies fish... I seem to remeber someone else mentioned recently that my weight was out for that fish... I seem to have it locked in at 186lbs for some reason... my bad... Thanks for the correction.
156 is still a MONSTER from the bricks...

[chris williams]

More from the Shark Brigade of South Pier

Reg Harrison - 1660 Lb Great White 1953 6.5 hour fight time....
Wyn Moxley - 1480 Lb Great White 1952 2.5 hour fight time...

Both fish taken on bamboo rods, centre pin dragless reels, 18 cord flax line.... nothing but a leather palm pad for a drag....

Bertie Puttocks baby Blue Marlin of approx 30 lbs off North Pier on a shad rig... 1930's... first Blue Marlin of Terra Firma in Africa...

Some of Len Jones's Spearfishing tales are worthy of legend in my book... Hunting giant Brindles in Durban Harbour under the jetties....


CW - I would love to get a copy of Strike again... I seem to have misplaced mine over the years... anyone know wher I can get it? I may well be off on the dates of the big YFT of Jackie's....

The first edition was about 1947 or thereabouts, the second edition which I've got, 1962, which my folks bought me for Christmas 1969 in England when we lived there. Co-incidence, I'm actually re-reading it at the moment (I'm up to 'Red Stumpnose' which may be a good nickname for Herman...). The 1962 one has a whole load more info that the first. No doubt there are further editions? I've seen some recently in our local second-hand bookshops, will keep an eye out next week for you. The book as you know has a wealth of hands-on info as well as some amazing anecdotes about the big ones that didn't get away, with photos to boot (not taken on cell phone either!). I think if the guys had Tonkin cane rods they were the elite, Rangoon etc second-rate scumbags..

[Chris Shelton]

[QUOTE=chris williams;58130] I'm up to 'Red Stumpnose' which may be a good nickname for Herman...

hahahahaha...too funny! :p


The 1962 one has a whole load more info that the first.

I have a 1982, 25th anniversary edition and the first edition that came out in 1957. For some strange reason, I cannot find the story on Jackie's marlin and yellowfin in the newer version, but the full account is in the 1957 printing.

Sorry guys, you are going to have to get both! :D

[Surly Ghillie]

And then of course there was the feat of Ron Taylor, back in the 60's. He was the first guy to catch a great white using himself as bait!!! Australians...
world champions at gamesmanship!!!!

Some of my best fish over the years have been, from boat, from bank
50+lbs black musslecracker from the rocks at Robberg (late 60's)
40+ lbs red steenbras off Leaches Bay, East London (1963)
500 + lbs mako shark about 20k's off Cape point ( early 70's )
17lb galjoen off Partridge Point (False bay) 1966
38lb yellowtail, False Bay (Rooikranz) 1965

& I almost caught a 7 ton orca from Bonita in 1973. & If you wanna read THAT story, you got to get a copy of my book.

[Chris Shelton]

And then of course there was the feat of Ron Taylor, back in the 60's. He was the first guy to catch a great white using himself as bait!!! Australians...
world champions at gamesmanship!!!!

Some of my best fish over the years have been, from boat, from bank
50+lbs black musslecracker from the rocks at Robberg (late 60's)
40+ lbs red steenbras off Leaches Bay, East London (1963)
500 + lbs mako shark about 20k's off Cape point ( early 70's )
17lb galjoen off Partridge Point (False bay) 1966
38lb yellowtail, False Bay (Rooikranz) 1965

& I almost caught a 7 ton orca from Bonita in 1973. & If you wanna read THAT story, you got to get a copy of my book.

wow, some absolute beauties there. Well done! I would like to hear a bit more about that musselcracker sometime

[arnoc]

Former Border and Junior Springbok rugby player Dennis (Bull) Edwards is a legend of note. It was a sad day when he was murdered at his house in Mpame, Transkei a few years ago.

Among one of his long list of piscatorial moments is catching a 38kg black steenbrass (poenskop) from a place called Potuncala (spelling is most probably way off) in the '50s. What makes this even more impressive is that Potuncala is between 5 and 7 km's away from Mpame as the crow flies, with hardly any flat ground in between. The track goes up and down over 100 to 150 high very steep hills with the descent down an almost vertical cliff to get to the fishing spot at Potuncala (you need to be 40% mountain goat, 40% dassie & 20% mad to climb down or up that cliff). He carried the fish and his gear single handed up this cliff and all the way home! I have a copy of the picture of this fish somewhere.:D

He was one of the first chaps to catch a yellow tail from the rocks at Mbolompo.

They used to stay in Queenstown area back in the 60's. On one of their fishing trips to Mpame the car broke down close to home, but it was no problem for him. He hooked the farm's trailer behind the tractor and set off for Mpame with wife and kids in a make-shift tent on the trailer (A distance of about 350km). I think he said it took something like 2 or 3 days to get there. Cameron, his son, told me that him and his brothers used to run up the hills to wait for the tractor at the top.

Up till his death he refused to use a rod bucket. A tennis ball cut open and glued onto the bottom of the rod was good enough for him.

[Chris Shelton]

Former Border and Junior Springbok rugby player Dennis (Bull) Edwards is a legend of note. It was a sad day when he was murdered at his house in Mpame, Transkei a few years ago.

Among one of his long list of piscatorial moments is catching a 38kg black steenbrass (poenskop) from a place called Potuncala (spelling is most probably way off) in the '50s. What makes this even more impressive is that Potuncala is between 5 and 7 km's away from Mpame as the crow flies, with hardly any flat ground in between. The track goes up and down over 100 to 150 high very steep hills with the descent down an almost vertical cliff to get to the fishing spot at Potuncala (you need to be 40% mountain goat, 40% dassie & 20% mad to climb down or up that cliff). He carried the fish and his gear single handed up this cliff and all the way home! I have a copy of the picture of this fish somewhere.:D

He was one of the first chaps to catch a yellow tail from the rocks at Mbolompo.

They used to stay in Queenstown area back in the 60's. On one of their fishing trips to Mpame the car broke down close to home, but it was no problem for him. He hooked the farm's trailer behind the tractor and set off for Mpame with wife and kids in a make-shift tent on the trailer (A distance of about 350km). I think he said it took something like 2 or 3 days to get there. Cameron, his son, told me that him and his brothers used to run up the hills to wait for the tractor at the top.

Up till his death he refused to use a rod bucket. A tennis ball cut open and glued onto the bottom of the rod was good enough for him.

Wow, what a tough old bugger hey? Nice story Arnoc, thanks for sharing. I'll be drinking a toast to Dennis Edwards when I next fill a glass for sure.