Hello Folks

I see from a number of the threads that members come up from Cape Town to do a little fishing in the rivers and estuaries of the Garden Route.

I thought that i would post some information on what has been happening in this part of the world. A number of our river systems are closed at the moment. I know that both Goukama and the Touw River (Wilderness) are closed at the moment as is the mouth of the Sedgefield Lagoon. The Great Brak river was opened yesterday which is good news as it was in need of a good flushing.

The opening of Goukama looks iminent. I was there last night and it is really full with much water flooding the banks of the river. The good news with this is that when it does open it will do so for a while as the volume of water that is likely to move through the mouth is substantial enough to deposit the sand well away from the mouth keeping it open longer. The time is right for this as it coincides well with the arrival of kob and leeries. 10 October is generally the time that you can expect the leeries to arrive on their migration. There are always a few resident fish in the estuaries but they tend to be less than 35cm fork length. The sea run fish will normally exceed 55cm fork length. Their arrival generally coincides with the start of a regular south east wind.

The Knysna lagoon produces any number of leeries over 10kg each year. The largest that I have witnessed was caught 8 years ago and weighed 27kg admittedley caught on live bait. This estuary has big fish but due to its size they can be difficult to find especially of fly as water is covered slowly when compared to plugging. The key here is to locate the fish and then target with fly. Belvidere or the Ashmead Channel being the two best starting points. Access to a boat makes a difference. My advice is to fish here if one is not necessarily looking for action but more for a trophy fish, hopefully released. One of my friends will generally tag at least 60 fish a season in this lagoon, caught on plug. The fish are there and one just needs to find them

Goukama in general will produce far smaller fish but I have had a few days there landing 3 or 4 fish in the 4 - 6 kg range. This river would be my first choice in this area to target grunter on fly. The water colour is generally good when the mouth is open. Fish just above the point where the colour of the water changes from clear sea water to river water. This is where you will generally find the kob, grunter and leeries. For grunter any prawn or shrimp imitation gently disturbing the bottom will have a chance. This river generally has quite a few grunter in it and a lot between 2.5 and 3 kg.Grunter can often be seen when wading on the banks near the mouth but i would target them on the edge of the drop offs slightly higher up the river. Shad do enter the river when the mouth is deep ie. Spring Tides. The great thing about this river is that one can cover most of the water in an afternoon.

Groot Brak, Klein Brak and Hartenbos tend to hold smaller leeires and i cannot comment on either kob or grunter here as I have not fished for then. The next river that can produce good size kob and leeries is the Gouritz. I have not fished it much but have heard reports of good fish being landed there. This river has great drop offs and also little tributiries that branch off the main channel. Ideal places to start looking for a leerie.

Plett lagoon has a lot of fish in it but it takes some getting to know. Fishing spots here are very dependent on the state of the tide and the water temperature. Good places to use as a starting point are where the N2 crosses the Bitou river, the mouth of the Bitou and the main channel and an area just below the Plett boat club. This river has a few resident fish but there will be reports of better fish beng caught in the next 3 weeks. Kob can also be targeted in this lagoon. I have not caught any here but I have friends who have landed some nice fish there on dropshot. Shad will enter the lagoon after a few days east wind when the water temp drops suddenly. Normally found in the first few hundred yards of the bitou on a good pushing tide.

The info that I have supplied here is very generic as is based on my angling experiences in these rivers or estuaries. I know that quite a few guys travel to these parts so this is somehting that some may be able to use as a very basic guide.

Good Luck
Anton