Wild Coast '09

[rory]

Myself and the usual gang of reprobates are off to the Wild Coast tomorrow for a week and a bits fishing, drinking, over eating etc. I'm expecting it to be pretty busy down there till after the long weekend, I know of plenty guys going down tomorrow. Deciphering the various weather forecasts, particularly wind forecasts, it looks like a lot of NE and Northerly winds predicted for the next week, which bodes well for the flyfishing. Otherwise I'll be targeting all the usual suspects on conventional tackle, and am going to concentrate on some night fishing as well, try and get some kob. I'll post a report back on the 22nd!

[schloshd1]

Enjoy it man, hope you get the chance to really put that new reel of yours to the test

[rory]

OK chasps, heres my Wild Coast report:
The roads...thats the worst I have seen the roads in the Transkei ever! One and a half hour to cover the last 26 kms, dry road, not wet!!. I got into 3rd gear once! The weather played along and so did the fish. We arrived at about six in the morning and were fishing by the afternoon. The shad were thick, so the first couple I caught were sent back out as livies for some nunus which resulted in one bust up and I landed a smallish Blackfin shark of about 20 kg. The water was crytal clear, so the sharks weren't that keen and it was apparent the gamefish were off after the sards. The first biggie came out on Sunday night. I'd promised the two youngsters who came with us that we'd fish the night off the beach. The rip was very strong and had washed a deep trough/gutter about 50m out. A mate of mine put out a shad head as bait and after a short wait he got picked up by a bus. The fish turned out to be a massive Diamond Ray, easily over 40kg, and when eventually landed, was safely released. There were plenty of other people fishing over the long weekend, and we had the privilege of seeing a monster Black Musselcracker, 83cm long, landed by another angler, not from our group. The fish was in prime condition, as fat as a pig with an attitude just as bad. The best part was that this fish was revived and released after some pics, a genuine trophy fish. Hats off to Willem, and he was rewarded with a long distance call on the "blackberry". I tried to fish some of the spots I don't usually get to, but the biggies were still shy in the clean water. I sent out some big bonnies from a ledge known as "Danger Point", but didn't get any pickups. The panfish were as thick as the shad with all the usual suspects coming out: Bronze bream, Cat faced and Yellowbellied Rock cod, Zebras and Stone bream. A huge storm came trough on the Thursday night, and got the swells up big time on the Friday, typical big old Wild Coast swells pumping in from far out a heavy NE pumped for good measure. It was just impossible to fish at all. The next morning the sea at last had a decent colour so I went to a deep water spot called "Hamlyns" to slide out some whole tjokkas. I had 4 whole tjokkas, big baits, each about 40 - 50 cm long, and got bust up on all four! The nunus were hungry! Two of the takes were bitten clean off on the mainline before the slide even reached the sinker! Personally I haven't sworn that loudly in public in a long time! We only spotted the sardines once but they were far out, a kilometre away easily. So it was a great trip, good company, good fishing, good booze and good weather. Heres a couple of pics, I'm waiting for some more to be mailed to me:

[AdrianPowrie]

Hey Rory

I hope the new reel was taught how to fish?
Good to hear it went down as planned!

[Conrad Botes]

Looks like you had a good time! How many fish were taken on fly?

Which place did you go to? I've been to Coffee bay and Port St Johns, but it was about a decade ago. More pics please

[rory]

Hey Rory

I hope the new reel was taught how to fish?

Unfortunatly not!! But what a super reel, far easier to cast than I was expecting, it got its drag properly tested though!

Looks like you had a good time! How many fish were taken on fly?

Which place did you go to? I've been to Coffee bay and Port St Johns, but it was about a decade ago. More pics please

Hi Conrad, I only took some shad on fly, on clousers of course. Needless to say I used my quota of shad as live bait! The place we go to is called Msikaba, on the southern boundary of the Mkambati Nature reserve.