Estuaries in South Africa

[deewy]

Who on this site has fished what estuaries? What did you catch? What fish was observed? What flies was used? What time was the fish active? ect ect ect

There is so many estuaries in south africa and I recon that we as flyfisherman can benifit from the added knowledge on these systems.

So guys lets get those reports and hopefully there is a light at the end off the tunnel for some off the fisherman that has been blanking continiuosly.

[deewy]

My estuaries that I have fished so far.

Kleinbrak - Lots off juvinile leeries and they were active allday,just make sure that when you do go to the top weir it must be a pushing tide cause on low tide the water is fresh. Cob has been caught on conventional at the topweir aswel as lower down aswel,Grunter is plentyfull and can be seen tailing under the railway bridge at the mouth. Lots off mullet is pressent wich means lots off predators. I have heard off moonies been caught above the weir and i have seen them under the railway bridge.
Flippers and pencil poppers were a hit with the leeries. Clousers ect will work aswel aswel as for the cob.The mullet can be chummed with bread and as well known to most off us...the grunter is still a challange

Gouritz - Beeeg kob can be caught,steven has caught cob here and I had follows from leeries on a popper. I have only fished this place once and it was under the top bridge,the one that washed away in lastyears floods.

Sandvlei - Well everyone knows by now what is to offer at sandvlei Unfortunatly they still elude me,not for long I hope

Kleinrivier,hermanus - got some elf/shad there but leeries is ubundant there. Flippers clousers pencil poppers seems to be at the order off the day

Thats what i can offer you guys for now.

[ebf]

dewald,

you should try de mond. it's a bit of a drive from CPT, but good fishing (check all the catch reports) and a very nice venue to boot.

CPS site also has some useful info, click in the "Other Venues" link on the left, and then click on "Saltwater Venues"

[deewy]

De Mond souns nice but i dont want to catch baby fish,I will go there for sure,but then I want to have the right gear to target grunter.

The reason why i started this tread is because you only hear from de mond and sandvlei and some from veldrift and hermanus,what about the other estuaries that is easy and fun to fish,come guys lets hear the stories and get some info out off you guys. Anything from Kozibay until Oranjemund is usefull

[thrisss]

Ok ok – so we all know how good the Saltwater fishing can be in the Cape, what about KZN south coast? I like most Vaalies goes to the South Coast for holiday since the cape seems “just too far”. Specially with a wife and kid in the car. So how about ANYBODY supplying info on that area of the coast as well, and no – I have read the TCFF article in previous months, was hoping for more hands on info. Common guys – surely I cant be the only FF guy on this site visiting that area?

[Herman Jooste]

I read in the paper today that due to the high seas caused by the latest cyclone in Moz, the mouth of the St. Lucia estuary has breached to at least 80m wide. The salt water is apparently pumping into the estuary, and this coupled with over 300mm of rain in the catchment area has lead to boats being able to launch at Charters Creek again

[Arthur]

Hermanus has got some decent leeries - we have caught nice ones on poppers - up to 70cm or so.You are very limited if you don't have a boat to fish from or some kind of craft to get around in though so I wouldn't recommend it for bank fishing unless you are prepared to swim(to get to the other bank if the wind is wrong on your side)and walk quite a bit.

There is plenty of info on De Mond on this site but the leeries are quite small and it is a long trip for a day.

Dewald - there was an excellent talk by our fellow Fly Talker Juan Coetzee at the CPS last Thursday about Swartkops and also the estuary at Sedgefield (Swartvlei I think it's called) - great info was given by Juan on these venues so he's the man to speak to if you ever wanna fish these estuaries.

[deewy]

Hey guys

I would love to hear from venues on the south coast aswel as the transkei ect ect.
Or does it seem that we only have the same guys fishing the same spots over and over again. We have flytalkers from kzn on here and the pe area,lets get some hands on info as it was said above. The guys from the mags dont give you the spots were to fish,just the basics.

I would like it iff there could be info on this tread for everyone who is going close to estuaries for a weekend,atleast they can look up info on that area and know what is availible and what equipment should be taken with.

[oomie]

A lot of the estuarys are being closed for fishing because of over fishing by the locals. Does anybody know if there is any way of members of certain clubs would be allowed to fish these Estuaries within the law and licensing etc. Surely if they allow members of say a flyfishing club , catch and release , monitoring catches etc.. This would increase income for environmental purposes for these areas.

[Arthur]

Ja Oomie these treasures need to be managed so that the locals can make a living off tourism etc instead of just stuffing them up.Also developers must be kept at bay cos that is the main thing that is ruining our estuaries.If they go ahead with the N2 story I fear this is what would happen.

So can anybody provide more info on these areas I would also be very interested and would like to do a trip up there sometime in the not too distant future.