Offshore
Winter weather patterns sure aint what they used to be, this winter has dished up some of the nicest days to be out on the water and the fish are well and truly biting. Over the last 3 weeks I have had reports of everyone doing very well on the Demersal fish off our coast these include Pink snapper, Red Snapper , Queen snapper and Dhufish. Mixed in with these are Break sea cod and some solid Harlequin. Baits that didn’t make it to the sea floor below the boat have been getting smashed by marauding packs of Yellowtail King fish and solid Samsonfish. Out wide in anything over 60m it seems hard to get a bait passed the schools of over sized Skippy , some of these fish have tipped the scales over 4kg’s.
Inshore
Those occasional squalls and big swells we have had this season have dumped just enough weed on our shore to keep the herring hanging around. The Herring size does change from weed pile to weed pile and one customer even came in to the store with a sample of the herring he had been catching. It was close to 1/2kg in size and could have been mistaken for a small salmon but it was indeed a big fat “Bull-Herring” and he had a bucket full. Yes there are still Salmon about but they are just the stragglers left behind from the annual Salmon run we have along our shores. Both Sand and King George Whiting are taking baits and soft plastics along the shores and but the large Skippy seem to beat them to the bait most of the time. Tailor are still coming in as a regular catch and will happily take a whole mulie or metal slice cast in there general direction.
Freediving & Spearfishing
As the Cray season draws to an end on the 30th of June this month our efforts turn to deeper waters hunting fish. Over the last 3 weeks 2 solid Spanish Mackerel have been landed while freediving off our coast. Both Theo Vander Merwe and Phill Logan have ticked the Spanish Mackerel off the bucket list of fish species to land off our coast. Both divers where out hunting our deeper reef ledges when they were schooled by up to ½ dozen solid Spaniards and with the water temp sitting at 21deg we may even see more of these fish speared over the winter season. All of us who have put the time in out the water have found good fish. Dhuies , Red Snapper,Breaksea Cod and Queen Snapper can be found if you know where to look. Lets just hope we see more of this good weather we have been having for the last month…..Till next month safe hunting.
