Past fishing season

The past fishing season started of with a bang, especially with the Bronzies... Ray Newing from Isle of Sheppey came over with Malcolm at the end of Jan. Target species were mostly edibles, but we did fish for Bronzies on 3 occasions. A couple of times we hooked Bronzies on light tackle whilst fishing for edibles, which ended in tears. We did catch a couple of nice size cob, but nothing big. Most of the fish around 4 - 7 kg. Among them we also caught a few rays, sandsharks etc., which was later used for Bronzie bait. It was Malcolm s first outing to Namibia and a hefty 20 Namibian dollar bill was the prize for the biggest fish caught... Ray wrote the following after the trip: "Malcolm has face-booked his fish, and has my N$20 pinned on the shop wall. He also is serious about. going again.
Hope everythings o.k with you, we had a great time there. Thanks!!"

Below is a photo of Malcolm's beast, which took him close to 3 hours to land!

This Bronzie measured 218 cm (from nose to start of the tail) and was estimated to weigh about 160 + kg! A great catch for a first timer! Well done Malcolm!

As this blog is 'new', I have also added some of Ray's photo's from his previous trip.
Ann's steenbra weighed just over 18 kg (I had to use a long rod stand to hang the fish on as Ann could not hold it!)

Bronzie bait!

Nice cob of around 16 kg

Ann's big steenbra

Ray was still happy with this 15 kg steenbra!

Dave Matthews

Next up was Dave Matthews. The Mullet men turned Bronzie anglers! Between Ray's departure and Dave's arrival, we experienced several days of strong south westerly winds which prevailed for several days. This caused the water to cool down considerably, which was good for the gullie sharks and edibles, but it was not so good for the Bronzies. Finding chum and bait was not much of a problem and several days we drove past places where I knew we would bag up on gullies. We also heard several reports from other anglers who caught loads of cob at paaltjies and up north, but we stuck to the Bronzies... In the end we managed 22 Bronzies for the trip with nothing really big. It was frustrating waiting for pick-ups in seemingly perfect conditions, but with not many fish turning up.

Dave wrote the following: "As a matter of interest,the chap in the queue in front of us for the Heathrow flight was that bloke with the plaited beard that we saw on Longbeach. He didn't get a single Bronzie and only hooked one for a few seconds.  Stu was a bit embarrassed to say we had 22 when he asked!

Thanks again!"

2 smoothhounds the boys were proud of!

The mullet men will have another crack at it next year...! Their record stands at 44 Bronzies in one trip, with the most caught in one day, on 25!

Andy Matthews and his crew of 6

Andy was next up..., their trip was besotted with bad luck from the beginning. Flights got canceled, sleepovers in airports and lost luggage was just the beginning of it all...Luckily no fishing days had been lost. Did I mention Shaun of the dead yet? So called after he let one rip in the car that had put the dead seal carcasses on the beach to shame! Anyway, we soldiered on, nose clamps and all!

Most notable was the crayfish braai we had one evening! In the morning I dived about 17 crayfish and the guys collected a load of black mussels from the rocks at low tide. After a miserable fishing day, we returned home and had our revenge on the BBQ! Seventeen crayfish, several pots of black mussels, 10 pork chops, a grid full of boerewors, a couple of bowls of salad and several buns from the local Spar disappeared down hungry mouths in mere seconds! 

We did manage to catch a considerable amount of Gullies (about 40, if I remember correctly). We also spent a full day on edibles, but  with not much success. Everyone caught fish though and nice, fresh fillets, accompanied by a field of crispy chips was thoroughly enjoyed once more!

The Bronzies continued their 'no show' behavior..., but, we did break a few personal bests. Andy's fish of an estimated 200 kg was by far the biggest. Then big 'T' with one of 130 kg and a few of round 120 kg and less. In the end we managed 34 Bronzies in total. The only photo I have is of Andy's monster... The guys promised to send me some picks and I will upload them as soon as I have them. In the meanwhile... feast your eyes on this!

This Bronzie measured 235 cm  tag length (nose tip to start of the tail) and is estimated at about 200 kg

  Andy's fish took him only 2 hours and 15 min. Colder water in the back stopped the fish from going too far, but I was still impressed by the way Andy handled this brute.

Big T (Adrian Turner) was not so lucky, he foul hooked his fish of 130 kg in the pectoral fin. I thought initially that he had hooked a real beast, but after seeing the fish in the surf prior to landing it, I knew something was amiss. During the initial run, the fish went due west and took him down to the braid backing several times. At one time he had more than 1000 meters of fishing line in the water!

Andy wrote:  "Thought I would drop you an email to thank you again on behalf of all of us for all  your efforts and ensuring we had a great time.

Look forward to returning some time for another go at those edibles and maybe an even bigger Bronzie! There’s a challenge for you.

 Thanks again.

I will post more photo's as I get them. In April I start with my safari season and it is pretty full! Really looking forward to doing trips with Joyce! :-)