Have a look over at the fishing-blog forum where Christo caught this beauty and tells of the gear he used to catch her. Christo was a guest on the fishing blog a while back an wrote this very interesting post about shore fishing in South Africa

If you have any photos you would like published here, or a story to tell then please contact us

Tight lines

www.fishing-blog.co.uk

Hello fellow fishermen. My name is Thomas and I live on a small island in northern Norway. I run a photo blog with high quality photos from my region http://blog.thomaslaupstad.com/ .

I have fished all my life and from the age of 12 I started to go out fishing, on the ocean, on my own.

The people living on the coast have a long tradition of making a living from the sea. In the old times everyone was dependent on what they could harvest from the sea, as a way to earn money, but also as the most important source of food.
Nowadays very few people make a living from fishing because sadly everything is centralized and the big companies, with enormous boats, are buying the quotas from the smaller boats. It is really destroying the typical coastal culture in northern Norway and make the population move to cities and to southern Norway where all the jobs are.

But fishing is still important for most people in northern Norway and almost everyone on the coast owns a boat. Buying fish from stores is uncommon if you live in the countryside.

Seasonal fishing

The seasons decide what kind of fishing that can be done. In the middle of the winter the weather is too rough to go out on the sea with a small boat so then you eat the fish you have caught earlier.

I like to start fishing as early as possible and this year was very early with me getting my boat out on the sea in May. It seems like the fish find the shallow waters too cold so I had to fish a depths bellow 100 meters to catch anything. I caught mainly cod, redfish and a few haddocks at the start of the fishing season.
The cod are of very good quality in the winter and we use to hang it for drying.

In the summer large shoals of coalfish (pollock) come into the fjords. It’s very exciting when there are thousands upon thousands of coalfish in a feeding frenzy around your boat. At the same time thousands of seagulls try to get their share of the small fish that the coalfish is hunting.
Coalfish and cod are the main fish species that I catch in the summer along with the odd wolffish and atlantic halibut.
Late in the summer I use to salt some cod and freeze it for food in the winter. I also make fillets of coalfish, cod and other fish species to fill the freezer.

In the autumn shoals of herring comes into the fjords and I set nets to catch them. Waking up early on an autumn day to drag my nets is very relaxing and exciting at the same time.
I use herring salted fresh or fried. Salted herring can be stored for a long time and can also be used for pickled herring.
Herring is also an excellent bait and I use it to catch Atlantic halibut and red fish.

Methods I use for fishing
I mainly use my good old sea fishing rod with a Penn fishing reel that I have been using for the past 13 years.
For depths below 100 meters I usually use a “juksa”. Juksa is a fishing wheel that has long traditions here. My “juksa wheel” was made by my grandpa 30-40 years ago and it still works like a charm.
As I have mentioned before I use nets to catch herring and on a rare occasion I use nets to catch flatfish.
If I have good amounts of bait I sometimes set bottom-long-lines. I try to target Atlantic halibut, but you can get all sorts of fish.

There are companies offering fishing for tourists around here so you are welcome to try my fishing grounds as long as you leave the biggest fish to me

Golden Grey Mullet can be caught on our coasts from may really through to september, but it depends on the mark your fishing ie the east facing beaches are normally more productive earlier on than the south facing if you get my drift. Fish over the flooding tide, normally hot days and flat sea is good.

The Golden Grey Mullet actually prefer hot days because they will lay their eggs in the warm sand as the tide floods. Thats how close they are in on the shore line!. Waders are a good choice as it gets you closer to the fish. Take a good pair of polarized sun glasses and look closely at the sea for a good half hour before fishing for them if they are there you will spot them. But you only really notice them there if you are actually looking for them, makes me laugh when people are swimming near them and don’t notice them, its a good site to see when you spot them especially when they are in in their numbers. You will no what i mean when you do spot them.

I will not give away the marks where they are, you will have to work them out for yourself. I think i have given you enough info for you to work them out. The beauty is you can spin, ledger or float for them using mulleting gear. If you do follow it up and catch one over 2lb then i will eat my smelly fishing rag as i have been close but yet to no avail!!.

All the best out on the seas. Hope you catch a lunker!!!!.

The tackle we use here in South Africa all depends on what type of fish you will be targeting.

For edibles like cob, spotted grunter, white steenbra’s and shad a nylon line with a diameter of around 0.40mm will be sufficient. That’s for fishing from the beach on sandy areas. Of course for shad you will want to add a small piece of steel cable/piano wire just above the hook to stop them from biting off your hook with their razor like teeth.

Going for galjoen, white musselcracker or blacktail around rocky areas you will have to use a thicker line that is also more abrasion resistant. Musselcracker is a very strong and dirty fighter so a strong reel will be a good idea.

For most sharks around here it will be best to use a line of 0.55mm. And a reel with a big line capacity. I use a custom build 14ft 400/3 graphite fishing rod with a Daiwa Saltist reel. On the reel I have 300m braided line as backing with about 400m of 0.55mm on top off that. That’s in most cases enough to stop and turn a beast from the shore.

To get a big bait (1-5kg) out deep I use a non return sliding clip. I attach a 1mm leader of about 8meters to my main line by means of a bemini twist knot and then a cat’s paw or figure 8 knot. Then you tie on a stop ring with power swivel and a short sinker/lead trace. For sliding you must use a big grapnel sinker to make sure you your sinker stays firmly stuck while you slide your bait out.

Next step is to cast out the sinker alone as deep as possible. On rocky areas is normally easier but from the beach/sand you will have to wade/swim out to cast out behind the drop-off.

When you are sure your sinker is not going to move you can clip on your slide with two hooks and at least a 150pound breaking strain stainless steel cable. Now you just pull your line tight and rock your rod forwards and backwards. That causes your slide to slide out into the water. Doing that for at least 5 minutes and your slide will be at or very near to the stop ring and sinker.

Now use patience till your line goes tight and the fight begins. Remember your fighting buckle otherwise your back won’t be lasting to long.

Happy fishing till next time
Christo

www.xtremefishing.blogspot.com

Fishing from the shoreline in the Whitby area can be broken down into 2 main categories of summer fishing and Winter fishing. In the summer months the mainstay of the catches are the summer species of flounder, mackerel, coalfish, pollock and the occasional bass. Through the winter months the main target of the sea anglers at Whitby are cod which are brought to our shores in search of food displaced by the winter storms.

Winter Fishing In The Whitby Area.

Autumn signifies the start of the beach casting / rock angling season in the area. Early September sees the Filey fishing festival, a full week of both shore and boat fishing matches ending in the north of England cod fishing championships. The Filey festival is closely followed (usually a week later) by the Scarborough angling festival which is also fished over a full week with some excellent prizes up for grabs for both shore and boat anglers. The final day of the Scarborough festival sees anglers competing for the much sought after title of the “All England” codling champion.

Late Summer/early autumn on the Yorkshire coast usually coincides with the first of the off sea storms. With winds from a Northerly direction the sea around our coastline roughens up and disturbs marine life close to the shore such as peeler crabs, lug and ragworms etc. The abundance of foodstuffs encourages the cod to move inshore after a summer of feeding on the deep water reefs off Whitby.

At his time of year casting a peeler crab into the rock filled gulleys around our coast at north east coast fishing marks (North East fishing marks ) like Port Mulgrave can pay dividends for the areas cod anglers. Fish up to 30 pounds in weight have been caught in this manner and recent seasons have seen cod well into double figures landed from the rock fishing marks on our coastline. As the winter progresses the cod fishing usually peaks around Christmas time, but all is not over as late winter often sees a run of the big spawning cod around March. At this time a large bait of lugworm and squid is often deadly for the large double figure cod. April often sees a run of smaller codling on the coast (A spring run) and after this the winter season tails away and the wait is on for the arrival of the summer species at Whitby.

Summer Fishing On The Yorkshire Coast

At the end of the winter cod season the wait is on for those Summer species. April and May can be a lean time for the North east coast shore angler. Spare time in these months is often put to good use collecting peeler crabs to freeze down for use as bait in the following months. May sees the first influx of summer species at Whitby. Casting a small peeler bait on a size 1o hook into the river esk at Whitby can produce good catches of flounder. It is known for anglers to catch a dozen or more in only a few hours fishing with the best time being on an incoming tide.

June through to September is hectic with Mackerel, Coalfish, Pollock and the occasional bass easily caught from most venues in the area with Whitby’s west pier often being the most popular. Spinning with a 1-2 oz chromed spinner is the favoured method but also float fishing a mackerel strip in mid water can also be very effective for all the mentioned species.

A walk onto the beach at upgang or the sea wall in the same area at high tide is often worthwhile and bass up to the 5 pound mark have been taken here on plugs, or peeler crab and sometimes ragworm.

There is lots more information on shore fishing at Whitby on the Whitby sea anglers website at – www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk and anyone wanting to debate fishing in the area could find the Whitby fishing forum at North East Fishing Marks very interesting indeed.

The first post in his series will be posted this week, I have seen it already and it’s very well written with some great pictures.

Edit: 22/06/07

Glens post is here – Sea fishing in Whitby

Hi – I’m Christo. I live in a small coastal village called Great Brak River. It’s close to Mosselbay, South Africa.

Since I was young I enjoyed fishing with my father. I always had fun playing around with the small stuff around the rocky pools while dad fished. From there on I was hooked into fishing, always looking for something bigger and better to catch.

I use to fish for edibles a lot (mostly cob) That’s a bigger size of edible fish around here (can reach 75kilograms)

In 2000 and one I caught my personal best, a 61.5 kilogram cob from the beach here about a kilometer and a half away from my house.

The area I live in is great for fishing. Lots of nice estuaries to fly fish in, a few dams with bigmouth bass, small mouth in the rivers and excellent rock and surf opportunities

Lately I’m targeting bigger species (mostly big sharks) from the beach. I don’t fish to eat. I just fish for the fight. I strongly believe in catch and release the adrenaline rush you get from hooking a 200kg monster is just unbelievable. And the feeling seeing him swim away after you release him is better.