HOW TO SIMPLY IMPROVE YOUR HOOKUP RATE

[Mark Crame]

Having had the snip on Tuesday morning (hence the ten days ban on not using my new kayak) would you all PLEASE STOP SAYING BALLBAG

[YakDiver]

I do love a good story be it fact or fiction

The one I like the best was from a diver, he found a 400 year old lamp, but no one would believe his story,..................... until he blew the candle out!!!!!

[kennosen]

Having had the snip on Tuesday morning (hence the ten days ban on not using my new kayak) would you all PLEASE STOP SAYING BALLBAG

 

Pity you didnt go for a circumcision, you could use it for bait

 

This thread has been very entertaining, and some good advice amongst it too, pity peeps have taken the proverbial hook and gotten personal, but such is life eh.

[Mark Crame]

I do love a good story be it fact or fiction

The one I like the best was from a diver, he found a 400 year old lamp, but no one would believe his story,..................... until he blew the candle out!!!!!

 

If you mean me I can assure you it's fact rather than fiction. I have nothing to gain from telling porkies - none of you know me and none of you would worship me for any tale I tell. I never counted how many we lost - but we lost quite a few. The place was heaving with sharks. Perhaps one of my biggest achievements was to not lose a single fish to a shark when bringing it in - plenty were gobbled up by 'the taxman' as sharks were referred to. To avoid a shark taking the fish (often leaving you a head and nowt else) you had to bring these things in as fast and hard as you could - and with a 15-25kg Yellowfin that's built like a rocket with a huge great paddle of a tail it's no mean feat. You hurt a bit the first few times.

 

On one occasion I saw spinner sharks. These (I don't know the correct name if that isn't it, but it's a requiem shark) were in the region of 200-300lb, and jumping clear out of the water presumably for fun - unless they were feeding on surface prey and coming from beneath. We moved out of the area rather quickly as it could cause a somewhat painful experience if one came from under or above. Another occasion, flat calm, I must have seen 300+ sharks finning on the surface over the reef, perhaps more, during the morning. Usally we'd see one or two, maybe double figures, but that day was outstanding. It was my first time on Protea. I learnt to dive when i was out there but there is no way on earth you'd ever get me to dive Protea, no way at all. On my cousins skiboat - 14'6" we once had a shark pass alongside that was a good 3-4 ft longer than the boat. He wanted to go, I wanted to catch it. We went. I told him it was following us and keeping up and he went faster - it was as funny as hell. I went out with the Natal Sharks Board twice too, a cousins husband skippers one of the boats, again from Shelly Beach. Saw some big sharks in their nets, and sadly a dolphin too. It's not common for them to catch dolphins as they can normally sense the nets they use apparently.

 

Other stories from that time? I'd have to think. I remember a rod going over the side when a Musselcracker ran one time. I remember having a plunge from bow to stern and having a charter pull up a 7ft Tiger 5 minutes later. I remember a whole afternoon and night over Geelbek Salmon with 8 people on board (we'd launched at 5am, got in at 12, heard about one boat being filled and got fuel and bait and turned around and went out again. 4-5 boats were anchored over the shoal which was thick on the fishfinder, I forget the depths but say from 10-60metres up from the bottom being just fish. All night we stayed and only two were caught - they were off the feed. The two fish caught weren't Geelbek either. I can't remember what they were though i have photos somewhere. I blanked - no surprise as I was sleeping most of the time as I had a qualifying dive at Aliwal Shoal the next day. It was a great 3 months but often in the last few weeks I'd stay on the beach instead. Everything great becomes boring after a while.

 

All true.

 

Pity you didnt go for a circumcision, you could use it for bait

 

 

I did ask for the pieces they cut out as I thought it'd be a great story to say I'd fish with parts of my nuts and caught, but they go off to the lab for some reason. I had the circumcision as a baby, no way I'd have that done now!! As for bait, I'd rather make a balaclava out of it. For my pet shrew.

[GB]

All true.

I did ask for the pieces they cut out as I thought it'd be a great story to say I'd fish with parts of my nuts and caught, but they go off to the lab for some reason. I had the circumcision as a baby, no way I'd have that done now!! As for bait, I'd rather make a balaclava out of it. For my pet shrew.

 

O.K I just wet myself with laughter. Very entertaining.

 

Mark I will try to refrain from using the BB word in the near future.

[Mark Crame]

O.K I just wet myself with laughter. Very entertaining.

 

Mark I will try to refrain from using the BB word in the near future.

 

 

Thank you Sir. Actually I'm not that touchy about it - I didn't really feel it to be below the belt. And I can honestly say it wont make a vas deferens to my life.

 

ps - the SA fishing was from a skiboat, NOT a kayak. Just better make that clear I guess.

[Starvinmarvin]

Well that was fun to read

 

SM

[Zzippy]

Next episode at 7pm tonight

[fishfingers]

What have I started ? There certainly is some angst out there.

 

For the record, arguments are a pretty inefficient way of exchanging information, but anyone wishing to be constructive (thanks marc) my like to know:

 

Tuna don’t have a swim bladder, and give their all in the fight. Trying to release them is folly. They either sink to the bottom and die, or get eaten by sharks. (All the fish here were eaten, most of them by the local population, who from the sounds of it needed it a lot more than some on this forum.)

 

Buy the way ‘hungryfisherman’, Darodo are the fastest growing and tastiest fish in the sea. The big bull in the foreground leapt into the boat on his own. How’s that for fast food and probably only 2 years old to boot? A fish right up your street I think as they taste much better than Bass.

 

By the way all the fish here were caught on trolling lures or Rapala slivers, not live bait. ( The sliver in its smallest size is a good trolling lure in the UK for large Bass but I don’t think anyone’s listening to me anymore.) Live bait would have caused a lot of pointless shark hook-ups.

 

I am proud of the fact that I used tackle capable of getting these fish to the boat fast and safely before the circling Bulls had them. I did not want to put the skipper in the unfortunate position of having to deal with one of these bad tempered fish in what was a big sea at the time. Also I would not have slept well with the thought of any shark, even a Zambezi, swimming around with his mouth gagged by my lure.

 

The only ‘half’ fish I lost that day to the sharks was a large king mackerel. These, due mostly to how they fight, having a habit of getting eaten on the way in more often than not.

 

As far as conservation is concerned using unnecessarily light tackle prolongs the ordeal for the fish, and greatly reduces the chances of it being returned unharmed. Any considerate angler, and I know a few, would have played that tope on ‘bream tackle’ hard. If he lost the fish, which 9/10 times he would have. The fish would have swam away unharmed. By playing him on unsuitable tackle you risk tiring the fish to exhaustion, and worse still if your kit fails, as it is prone to do at the end of the fight, that tope will sink like a stone and certainly die. I wasn’t there so don’t know how the guy played the fish. Shame on the man if he didn’t play that fish real hard. And I hope there is something to that effect stated in the glossy article. I very much doubt it though, as they are in the business of selling stuff, mostly pipe dreams……..

 

As far as the Blue is concerned: Try and tell me that an angler who has invested in an expensive angling kayak has to go on a web forum to ask what type of fish he has hooked. If its was a rhetorical question, he has some major issues with which no one can help him. If he doesn’t actually know, then he should not comment on other peoples thoughts as he is quite obviously a ‘novice’. Someone should tell him that expensive consumer electonics and saltwater don't get on!

 

With respect to Bass teeth: What I actually said was that the main problem with ‘big’ bass was their gill plates. Not their teeth! They do have them, a nasty set of vomerine teeth, there smallish granted, but sharp and perfect at grasping sandeels as you would imagine.

 

As far as GB is concerned: I suggest that anybody kayaking at sea with GB does so with some care, he doesn’t appear to be a man in control of his emotions. Aggressive types are almost always cowards, and you can’t depend on them when things go wrong. Think hard about this one.. your life might depend on it someday!

[fishfingers]

Marc, it’s a small world. The photo these guys were banging on about, was taken in January this year at Shelly Beach! The boat was one of ‘Awesome Charters’, and the head guy took me out. (Is he your man?), he was very, very competent and needed to be!

Given the size of the breakers that was the most controlled, proficient, and scary, beach launch I’ve ever been on. Those South Africans know how to fish! Fortunately the wind dropped a bit in the afternoon. But the landing was pretty high speed stuff as well.

 

Quite something that Mozambique current and those Bull’s on the reef! You’d be mad to play on a kayak out there, though apparently people regularly dive it. (…and Die!)

 

My point with the Blue shark was that it was very improbable that 15lb mono would stand up to the teeth and skin of the shark, this coupled with all the other points made about ‘that picture’ lead me to genuinely believe it to be a hoax. Blues will swallow an small bait instantly so unless it was foul hooked, which even that photo looks like its not, the small hook would have been in the mouth even a small blue and a minute Mako, would have bitten him off instantly.

 

Bye the way, for both mine and the sharks safety, boating/releasing is a two man job. Attempting this on a kayak would be very dangerous and someone will get hurt badly if they try.

 

To my thinking tope are pushing it a bit too, but I suppose if they never leave the water there ok. I not too keen on the photos of those guys holding their tope up for the camera on their kayaks, one slip and the topes soft underside can get bashed, killing the fish some hours later. These creatures are , in fact, very delicate.

On a boats we only ever lift the small tope by the tail for unhooking. This is done standing so no part of the fish hits anything hard. If the fish is large it is unhooked, or on very rare occasions, cut off, while still in the water. I would like to think kayak anglers have thought this through.

 

I except that there are rare occurrences when sharks have been accidental hooked on the external mouth parts and some quite sizeable fish being boated. It’s just that I’m very sceptical in this case, as apparently he didn’t know what type of fish it was……(hummmm?)