Fin-S

I think the 6000 is a bit small for GT's, especially if you are looking for the bigger (>30kgs) fish. Rather look at a 10k. Another alternative is the Stradic 8k. Good reel and we use it alot for smaller tuna.

--> QUOTE(Norm B @ Aug 6 2007, 10:41 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks for that, very interesting, I assume it will work on tope too. Yes Norm it does. Log on to the site, select fish weights and then select soupfin shark / vaalhaai (local name for tope). It would be interesting to check the stats compared to some of Ian Burrett's fish, length for length to see the variations northern vs southern.

Without hard facts I guess it is difficult to prove either way. Personally I suspect that GW's will visit your waters, but unintentionally. Where the environment suits them, then you will certainly find more than one. As they prefer meat rather than fish, then a suitable supply of seals etc would be necessary, as would their preferred temperature range. The other thing that has not been mentioned is their desire to procreate. Whilst this has never been filmed or observed in the wild (to the best of my knowledge) it is suspected that they only mate when there is an overabundance of food and when they have gorged themselves. This was noticed last year off Seal island in Cape Town where the body of a washed up whale was towed away from the beach to let nature take its course. Up to 20 GW tore into the carcass for almost three days, literally stuffing themselves. When they were so satiated that they could hardly move (in fact several turned belly up and drifted until their metabolism kicked in again) they dissappeared for 4/5 days. Bearing in mind that we have apporoximately 70 sharks around the island in winter and that we see them every day, something important must have happened to cause them to move from their normal hunting zone. I suspect therefore that there is not enough food of a high fat content to ensure their reproductive success in the UK waters, and hence they will only be a very rare accidental visitor. Could be totally wrong though.....

I think there are a few more variables to consider. What size of engine, what type of hull, how far are you running, what throttle opening etc. From my experience, I now save 40% on my fuel bill by running 4 strokes vs older 2 strokes. However, this is comparing 2 x 115hp (4s) Suzuki's vs 2 x Yamaha 115 Enduros. My average run is 40NM out, trolling for 4 hours, and then a 40NM run back. The motors are rigged on a planing 24' cat hull and I average 24 knots at 4000rpm. On this rig I now use 160 litres per day in total. Some of our local fleet has switched to the new E-Tecs and are also having good savings and cheaper maintenance costs - however the motors are noisier and I find the 4 strokes allow me to get much closer to a feeding shoal of fish, meaning shorter casts and more fish. Whatever you choose, the new generation of motors are light years ahead of the older ones and are far superior in every respect.

Hi Happy Dude, I hope you have a great time and that the trip is full of dreams. I would however respectfully ask you to abide by the environmental rules of Kenya and the Watamu Reserve. After all, if we as sport anglers ignore them, what hope do we have of educating non anglers. I hope you enjoy our wonderful continent and that your arms are so tired from the offshore trips that when you get ashore all you want to do is have a few cold Tuskers! Cheers.

Hi Mark, Try Don Stander (based in Durbs but fishes whole of KZN & Moz). www.fishingski.co.za or +27722074798. If he doesn't have a spare, then he should know someone who does. Alternatively, Brett Challenor, www.stealthpp.co.za, or +27313126612. Drop me a pm when you have some dates, maybe we can meet up for a cold one. I am based in Cape Town, but should be up there if the sardine run is on. Cheers,

Hi Simon, Compliments to you and yours and I hope we get to see you sometime this year. I have not done much locally this year, mainly exploring new areas / techniques on my travels. Managed a 600lb blue in Mauritius in early December - more of a fight getting the crew to release it! Also picked up some nice GT's from a private lagoon on the east coast on the 12 wt - up to 25kgs so some good fish. At the same place I found a shoal of bones all over 10lb and some of them pushing 20lb. Got a couple of smaller ones but will be back in February with some more crab imitations! Local yellowtail have finished spawning so we will be targetting them in earnest over the next few months until the yellowfin come back in early March. Best tuna on the boat of last year went about 90kgs, my best was this one of 72kgs. On the same day however I got a few albacore (longfin) on the fly up to 15kgs and then a 25kg yellowfin on the 12wt which popped the tippet at the boat after 1h40. I have now decided that only a masochist would target them any larger than that! I also spent a few days in Malindi and got a small blue, a stripey and a couple of sails on the same day but sadly dropped a black which would have made a slam! Plans for this year include Malindi and Mauritus in Feb, Angola (good tarpon) mid April, Madagascar in May, and a tiger trip to Zambia in late June - the latter would be a good add on to a Cape Town tuna trip! Let me know if you are keen. In the meantime, your trips sound good, a big eye is a good opponent and those bass sound bloody big - tight lines and enjoy.

Money no object - would have to be the Coral Sea on a fly in / motherboat package - specifically targetting the Kenn reef. Budget - Nile perch on Lake Nasser in Egypt. Freshwater fishing but for large fish with a bit of attitude!

In many tropical fisheries we use cd's on a string as a type of FAD (Fish attracting device), and it works very well. Often we will anchor a length of wire cable to the ocean floor and attach a string of flashers (cd's, beads, pearls etc). Higher up the main wire we will add on a 6 foot long piece of shade netting (acts as shelter and shade for the baitfish) and then just under the surface another stringer of flashy things. After a few days the system has developed its own web of life. The guys in the Indian ocean islands use the system regularly to attract school tuna, skipjact and dorado. If it is legal to use them in them UK, then it may be worthwhile to see if they will hold a shoal of mackerel which in turn may hold bass. The other alternative is to troll them behind the yak as an attractor / teaser. Worth a try I would say.

Herewith an article (courtesy of a mate of mine) I posted last year in reply to a similar question - I hope it helps.... Because there is nothing average about a carp, especially its size, your tackle needs to be up to the job. Because fly fishing for carp is all about spotting the fish, and then making a quick and accurate cast from 3 to 15 meters away, the action of the rod is very important. Too stiff a rod makes short, accurate casts very difficult. On the other hand, too soft a rod will not be able to handle the strength, weight and dirty fighting tactics of a hooked carp. My recommendation would be a 6 to 8 weight graphite rod of between 8.5 to 9 foot long, with medium tip action and lots of backbone in the but section. When fishing very snaggy water with bigger fish (16 to 25 pounds) a 9 weight rod would be a better choice. Carp fight hard and dirty, and any reel used to catch them will receive a workout. For this reason, I prefer bigger reels with disk drags and backing capacities of 150 meters or more. Sooner or later, you may need every meter of backing! An exposed reel rim is essential when fly-fishing for carp. The reel should be loaded with 20 pound (9 kilogram) Dacron or Micron backing. When fishing a large, strong river with lots of snags, 30 pound Dacron is a far safer bet. I use a floating, weight forward fly line for all of my carp fishing. These lines allow you to present the fly accurately from close to medium range and if the cast is off target, you can simply lift the line off the water and recast. A tapered leader of around nine foot and with a 10 pound tip is great for this form of fishing. I usually add an additional length of tippet to the end of the leader. Because carp are so wary and their eyesight is so good, the thinner and stronger the tippet the better. In the old ratings, 4x to 2x are ideal. In snaggy waters, 0.30mm line with high abrasion properties is much safer. One of the most essential items of tackle for catching carp on fly, is a good pair of polarized sun glasses. Without them, you will not be able to spot the fish in the water and you will therefore not be in a position to cast a fly to them. I prefer amber or brown coloured lenses that increase contrast while blocking out surface glare. A large landing net is very helpful in landing the fish quicker. I like a strong net with a telescopic handle that folds down and can be clipped onto the back of my multi pocket vest. Normal trout style nets are useless on the average carp, which normally weigh over 2.5 to 4 kilograms. Carp flies Because carp feed on a wide range of aquatic food items, many different flies have been successful for them. My most successful flies are as follows. Woolly buggers in black, black-red, white, yellow and dark brown; gold bead hairs ear nymph; white caddis grub; black zulu; San Jan worm; crazy charlies in white or brown; Dels Merkin (a crab pattern) in white and brown and skinny buzzers. Recently, a weighted #8 white shrimp imitation has proved very effective (Sweet and salty shrimp). My most successful dry flies include Deer hair patterns like the D.D.D, flying ant; Daves hopper; muddler minnow and Adams. I commonly use these flies in sizes from 10 to 4. When the fish are very spooky, I may go down to #16 flies and when fishing for large carp in the rivers, I may go as large as a #2 long shank. My most successful fly for carp has been the woolly bugger in different variations and I weight them either with a gold metal bead in front or with bead chain or lead dumbbell eyes. I leave some flies un-weighted to sink slowly and thus cover fish cruising close to the surface, but generally I want my flies to get down to where the fish are feeding, quickly. Carp have relatively large mouths and I have even caught some using large deer hair mouse patterns and baitfish imitations. Recently, on many waters that we fish, using imitative blood worm imitations (The carps favourite food) in size 14 to 10 have proved deadly. I always use de-barbed hooks. Also make sure that your hooks are sharp! Method It is essential to realize the following about carp before setting out to pursue them with fly. Firstly, they can easily find enough food to maintain their energy requirements and will not therefore chase a fly as readily as trout. Why expend energy on chasing a rapidly moving fly, five meters away, when there is plenty of food a few inches away under the sand? This then is the key to hooking carp on fly. No matter what fly is used, it needs to be presented a few centimeters in front of the fishes head. Secondly, carp mainly feed on the bottom although they do cruise a few centimeters bellow the water surface and they do also indeed feed on the surface at times. Therefore, if the carp is feeding on the bottom, in 60 cm of water, the fly needs to get down to where it is feeding, quickly, before it moves off again. If the fish is cruising just below the surface, the fly needs to sink slowly enough so that by the time the fish reaches it, it will be at eye level. If the fish is feeding on the surface, then a dry fly (floating fly) will be the best option. Carp can be separated into two distinct types. Those that are cruising, and those that are feeding. Feeding carp are looking for food, usually insects, and they are less likely to spot you so they are always easier to catch. When carp feed on the bottom, the tail lifts up and the mouth is used like a vacuum cleaner come shovel as they dig, blow and suck the insects out of gravel, sand or mud. This feeding behavior is very similar to permit, spotted grunter, white steenbras and bonefish. This feeding activity in water less than a meter deep unleashes silt, fine bubbles and their tails create ripples and vortexes that are unmistakable to the trained eye. If you see such activity, endeavor to get to the spot quickly without being seen. The closer you can get, the better. Now try to spot which end is the tail and which end is the mouth. If the fish is still rooting about in the mud, cast about 80 centimeters past it and about 5 to 10 centimeters in front. Quickly draw the fly in for a few centimeters and then allow it to sink to the bottom, the closer to the fish's mouth that it sinks, the better. If the fish spots it and if the fly looks like food, then it will move up to it, and inhale it. As soon as this happens, set the hook!. Some carp like to take moving flies while others prefer them lying on the bottom. The angle that you cast to the fish can also be critical. Casting to a carp that is facing you or that is side on to your position is easiest. If the carp is facing away though, life can get complicated. If you mess up on the cast and the leader or tippet sinks on to the fishes back, it is history! Casting to either side of a carp that is facing away from you is the answer, but unfortunately they keep moving. The one advantage of casting to a fish that is not facing you though is that it cannot see you approaching. When fishing in muddy water, I normally cast at bubbles that the carp release as they feed. If you cast directly over the bubbles, the fly will soon sink in front of a fish and be taken. Watch the leader as it enters the water for unnatural movement. If the leader does not move after a cast has been made, I wait for a half a minuet or less and then slowly retrieve the fly for a meter. If nothing happens, I recast. I call this method, bubble bashing. A refinement of this method is to use a treated yarn bite indicator, positioned 1 and a half times the depth of the water onto the leader. This system shows up any takes instantly and will drastically increase your success rate using this method. If you spot cruising carp, they have either just been feeding or are about to start. What I normally do is to cast the fly in front of the fish and allow it to sink. How far you cast in front depends on the conditions. The clearer the water and the quicker the fish is moving, the further in front you need to cast (leading the fish). 2 meters to 50 cm is about the average. If the fish is moving very slowly, then it is better to cast closer to the fish but well past it, the fly can then be drawn back quickly and then allowed to sink. An interested carp will turn down and follow the fly and take it before it hits bottom. Watch the leader, if it moves unnaturally, strike. If the fish are feeding on the surface, you need to cast a large dry fly (#8 to 6) close to it and then allow it to drift. If the carp is interested, it will rise and suck the fly in. Wait for it to turn down before striking. River carp can be a real challenge to take on fly. On the one hand, they are more willing to chase a fly, but on the other, they can be far more spooky and the current can cause problems of its own. When the carp are feeding in slacker water, the same methods used in still waters should be used. When the carp feed up rapids however, there are two methods that work well. These are upstream nymphing and down stream and across. In deep, fast water, the upstream nymphing method with fairly big and heavily weighted flies works best. To do this, you approach the fish by wading carefully upstream (in their blind spot) and then cast the fly over them and allow it to drift back down to you while keeping the rod tip up. This way the fly sinks rapidly and fishes past the fishes head and if it is taken, the leader will stop dead or move upstream, Strike quickly and hold on! In shallow, fast rapids, the downstream method works well. When you spot a carp feeding up the rapid, approach it from upstream carefully so that it does not spot you. Now work your way across so that you are almost in front of the fish, but about 7 to 10 meters upstream of it. Now cast a large woolly bugger or similar fly to the side of it and allow the current to swing the fly across its path. If all goes well, the fish will chase after it and take it. Set the hook and be prepared for a long fight! Landing a hooked carp on fly tackle is another story, these fish are strong! Remember to take your time and use lots of side strain. Carp are dirty fighters and they will head for any cover when hooked so take care. A big (20 pounds+) and fit carp could keep you busy for a long time!

Hi Anglerette, Absolutely. You can have great fun in the rivers, just do not fish close to the temples as the fish take on sacred significance. The easiest is to target the local catfish. Chum them up with a bag of bread then use a bread fly a la mullet / carp. Strong fighters up to about 12lb. You can also fish the coast but the fish are not as big nor as plentiful as in the rivers. When the other half does a temple trip, ask the local guide if you can fish just downstream of the temple borders - the fish literally line up. For some piscatorial visual excitement, take a trip to the summer palace (no fishing!) and check out the carp, catfish and some other local species that visitors line up to feed. Tight lines.

Hi Davy, Much will depend on the size on the fish you are looking for. Puerto Vallarta (?) in Mexico and Ghana off Africa's west coast would be the best for truly large fish - over 300lb. For medium sized yellows, 100 - 250, I guess the California long range boats would be a good bet, or the tuna fleet in Cape Town if you don't mind the long run. For the small footballs, Kenya is OK, but Kilwa in Tanzania would be better as they have a decent run of larger fish up to 200lb, and lots of them. As for tackle, a well balanced stand up outfit should handle most fish, provided ther angler can hold 20lb of drag for at least 2 hours. I use tld 50/2's spooled with 100lb braid and a top shot of 100m 80lb Ande, on Calstar 50 5/6" stand up rods. Using the TLD's versus the heavier Tiagras or Intl's means smaller anglers can use their energy to fight the fish rather than hold up the tackle. Wherever you choose, enjoy the battles with the strongest fish that swims!

Mark, you are quite correct regarding the sharks, it is swimmers and spearos who are most at risk on the KZN coast. To date there have been no incidents with paddle skiers, fishing kayaks etc, although it pays to be cautious! Most of the attacks now happen in Cape waters and the following is from this mornings paper! If ever you do decide to come back, (and please look me up) I wouldn't worry about the spiders!

You need to be a bit more specific mate. Where will you be going, target species, shore, reef or deep water etc. In general however I fish a decent 10wt for up to 40lb tuna. The reel is pretty critical for big fish as you will need plenty of backing and a good drag. Personally I use a Shilton and it is superb. For the leader on a 10wt, I use 3ft 50lb hard mono looped via a bimini to a whipped loop on the end of the flyline, 3ft 30lb joined by a uniknot, then a short 18" bite leader of about 80lb on a surgeons loop. If you are fishing IGFA rules however, you need to add a rated tippet of no more than 20lb. Remember that most flylines will break between 20-30lb, so do not go too heavy on the leader or you may lose a line! 90% of my work is done with a DI7, so I reckon a good fast sinker is key! If there are surface feeders though, you cannot beat a surface take on a popper!

Fishfingers - re your original questions, there are many times when I will not use an offset. Firstly on a big trolling lure, an offset acts as a rudder causing the lures to veer off and making a very big mess of the spread. The second is when using circles, as an offset works against what you are trying to achieve, and thirdly when fly fishing as it will cause the fly to twist on a fast retrieve. Othertimes it may have benefits, but I not that I can fathom for the type of fishing I do. Regarding circles, I have taken to using them exclusively (16/0's) when bait fishing for big tuna. Firstly they give you a better fight as the fish is hooked in the jaw and not impeded by a J down the gullet, secondly a novice angler can give slack and get away with it, and thirdly you can easily release tuna with a circle hooked fish. And contrary to your thoughts you can release tuna provided they are fought and revived correctly. This applies to longfin, yellowfin and even bluefin. Check out Dr Barbara Block and her TOPP tagging program for further proof. As regards your thoughts on shark fishing, without sounding "preachy" many guys fish Natal reefs on Kayaks, and Raggie cave is one of the top dive spots on the coast. There has not been a shark related dive fatality on any KZN reef for a number of years. You need to come to Cape Town to experience the big sharks and the risks that go with them!Over the average season we will hook many sharks as an accidental bycatch on light tackle and to date have not had to kill one yet. We have so far released many blues and a few mako's (some over 100lb and the largest about 180) on 20lb mono with a 100lb bite leader. Most have been on a circle or CD22. Mark, I believe every word and have had the pleasure of fishing with and against your Aunt Denise! A very good angler indeed.