I relocated to Somerset West at the beginning of 2009. Knowing the cold waters around Cape Town is a pretty poor destination for artificial lure anglers; I had to do some research on places nearby that would possibly yield some bounty.
I stumbled across an article about leeries (garrick) and big kob being caught in a river, about 300 km away. After 4 months of not being able to cast a lure, I was rearing to go. It did not take much convincing when I had my first opportunity.
While walking upriver along the bank I could already imagine line peeling of my reel and the anticipation of the bites to come was almost unbearable.
I walked till I found a suitable spot where it seemed that a deeper channel was running close enough to the side that I could retrieve my lure through it. The water was reasonably clear and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I rigged up the old faithful pearl-watermelon minnow on a quarter ounce jig-head and sent my first cast into the channel. I was targeting a leerie, retrieving my minnow just below the surface. I noticed something that resembled a bow wave behind my minnow, but quickly wrote that thought off as a mirage due to the excitement. My second cast was on the same spot just to prove the theory of my imagination. Another bow wave appeared and a swirl as my minnow neared the side. I wasn’t imagining it! Now my heart was pounding and I could barely control my excitement. Okay, deep breaths, as I sent my third cast onto the same spot. This time I sped up my retrieve so that my minnow broke the surface every meter or so. The next moment three of four bow waves appeared from all directions, there was a huge splash with fins flailing in the air. My minnow stopped dead; for the next second it was as if time stood still. As I lifted my rod tip to set the hook I felt the heaviness at the other end, my reel screamed as braid was being stripped from my spool. What a rush, what sheer adrenaline! I was hooked, not only onto a decent fish, but on this beautiful place known as Witsand!
Nestled somewhere in the middle between Cape Town and Mossel Bay lies the small coastal town of Witsand, a hidden gem for estuarine angling enthusiasts. We have frequented those waters many times since 2009. I have made thousands of casts chasing those elusive gentlemen of the river and the burly ambush hunters of the low light.
We fish Witsand from the side and thoroughly enjoy the “walk and stalk”. We have our favourite spots along the river bank which we tend to frequent, but nothing beats exploring a new area with the thrill of the unexpected results. There are kilometres upon kilometres of fishable areas from the mouth as far as you are willing to walk upstream. We have found that the best way to identify areas to fish is to start your walk on the low tide. This way you can easily identify channels within casting distance from the side as well as any structures that might snag your lures. Put in a few hours of exploring before you start the serious fishing. A few hours planning will save you from many hours of blanking.
My brother would be classified as the pro while targeting leeries. He has the golden touch and more often than not will be the one to land the first or only garrick. He has proven his apt nickname over and over again, and not only in the fruitful waters of the Breede River, but all around South Africa. To learn more about specific ways to successfully target leeries/garrick, please see our knowledge bank section.
The leeries are gracious fighters and once hooked will give you the “cleanest” fight of all fish, hence affectionately known as the gentleman. Make no mistake, they will fight for all they are worth and once hooked you are in for a great battle, but they fight close to the surface, in so doing eliminating the possibility of your line snagging on structure in the water. We target them with great success on soft plastics (better known as dropshot) as well as chisel nose poppers. When they are reluctant to eat the artificial lures, they are easily caught on live baits as well. We have found that the best time to target the leeries is around February to April, but they can be caught from November till early June. As far as I am aware the leeries then migrate northwards, following the annual sardine run, only to return later in the year again. Leeries are beautiful fish and earn their freedom with their gentleman-like fight. It is a sad sight to see one of these fish killed, so rather take a few photos and allow your fellow anglers or even your kids one day the same opportunity to battle one of these beauties.
The Breede River is home to some massive kob and there are still regular catches in excess of 20kg. We target the kob on soft plastics such as minnows and paddle-tails on very slow retrieves. Kob also readily take small live baits as well as fresh mud- and sand-prawns. The characteristic head nods are a tell-tale sign that you have hooked into one of these ambush hunters. They are best targeted in low light conditions, but catches are made throughout the day. The big lunkers enter the river in September to fatten up before they head back out to the ocean to spawn. These fish are absolutely murdered by boats trawling big lures, but with regulations in place, they might actually have a chance to survive now. Successful months are from September till early June, but best catches are made between December and February. For more specific techniques on successfully catching kob, please have a look at our knowledge bank section.
The Breede River is probably most known for its abundance of spotted grunter. These fish frequent the river all year round and they can be caught at any time, conditions permitting. We have yet to master the art of catching them on artificial lures, but have successfully caught them on a variety of fresh baits which are sourced from the river. The best and most convenient bait would probably be the mud-prawn. These can easily be collected from the river banks. The grunter feed on shallow muddy banks, and they can regularly be seen tailing away as they blow the mud-prawns from their holes. Patience is the name of the game when targeting grunter. You need to sift through all the small nibbles on your bait, often resulting in a few re-baits before you get a decent pull. Grunters are very skittish feeders and stealth should be used when targeting them. Persistence pays off and you will soon be rewarded with your catch of Breede River grunter.
During the winter and spring months, June till October the river is flooded with fresh water from all the rains in the catchment areas. The flooded conditions cause the river to be very brown with mud which makes fishing extremely unproductive. We firmly believe that you will be all but wasting your time fishing in these conditions.
An estuarine system is very sensitive to human interference, so please handle it with the necessary respect. Please clean up after yourself, adhere to the regulations and rather limit your keep than keeping your limit. This way we can all enjoy the same fishing areas for many generations to come, sharing these wonderful memories with others by means of first-hand experience.
