Breede River early October can mean only one thing, the search for that ambush hunter, the one with the dead-give-away-head-shakes.
After a looooonnnggg winter and the persistent spring rains we were amped to get some fishing in. Kobtober was upon us and Friday the 18th at 6pm we headed for Witsand. The wind was howling on route and the weather looked ominous for the weekend. Winds of in excess of 40 km per hour on the Saturday and rain predicted for the Sunday. Hmmm, perhaps a drop in the air pressure before the storm will yield some good catches.
We arrived at the house we were staying at, Azure Allure; coincidence that our favourite McArthy lure colour is Pink Azure; was this to be a good omen…
After a cold one and a couple of discussions on the area to fish we were off to bed. It was full moon, meaning spring-tide. Personally we dislike the spring-tide in the river as the currents are exaggerated and the full tide normally brings down heaps of debris along the banks of the river. This makes it very challenging for a lure fisherman. None the less, we were feeling naively positive; any fishing would be good at this point.
Up at 5 we chugged a coffee and sarmie and off to the “Kraaltjie” we went. There were plenty of vehicles parked already, many with boat trailers and many without, meaning fisherman on foot next to the river. Low tide was at 9, so the river was still pretty full. We meandered through the fisherman, the bait throwers, the day campers, the keep everything they catch okes. From the first cast it was evident that the juvenile fish were full up, we managed to catch and release a couple of small ones before breakfast. We decided that we will try again later, when hopefully there would be more space along the banks. I can’t remember ever seeing this many people here before.
We were back at the river at 2, now facing another foe, the gale-force wind. The fisherman had dispersed and the even though we had most of the area to ourselves, fishing was extremely challenging. Once the tide became too full we decided to rather go watch the rugby. We had time for one last cast before dark after the matches. I hooked into something on a 5 inch white paddle-tail, but unfortunately lost it on the first run.
The next morning we headed down towards the mouth’s side. We pulled some prawns in hope of getting a grunter or two. I was throwing artificials while Jays was fishing bait. The little fish where on the bite. I got a couple of bumps on the soft plastics, but no proper bites.
After landing a couple of juveniles, Jays managed to land a lovely tassel-fish/baardman. A snap or two later and the beauty was set free to fight another day.
The afternoon we headed to the beach in search of some new species. Throwing some sardine bait we landed and released a bunch of black-tails and a shy shark or two. Unfortunately there was nothing really significant that came out, but a nice walk none-the-less. Gotta love the ocean!
It was a very poor weekend in regards to fishing results. The elusive 10+kg ambush hunter managed to evade us, we will be back soon, very soon!
….. Rush of Blue
