Your travel arrangements in a NutShell

..::Fresh water Fishing

..::Salt water Fishing

41.5KG Cob, Surf Fishing

By Brett Harris

A good friend who's family have been in the news paper industry for three generations once told me this, "When the ink gets under your skin, it's there for life". I could relate to this as once fishing gets in your blood it's also there for life. I often get asked why I go fishing and over the years I have had many answer to the question. Today I can produce an album of my most impressive catches and easily explain why fishermen spend countless hours in search of the next best catch.

My most resent bragging rights was caught on the first nights fishing in my new home city of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Let me tell you right from the starts that for any serious fisherman there can be no better welcoming. As with all fishing trips the evening started with great expectation generated by the local tackle shop owner as I was getting the bait sorted for the nights fishing. Guarantees of good shark catches were made and in no time I was on my way the the deep water surf of Bluewater Bay only 10 km from the city centre. I was keen to tackle some bruiser sharks and by all reports there had been plenty of good catches recently. It was a warm evening following on from a beautiful hot south African summers day. It was 6PM, I had two whole Mackerel well presented  and rigged on non-return clips.

9PM and NOTHING! Fishermen had been arriving throughout the evening and were catching small Shad (Tailor, Bluefish) and the occasional Cob. Feeling the need to have something pulling at the end of my line I decide to reel in and rig a smaller bite trace in any attempt to get into the action, or at the very least catch a live bait.

Within minutes I cast a very casual rig and bait into the surf. As I was retrieving the slack the rod was slammed straight down and just about wrenched from my hands. I was taken totally by surprise as the fish took off like a steam train. I was never expecting anything this large and without my drag set I found myself charging down the beach trying in vain the release the drag setting before the line parted. With all my fumbling I decided to free spool the reel until I could regain some composure. Big mistake, the fish stripped at least 100 meters of line and took half the skin from my thumb in the process before it decided to take a breather long enough for me to eventually release the star drag enough maintain a steady run on the reel.

I thought Shark and waited for the line to part, but I was still on minutes later and thought that I must have him hooked in the outside of the mouth and now stand a good chance of landing the fish. The fight went on for ever and I found myself more that five hundred meters down the beach from where I hooked the 'Shark'. Hundreds of meters of line had been lost and regained before I finally had the fish behind the shore break. I could feel that the runs were now shorter and less aggressive. The fish was now steadily moving up and down the beach using the current to prevent himself coming over the lip. After what seem like an eternity there was only dead weight on the line and using a good set of waves I managed to haul the fish over the lip and onto the shore break. I waded out into waist deep water and prepared to gaff what I still thought would be a nice big Raggie (Grey Nurse Shark). My heart skipped a beat as I realized the outline of a very large silver FISH.

The Cob had put up a tremendous fight for over an hour, It was a shame but the fish was completely flat and in no condition to be released.

All your requirements in a NutShell