All posts by Allistair

Fishing mad since the day I was born and the bug bites harder every day!
Bait Fishing, Rock and Surf Fishing, Shark Fishing, South Africa

Shark Fishing in St. Lucia

Leave a comment

The Shark Fishing was Wild

A few years ago Jeff and I spent a weekend shark fishing the beaches of St. Lucia on the KZN north coast. It turned into a weekend to remember.

As the sun began to rise Saturday morning we were already sliding our first baits into a sea that was too flat, calm and way to clean for us to expect to catch anything. We were just happy being on the beach with a rod in hand, the conditions were ay to perfect to catch any fish. To our surprise and excitement Jeff had the first bump of the day before his slide even reached his sinker. Knock, knock and away he went into a tug of war the lasted nearly 2hrs before being burnt off on the back sandbank.

After that first pull the flood gates opened. Every bait we put in the water got pulled flat often within minutes. The first fish I landed was a lovely 189kg Raggie. After a quick photo it was safely returned to the water.

First fish of the weekend, a 189kg Raggie.

For the rest of the morning we got pressed by monster fish. With each fish we’d be locked into a 2 hour-long battle before finally being burnt off.The dropping tide exposed the bank more and more to the point were we couldn’t pull these monster fish over it without the line wearing through on the sand. Come lunchtime the tide had gone out fully and fish with it so we hadn’t back to camp for a bite to eat and to reassess our tactics for the evening session.

Raggie of 195kgs taken at night

With heavier leader and longer traces we marched back to the beach just before sunset. As the sun went down the Raggies moved back in and we were in for some fun. After a few lost fish both Jeff and I landed ones of 193kgs and 195kgs respectively.

After a good evening session we headed back for a good dinner and a few hours of much need rest. Our bodies were burning after a long day of being dragged up and down the beach.

Sunrise the next morning were back ready for round two. Our excitement almost palpable as we imagined the shoals of raggies swimming just behind shore break.  We weren’t let down in the slightest right from the word go the raggies were feeding even more so than the day before.  We were wading into the water chest deep to get the baits to slide out faster and before we could even make it back to the beach we were getting pulled flat. It was the stuff dreams are made of. I landed two more raggies that Sunday morning the first 195kgs and the second a real monster of 223kgs. Still my biggest fish of the side to date.

Team photo of the first Raggie on day 2 - 195kgs

 

A really monster 223kgs Raggie.
General

In the beginning….

Leave a comment

This is the first of what will hopefully be many articles to be written on here.

It started off as a challenge, as challenge just to see if I could built a website but very soon became an obsession. An obsession to provide as much fishing information as possible. When it came to initially developing the website the first obstacle I faced was deciding exactly what the website should be about but that became about as difficult as deciding which is my favourite type of fishing…. obviously chasing monster GT with poppers and jigging doggies out of the depth is the stuff dreams are made of but, like every true fisherman knows, there’s also a certain beauty about casting a dropshot or fly around the rocks to get the species count up…. I digress, back to the story at hand, after many hours of thought which usually ended with me day dreaming about where my next fishing adventure should be I decided that that’s exactly what this website should be about.

I’m sure most of you were like me when I first started dreaming of travelling to the far reaches of the planet to catch that fish of a lifetime…I did mountains of research on where are the best spots, when’s the best time of year and what tackle/lures do we need!?! I find that many of these high end fishing charters are excellent…. once you’ve been there and have that first hand experience to know what to expect. I find so many of these guys have great outfits and brilliant fisheries but they expect everyone to know the conditions and to know which lures work best without them actually telling you before hand. I think very often its a case of not remembering that these trips are often once in a lifetime trips for many people and they forget that not everyone has fished for 50kg+ GT or 80kg Doggies or sailies on fly… or whatever the case may be.

hence, my mission has become to create a website that takes the legwork out of searching endlessly for that once in a lifetime fishing experience. The aim is to provide all the information you need in one place, we’ll give you a breakdown on what tackle you need to target each species, where is the world the best spots are for the species you after and more importantly which are the best charter companies to use in each area.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed this is going to be a monster task and I’ll be needing all the help I can get, I’m roping mates and professionals alike all to chip in with there two cents worth from their own experiences around the globe and if you have something you’d like to contribute or even if you just want to ask a question give us a shout, it’d be great to hear from you guys and girls out.