December Fishing

My December fishing eased off in mid-month with the arrival of the visitors who now stand in lines on the beach, trying for kob but catching mostly sand sharks. They are a friendly lot of experts in their field, many with bigger pot-bellies than me; so I hang around with them. The fishermen at Flat Rock have enjoyed more success, especially my new friend, Marcel, from Lydenberg. He has a house nearby and fishes only at Flat Rock, on all tides and at different times. Usually with a beer and his two dogs. Yesterday at 12h30 on the turn of the tide he started the scramble for elf, after a streepie that he had caught was bitten off. Half a dozen anglers got their quotas of elf between 30 and 50 cm.

Steve and I were on the beach at the time foraging on the low tide rocks (and where I was getting blisters trying for sole; no luck yet). He grabbed his speargun and jumped in and saw quite a lot of elf. We were very envious but not sufficiently motivated to climb the steps back up to Sixth Ave to fetch the rods from the car. There were also mullet in the shallows and off the rock but again we did not want the trek up for the throw net.

Marcel has taken a cracker or two (4 kg) on red crab from the beach next to Flat Rock and a kob on seacat just after dark on a pushing tide. He also got a big (25+ kg) sand shark from Flat Rock. A similar fate befell Jaques, a prominent local resident, who got a biggie at night off the NSRI beach and was left so stiff that he could neither cough nor laugh for a few days afterwards! Jaques does not work out.

Today, 31 December, the coffee grinders and red bait were catching small dassies at low tide off Flat Rock. I went against the flow and fished live mullet, which I caught in the surf with my net, without any luck. An up-country angler who had been on the rock since 05h00 arrived at the top of the stairs with three elf just as Connie and I were going down.

Rob and Steve have gone deep sea today. I declined as I didn't think my back would hold out or I might embarrassingly throw up. A few weeks ago Rob was told by an all-night fisherman, whom he spoke to at the garage the morning afterwards when this guy was on his way to work, that he had picked up an 11 kg, gutted weight, white steenbras at 03h00 off PW se Bank in the lagoon on prawn and a pushing tide. What else goes on while we sleep?

As clear as daylight however, is the recent success of this unknown specialist leerie angler on Swartvlei. Thanks to Adin for the pic which he had on his Blackberry.

21kg leerie, Swartvlei, Sedgefield

December started off with a good flood in the Touw river, Wilderness, which opened the mouth after it had been closed by big seas a month earlier. Rob was the first at the estuary with his throw net, followed a little later by myself and Steve. Rob got amongst the spotted grunters which were schooling in the shallows as the first flood waters broke into the sea. It was a little deeper and murkier by the time Steve took his first blind throw and got three smallish grunters. Later on he got a nice 65cm fish. My own wading in deeper water got me five grunter in one blind throw. I knew, when I pulled on the net, that I had really caught something, such was the strength of the wriggling and weight coming up the rope! I released four and kept the biggest of 60cm and then went home to fix the net which is not made for this type of fishing.

A week earlier I enjoyed spectacular, simultaneous, success from my kayak on Island Lake, Wilderness, on a cloudy, windy evening. Alone on the lake I hooked a very nice grunter of 61 cm and was fully engaged in bringing this fish to the net when a good leerie took my drifting mullet. It was a big mullet so I knew I had a good fish. After playing both fish, one rod under each arm, I decided to first deal with the grunter, which I had not yet identified, but suspected to be a white steenbras given the strength of the take of the prawn and the first run. After netting the fish and shoving it between my legs in the cramped sit-in kayak, I turned to the leerie which I got alongside after 20 minutes. It was clearly too big for my net so I hauled it out by the gills and shoved it, with the hook in it's mouth between my legs next to the grunter, which was also still attached to the other rod; and paddled like crazy for the launching spot. The leerie weighed 7.5 kg. I could not revive either fish and gave them to Steve who produced an instant high quality dinner.

The two fish

7.5 kg Leerie

Leerie steaks

Spotted grunter dinner

Post Script: The deep sea anglers returned tired and disappointed with a haul of small fish. What they call kortholle, literally short arses!

A Spring Tide Supper

Steve Hurt and I went down to Flat Rock for the morning low tide and collected a bucket of red crabs, rock oysters and a few of large cape pearl oysters. He dived for the oysters which are usually hidden away under overhanging underwater ledges. I had a short search for sole with my fork (purchased from Allcock's, PE) and then started spearing crabs. We both found a few octopi which we fed with crabs. I noticed that the crabs tend to sit out of the water when there is an octopus nearby. They literally jump out and run in all directions when an octopus approaches, and I had a hand in chasing a few back into the tentacles of a chasing occie. Steve managed to feed a small octopus, underwater, with a crab stuck on his knife.

Flat Rock, Wilderness

In the late afternoon Steve and his neighbour, Rob, shot several Belmen (baardman) at depth off a big rock.

Armed with the harvest of oysters, crabs and two fish I set about preparing our supper of fresh oysters with lemon, two grilled pearl oysters with basil pesto and a Belman and Red Crab bouillabaisse-style soup.

A Belman ready for filleting

Oysters, Red Crabs, Belman fillets, Cape Pearl Oysters

A grilled oyster

I first made 2 litres of stock from the crabs and Belman head and bones, with celery, carrot, onion, black pepper, thyme, bay leaves and garlic. The bouillabaisse was made with what was available here in The Wilderness where the shopping is not great; i.e no fennel bulbs or Pernod. Ingredients were olive oil, garlic, onion, 2 desert spoons of flour, a large sprig of thyme from the bush outside, chopped basil and oregano, again from the herb patch, a tin of tomatoes, a red chilli and crab stock. The sprig of thyme was removed after 20 minutes of cooking and the soup was then blended with a hand blender. The raw fish and cooked crabs were then added for a minute of cooking and the pot then removed from the heat.

The Belman and Red Crab Soup

The soup was our third course after two rounds of oysters (taken with Villiera Brut 2006) and was served with rough French country-type bread and Hartenberg Cabernet Savignon. This was followed by a selection of cheeses from the Cheese Deli at Timberlake Village! Not bad for an all-locally-sourced meal. It certainly beats waiting for up to an hour at the highly crowd-stressed local eateries which do not even serve this kind of fare!

At the behest of the mother-in-law-in-residence we finished off with a Dom Pedro-style ice cream and Frangelico.

Red Roman and Mussels

Our friend, Steve Hurt, surfer & spearfisherman, dropped off a lovely red roman caught at sea off the Kaaimans cliffs near the Wilderness.  This fish is best cooked whole because it produces a delicious thick stock; perfect for the wood-fired oven.  To complement the fish, we roasted a tray of potatoes and garlic with garden picked oregano and sage.

A beautiful fresh Red Roman

This was scored and filled with garlic and lemon slices. A drizzling of chilli oil added a bite 

After half an hour in the pizza oven everything was looking good.

For a starter, we went down to Flat Rock at low tide in the afternoon and Alexander harvested a bag of black mussels.  These were baked on an oven tray in the wood oven for 10 minutes until they opened and disgorged their juices and any sand.  Baking (or braai) is an effective way of removing sand from mussels.  These were simply pulled by the beard from the shells and eaten just like that, or dipped in mayonnaise or lemon juice.  (Thanks to Bruce for this cooking suggestion).

Collection at neap tide

Cleaning on the rocks

Mussels on a grid ready for the oven

Forty mussels disappeared remarkably quickly

The backdrop of Saigon Wilderness completed the meal

Breakfast in the pizza oven

This morning we cooked our breakfast under cloudless blue skies in the pizza oven, using De Buyer steel frying pans. The results were amazing, irrespective of who put the combination of garlic, olive oil, sage, oregano, basil, eggs, pimientos, mushrooms, bacon and tomato salsa together. This was all done after our early morning swims and surfing on Wilderness beach at the eight o'clock high tide; and before beach tennis.

Nikki the pizza mechanic at work

Pans in the oven

Assistant pizza mechanic

A good one on the table

Voted the best; 4 eggs, bacon, mushrooms, sage, garlic and basil.

There was no fishing today because the weather was so perfect and the temptation to cook overrode all. The lack of fishing had nothing to do with the fact that the beach and rocks are now crawling with upcountry holiday makers and we are in the middle of a neap tide.