Beach fishing Namibia

[pvanwyk]

I seem to have the same affliction as a couple of other board members. When I'm not hunting, clay shooting, IPSC pistol shooting, then I'm fishing. One of my favourite spots is the west coast of Africa - Namibia. We try to target big sharks, the most common being the bronze whaler in these waters.

Got 18 hook ups in 2 days between 2 anglers. landed 1 (got bit off, stripped, pulled hooks, straightened hooks, ...). Going back in 2 months time, with some heavier tackle this time. The area is still fairly wild, and you often see jackals etc., hoping to grab a piece of bait, or your sandwich. Measured the landed shark at 8.4ft, which according to the tables is just over 220 pounds. Photo below is with me and a buddy both into different sharks at the same time.

 

[stxhunter]

do you guys use kayaks to paddle out your baits

 

[pvanwyk]

Generally no, we don't paddle out baits. Typically cast out baits, or slide bigger baits out. On occasion we do paddle out baits but this is only in harbours where there's no waves.

The sliding method is the most common method at the moment for getting bigger baits out. The modus operandi is to cast out a heavy sinker, typically 9 or 10 ounce, with thick wire grapnels to anchor. We then use a ring contraption to which the bait is attached to slide the bait out into deeper water, together with the wave action.

 

[Len Backus]

pvanwyk

What an adventurous place to live and play. I'd love to see your location put onto the GoogleMap.

 

[pvanwyk]

Done. Unfortunately it's slap bang in the middle of the city of Johannesburg and not out in the dunes of the Kalahari desert, or the west coast beaches of Namibia.

 

[stxhunter]

i've been flipped in the kayak a few times it can get pretty scary if the leader get tangled around you. i'm usaully pretty good at timing the breakers. we use slided lines off the jettys and piers we cast a surf weight out this is the anchor then we attach a clip kinda like you use on a outrigger we attach a leader from another rod to this then slide a live bait out so it is swimming on the surface of the water deadly on tarpon and kingmackeral . my biggest shark off the beach was 9 1/2 ft greater hammer my buddy has caught two tigers over11 ft and one that was 12.2 ft we mainy catch bulls (zambezie ) i think is what you call them over there and black tip reef sharks with the occasional tiger and greater hammer head

 

[rtv900]

That really sounds like fun. Sharks that are around 10 feet would be really cool to catch from shore.

 

[pvanwyk]

sounds like the techniques we use are fairly similar. We slide live baits, as well as large dead baits up to 3 pounds on occasion. Have a look at

OutdoorPAGES

for a better description than I could give of how we slide a bait. Another method is to swim a live bait like a 12 pound smaller shark by releasing him in the water pinned with a couple of big hooks. Let him swim out a couple of hundred yards and hold him in place, until something bigger and nastier spots him.

A 9 1/2 foot hammer is an awesome catch. Our larger hammers don't come that close to shore, but the lttle guy's (typically 40 to 50 pounds) put up a great fight. A 9 1/2 footer must have really tested you. Any tiger or Zambi is also a great catch. WOW !!

On our east coast we catch the odd Zambezi, and Tiger shark, but this is fairly specialised using large skates as bait with very heavy terminal tackle. Ideally you need to kayak out the bait . We also get hook ups with great whites, but it is very uncommon to land these monsters. I only heard of one great white being landed last year in South Africa, and that was a small shark of 240 pounds. We also get a lot of large ragged tooth sharks, quite a number in the region of 500 pounds are coming out, but they don't put up much of a fight. We also get grey sharks (the large guy's don't come close to shore, but there's plenty of smaller guy's around) and Black Fin shark, which are considered gamefish. Other monsters are large skates, rays and sand sharks.

The most fun we have is wading out to chest depth, sometimes a little deeper to get to a sand bank, to cast for greater distance in shark infested water.

 

[RossN]

Reading theses posts really brought back memories- I left New Zealand in 1989 and ended up at one stage living in Swakopmund working on the Rossing Uranium mine as a contractor.
We used to drive up the beach at night with a bottle of port and cast just short of the kelp for barbel (large catfish).
The night skies were the clearest I have seen anywhere in the world, and if the fishing got busy and we stayed out all night the sunrises were unbelievable. Work that day wasn't.
I have often wondered what Swakop looks like now, back then it was a little slice of Imperial Germany. The beer was great though, I suppose that is what happens when you get Germans to settle a desert!

Hot barrels and tight lines
Ross

 

[pvanwyk]

Hi Ross,
I actually visited Rossing on a couple of occasions over the years trying to scoop some business. Swakopmund has changed from the dusty little town with salt roads to a real tourist mecca. Tarred roads, bars, nightclubs, dvd shops, ...
IMO it's lost a lot of it's old world charm. At least the beer's still good

Henties on the other hand is still Henties. Hardly changed. I'm off in 37 days (counting them down) for a 2 week fishing stint.