{"id":11874,"date":"2021-02-18T13:52:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T11:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=11874"},"modified":"2021-08-12T15:01:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T13:01:27","slug":"summer-transkei-estuary-fishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=11874","title":{"rendered":"Summer Transkei Estuary Fishing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The last time I fished a Transkei estuary was during winter. It was a different experience, with clear, cool water and finicky fish. I was very happy to have an opportunity to go back to the Transkei last week and fish one of those beautiful, unspoiled rivers during the height of summer.<\/p>\n

February is the month where the sea temperatures in the Transkei have the highest average temperatures. This meant that some of the more tropical species, which don\u2019t feed well during winter, would be feeding well at this time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>

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I had some brand new tackle to try out on this trip and was looking forward to putting it through its paces and seeing how it stood up to a few days of tough fishing. The rods were a pair of Abu Garcia Ike Travel spinning rods. I matched these with an Abu Garcia Revo Inshore reel and a Penn Clash 2 high speed reel.<\/p>\n

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      My first fish of the trip was a Malabar rockcod, which I hooked by casting a 72mm Sebile suspending Stick Shadd next to a rock ledge and allowing it to sink. It was still sinking when it was hit hard and line started peeling from my drag. The fish was solid, probably around 4kg\u2019s, and was a good portent of some spectacular fishing to come.<\/p>\n

      Over the next four days we caught eleven different species of fish on artificial lures. Most of these were on Sebile Stick Shadds, and a few were taken on soft plastics and Berkley Fusion bucktail jigs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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      We caught some very solid river snapper and lost a few of these tough fighting fish as well. The ones that we lost were to being cut off on sharp rocks below the water. These fish have a PHD in finding structure to cut your line off once hooked, and proved a real handful. It was always with a sense of relief when we slid one into the net. The 72mm and 90mm suspending Stick Shadds proved to be irresistible to these toothy predators. In fact those lures were so productive that my guest angler immediately ordered 20 on his return home after the trip.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>

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      The river was also teeming with bigeye kingfish and GT\u2019s. These could be seen swimming in shoals near the surface of the river, making bow waves as they headed into the current. Casting a Stick Shadd in front of the lead fish generally resulted in chaos, with fish smashing at the lure and then chasing the hooked fish around, as they attempted to steal the lure from its mouth.<\/p>\n

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      We also caught kob, shad, grunter (two on Stick Shadds), sea pike, longnose kingfish, river bream, gurnard etc.<\/p>\n

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      The river looked fantastic, with the forest being lush and green after the rains. We saw some great birds such as African finfoot and a few honey buzzards. There was plenty of life in the water in the shape of mud crabs, swimming prawn, turtles, rays, bull sharks etc<\/p>\n

      I left feeling that the trip had been a complete success. We had caught all of the species that we had hoped to catch and the tackle held up well, managing some good fish with ease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The last time I fished a Transkei estuary was during winter. It was a different experience, with clear, cool water and finicky fish. I was very happy to have an opportunity to go back to the Transkei last week and fish one of those beautiful, unspoiled rivers during the height of summer. February is the month where the sea temperatures in the Transkei have the highest average temperatures. This meant that some of the more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":11877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[70],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-11874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-africa","tag-transkei"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-2.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3251,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=3251","url_meta":{"origin":11874,"position":0},"title":"Fishing for edibles in Transkei, rock and surf","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"April 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It is amazing to see how rock and surf fishing has evolved and changed over the years. When I was growing up, there were no more than a handful of hardcore anglers who specifically targeted sharks when they went fishing. Almost nobody fished for any flatfish on purpose, unless it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"b2ap3_thumbnail_Cam-1-046.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/b2ap3_thumbnail_Cam-1-046.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3247,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=3247","url_meta":{"origin":11874,"position":1},"title":"Transkei Estuary Garrick on Rapala Skitter Pop","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"March 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Fishing in the estuary at Wavecrest hotel, Transkei this week, I caught this lovely garrick on a five centimetre Rapala Skitter Pop. It gave me a great fight as I was using very light tackle. I used a Shimano Crucial 6'8\" MH rod with a Shimano Stradic 2500FJ on it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2970,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=2970","url_meta":{"origin":11874,"position":2},"title":"Transkei Estuary Dropshot Fishing","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"July 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"With the serious deterioration of many of our coastal rivers and estuaries it is getting harder to find places to enjoy light tackle lure fishing along our coastline. Fortunately the rivers in the Eastern Cape, and particularly in the area formerly known as Transkei, still have productive rivers which have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "South Africa"","block_context":{"text":"South Africa","link":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?cat=70"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7489,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=7489","url_meta":{"origin":11874,"position":3},"title":"Hunting for Kob, Wavecrest Hotel, Transkei","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"April 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My family has been visiting Wavecrest hotel for more than forty years. It is where I went on my summer holidays when I was a kid, and I have many happy memories from the place. I did a trip there a couple of weeks ago, along with my Dad, Geoff,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Inside Angling"","block_context":{"text":"Inside Angling","link":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?cat=35"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Hunting-for-Kob-Wavecrest-Hotel-Transkei.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Hunting-for-Kob-Wavecrest-Hotel-Transkei.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Hunting-for-Kob-Wavecrest-Hotel-Transkei.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Hunting-for-Kob-Wavecrest-Hotel-Transkei.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Hunting-for-Kob-Wavecrest-Hotel-Transkei.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Hunting-for-Kob-Wavecrest-Hotel-Transkei.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13060,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=13060","url_meta":{"origin":11874,"position":4},"title":"Transkei Paddletail in the surf","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"May 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I have just returned from a magical trip to Wavecrest hotel in the Transkei, where I spent some time casting paddletails for kob in the surf and had some good success when conditions were right. I also learnt a bit, as I do every time I fish, and a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "South Africa"","block_context":{"text":"South Africa","link":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?cat=70"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Banner.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Banner.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Banner.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Banner.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Banner.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3288,"url":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/?p=3288","url_meta":{"origin":11874,"position":5},"title":"Kob on Rapala X-Rap Walk","author":"Craig Thomassen","date":"September 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"While kob are not caught on surface lures that often, it does happen from time to time. This is normally the case when the kob is feeding in fairly shallow water and a surface lure is movingrelatively slowly over the feeding fish. I caught this kob in a Transkei estuary\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"b2ap3_thumbnail_DSC_6542.JPG","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fishbook.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/b2ap3_thumbnail_DSC_6542.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8sv9-35w","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11874"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13540,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11874\/revisions\/13540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishbook.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}