Grumpy’s fishing report

The Stepping Stones schools annual Galjoen Derby was held this past Saturday in Swakopmund.

The conditions were rather flat. Galjoen actually like more white rolling water which made it quite tricky.

Hundreds of anglers attempted to catch the big one. They fished from Paaltjies all the way to the Ugab river mouth.

Flippie Scheepers was the champion angler of the day with a massive galjoen of 2,155kg which he caught close to Canopy (watergat). Landing a galjoen over 2kg is no easy feat.

He used white mussel as bait and caught it on a light rod in the early mornings. This fish won him a cool N$20 000.

The second biggest galjoen was caught by none other than Kallie Nel, weighing in at a respectable 1.760kg. He took home N$10 000. The third place went to Tiberu Frans with his galjoen weighing in at 1.655kg and earning him N$2 500. Well done you guys.

The Stepping Stones school also entertained the visitors with live music and they had a braai broodjie competition which was won by Bushwhackers captained by Jona James. He pocketed N$500.

Jona made a smoked galjoen braai broodjie with white cheddar cheese and topped it off with pepperdews.

The potjiekos competition was also won by Bushwhackers with yours truly being the cook and I walked away with a brand new rotisserie braai.

All in all it was a fantastically organised event and I can’t wait for the next one.

It seems that most fish were caught further north from Mile 68 and then past Cape Cross. Closer to Swakopmund there were some galjoen caught but rather small specimens.

During the week the especially on Friday the conditions were perfect for steenbras and this is what Gideon de Waal was targeting. He fished just to the left of Canopy towards Maketus.

He used his 10 ft rod and landed a 9.9kg steenbras. The fight took him almost half an hour. Great fish Gideon. He used a fresh white mussel as bait.

The Gus Kolner anglers also practiced their shark fishing skills on Sunday and Clint Barnard got stuck into a nice spotty. All the sharks get released after a quick photo. The sharks anglers mostly use mullet, mackerel and horse mackerel (maasbanker) as bait.

Here’s a tip: Fresh horse mackerel is actually a very good kob bait, especially for the bigger fish. Fillet the horse mackerel and then cut the skin off as it is covered with spines. This makes the bait much softer for better hook sets. It also releases tiny pieces of flesh and so attracts the desired kob. This is a good alternate bait to sardines. Hook sizes to be used for kob is usually size 3/0 for the pan sized kob and right up to 7/0 for the bigger fish.

The weekend’s conditions seem to be fine with some swell expected from todayu to Sunday but nothing hectic so the galjoen should be readily biting.

Tight lines!