geelstert.com - Fishing adventures on the Agulhas Banks

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Its summer again, and for a few months the waters south of Cape Agulhas and Struisbaai come to life with fish. Massive shoals of Yellowtail on "Blougansie", 12 Mile Bank and The Alphards, followed by squadrons of Sterretjies and everything else in the Marine food chain is really something to behold.

In the background in deeper water, Black and Striped Marlin as well as Yellowfin and Bigeye Tuna also lurk and once again, classic stories of big fish, bent hooks and broken tackle will be told in every fisherman story.

Braided fishing line, beware!

Braided line is not new in the fishing fraternity. In fact it was the first type of line used by fishermen in the early days. It was then made with either cotton or linen and even flax.

It has a much higher breaking strain than its rated strength, and does not stretch at all, making it the ideal connection to your jig, on which you always feel that positive downward jerk!. It has a high knot strength as well, and easily adapted to by watching an online animation like, the Albright knot

The only drawback with braided line is that it can be extremely dangerous, and land you in a heap of trouble if youre not aware of where the line is deployed.

A braided line with a shark attached to your anchor line for instance, will easily have the ability to cut your anchor line purely by the action of a fish attached to braid.

Another IMPORTANT aspect is that those who fish from the off-side of your vessel, with braided lines, must be aware that braid cuts into a vessel's hull.

I almost lost a Typhoon type drogue anchor whilst drifting on a drogue and fighting a large Mako which snagged the braid over the ancor line, and almost cut it clean through.

Always tell your crew or passengers or charter to be carefull. Never touch braid with your bare hands when its under strain. It can cut your finger clean off.

If you tie a knot using braid, never tighten the knot bare handed, you will cut yourself!.

Fishing for serious anglers

What do Marlin see?

What do marlin see and when do they see it?

Are marlin color-blind or color-perceptive? The answer is both. When you and I look at something, the image forms on the backs of our eyeballs. That's where early researchers looked for color sensors in the eyes of marlin. When they found only blue receptors, they concluded that marlin could only see blue and then constructed a persuasive argument for why blue vision is best in the blue-water world they inhabit. Over the past several years, however, Australian vision experts located the seat of billfish color vision in the bottom of the eye. Scientists from the Vision Touch and Hearing Research Centre at the University of Queensland say the lower part of a marlin's eye contains two differently shaped cone photoreceptors. That's where the image forms when a marlin looks up into the bright light, according to researcher Kirsten Fritsches, who conducted the study along with Professor Jack Pettigrew and Dr. Justin Marshall.