THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Some days he would even walk into the water to see if it
felt cool enough. Only when all his criteria were satisfied
would the rods be un-clipped from their racks for a cast.
But you only got ten minutes. No bait fish and we were off
again looking for a new stretch of beach.
The first priority on most days was the catching of at least
half a dozen gully sharks for bait. A fish not unlike a bull
huss, but with the capacity to hit weights of seventy pounds
and more. A powerful fish too in its own right. My best
tipped the scales at forty eight pounds. But not the species
we had travelled all the way to Namibia to catch.
Standard UK shore fishing gear is fine for these fish. A
heavy mono leader, 6/0 hook, and a mullet head make the
perfect business end combination.
Stingrays, bull rays, and sand sharks also came the same
way, and like the gully sharks, all found their way into the
back of Johan's truck. Never again will fishing for bait ever
be so pleasurable. Then with the bait requirements taken
care of, we would head north looking for deeper, cooler
water.
Catching bait – yes, honestly
To me, one piece of surf beach looked much the same as
the next. But not to Johan. He was looking for water with an olive green tinge and breaks in the surf
indicating deeper gullies between submerged banks.
More importantly, it had to be a piece of coast where the current was being deflected outwards by the
shore and the breeze. This is crucial if the big bronze whaler sharks are to be drawn within casting
range, for it's this that will deliver the chum trail out beyond the banks.
After removing the gills and liver from the gully sharks for bait, the carcasses were then pegged out on
the beach at a point where each incoming wave would pick up a bit of blood and other body juices to
establish this all important scent trail.
It was usual at this point to be given a prediction as to how long it would take before the first dorsal fin
would appear within casting range. Usually this would be around half an hour. Just time to set the rods
up and get everyone prepared for action. Prepared in their minds that is. But on this the first days fishing,
far from prepared physically for what was to come.
Tackle for the shark fishing was provided by Johan in with the guiding fee. One piece fourteen foot
purglas executive rods with their reel seats fixed around nine inches up from the butt are favoured in
these parts.
The reels themselves were a mix of penn senators and daiwa sealine 450 heavy duty boat models. I own
and have used a daiwa 450 on quite a number of occasions in the UK for big common skate fishing.
Amazingly, here Johan was using them for surf casting.
To do this he had hack sawed one of the cross bars out to be able to get his thumb close enough to the
spool to control it so as to prevent casting overruns. But seating the reel so low down meant that after
casting, line control was done using the left hand, which took some getting used to. These were loaded
with thirty five pounds bs monofilament tied to a heavy mono shock leader with twelve inches of heavy
wire armed with two 10/0 hooks and a small sliding lead.
465