vehicle and head for the beaches. Standard cod

Using lines and tackle that had evolved from processes in manufacturing during the war effort, they caught enormous numbers of bluefish, stripers, speckled and grey trout, redfish and bonitos from the shore on plugs, bait and polished metal jigs, wading thigh-deep amongst flocks of screeching terns and seagulls. The very foundation of the great US tradition of surfcasting with a 4X wheel drive vehicle as a base was born at this time and the results can still be seen every year along the Atlantic coast.Today, this fishing is better than it has been for 20 years, with striped bass stocks in particular bouncing back after a complete moratorium on commercial fishing ; and despite several poor years of bluefish, the last two years have given rise to the belief that the stocks of these fighting fish is in better shape than it has been for a long time. Jump on a plane, book a recreational camping-vehicle and head for the beaches. Standard cod-tackle (loaded with 20lb line) and a shorter rod for spinning loaded with 12 or 15lb mono is all you will need (despite US writers beliefs that British beach-tackle will not handle stripers and blues). In any US fishing magazine you will find a host of adverts for this form of fishing, and you can ring around to find out what is biting best. On the internet you’ll find several sites with up-to-date reports, and getting to the States has never been easier. Choose your gateway airport, find a rental firm and go. As a general rule, Sept/Oct/Nov are the prime months when the fish are fat and migrating. Do not forget your licence, obtainable from any tackle-shop which should be your first port of call anywhere. Not only will you find out what is biting and where, you’ll learn what lure or bait is producing as well. Many tackle shops along the east coast can also put you in touch with a guide who will quickly point you in the right direction. Unlike charter boats, surf guides are cheap and if vehicular access along certain beaches is closed to all but residents or yearly permit holders then they are well worth hiring for a few days. My tip here is to go there with your head high, since 99% of the guys on the beach will be struggling to cast 40 yards and if you can chuck a bait more than 70 yards you’re a hero and you’ll catch lots of fish !Although striped bass are mostly confined to the east coast of the US, they can also be found on the west coast as an introduced species, especially around the San Francisco area. Bluefish, on the other hand, can be found world-wide, including the Mediterranean, South Africa, both coasts of Australia, Brazil, the eastern Atlantic islands and the Black Sea. As I mentioned last month, the eastern Atlantic islands of Madeira, the Azores and the Canaries have some huge bluefish. Porto Santo produced a certified 28lb 12oz fish in 1991, although I have seen photos of MUCH larger commercially-caught fish. Faial in the Azores holds a handful of IGFA records, and the Canaries has also produced some large fish, particularly for some adventurous Italian and French anglers. Once upon a time, the Mediterranean coast of Algeria had some monsters too but I do not know if they are still there. If a monster bluefish is your target, you could do no worse than either Madeira/Porto Santo or the Canaries as a cheap and easy destination. I suspect that the coastlines of Morrocco and Mauritania also have some bluefish too. Marlin and tuna – to those accustomed to spending large amounts of money on chartering boats as a means to catching marlin and tuna, it may come as a shock to learn that in some parts of the world intrepid anglers do battle on a regular basis with these denizens of the deep blue from the shore ! South Africa, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand and many of the Pacific islands have a long history of big-game fish caught from the shore, to name but a few places. The USA and its long fishing piers also has produced some memorable fish. What is even more fascinating is that some of these catches were made many years ago with extremely primitive tackle. The earliest record I can find of tuna being caught from the shore is a fish of 77.3 kgs (either a bluefin or a yellowfin, and I suspect the latter) being landed from the South Pier in Durban, South Africa, in 1939. Caught on a cane rod and a surf-casting reel, it was for that time an incredible achievement but it was a mere taste of what was to come, for in 1945 a group of anglers landed 21 small bluefin tuna from the rock ledges at Rooikrantz close to the lighthouse at Cape Point in the same country. These latter fish, ranging in weight up to 23 kgs, were followed over the years by many more and it became a matter of course for Western Province anglers to expect regular catches of tuna from this renown angling spot on the western side of False Bay. Amongst the yearly shoals of small bluefin were also some yellowfin, and on May 6th, 1956, Jack Wheeler caught a yellowfin of 71 kgs from the rocks to record one of South Africa’s finest angling feats. Schools of true giant bluefin tuna also swam past these rock ledges and although many were hooked, none were ever landed, although in 1973 the national record of 384 kgs was landed from a boat in the same bay. Rooikrantz will go down in angling history as the one place where tuna were caught on a regular basis from the shore. South Africa is by no means the only place in the world to have had tuna landed from its shores – Hawaii, New Zealand, Western Australia and New South Wales are four other locations which also contribute to the statistics, although to be fair the two latter areas also produce lots of the smaller members of the tuna family. Happily for Australian fishermen though, this is good news because many of these fish go back out to sea as live-bait for marlin ! Australia is probably the best place in the world to go for a crack at a tuna or billfish from the shore nowadays. An angler can choose from either the west coast or the east, with the most famous location probably being Jervis Bay in New South Wales, approximately 120 miles south of Sydney. Here, anglers fish from individual spots such as The Tubes, Devils Gorge and Beecroft for black marlin and yellowfin weighing over 200lbs. Originally anglers fished from these rocks with lures, but the trend recently has been to livebait, which is in contrast to the western-coast anglers who traditionally favour multi-hooked dead-baits under balloons filled with a mixture of nitrogen and helium. Other spots on the east coast include Green Cape on the Victorian border, and several up north of Sydney, the best known being Hat Head. Species on the east coast include the following – yellowfin, kawakawa and longtail tuna, black and striped marlin, yellowtail (kingfish) and sharks. North of Sydney and up to Queensland you can also expect spanish/narrowbarred mackerel and also cobia. In Western Australia, Quobba and Steep Point are two of the best known marks, and sailfish and trevally can be added to the target list. Although Alvey reels are still used by some, the more popular set-up for this type of fishing (using dead and live-baits) is a six to eight and a half foot long rod matched to a multiplier capable of holding some 600 yards of 30lb line. Both 20 and 50lb line is also used. LBG fishing in Australia is generally best during the summer months, December thru April.Although billfish are a rare catch off South Africa’s shoreline, it is again Durban and its other pier, the North one, which lays claim to the earliest shore-caught marlin record I can find – a small marlin (probably a black) of 12 kgs which was caught in 1948 on a live bait. Several other marlin have been caught in SA, including a black marlin of 81 kgs which was landed from the rocks at Robberg in 1962 by two brothers who each foul-hooked it with spinning tackle. In the same year Robberg was also the scene of a spearfished black of 144kgs !! South Point on the big island of Hawaii has also been the scene of many tuna, marlin and wahoo catches in the past. Anglers here send their baits out by balloon, plastic-bags, and even small double-hulled sailing canoes specifically built for the purpose.Giant Trevally – GT’s, as they are called by those luckily enough to have tangled with them, are the largest of the jack family. Tough- skinned, blunt-nosed, incredibly strong, fast and greedy to the point of stupidity at times, they are one of the world’s most under-rated sportfish, and also one of the most difficult to land. It is with some regret that I have to say that they only inhabit the Pacific and Indian oceans since I dearly love them, as does anyone who has ever caught one. The most famous locale for GT’s is Hawaii where they are one of the premier sportfish, especially for shore anglers. There, they roam the coastline throughout the archipelago, from the Big Island in the south to Midway and Kure 1200 miles to the north-west. The world all-tackle record is a shore-caught fish of 145 lbs from Maui, although a larger fish of 179 lbs has been caught but not submitted as a record. A great many shore-anglers in the islands specialise in these fish, using lines of 50 and 80 lbs as a rule when bait fishing, and employing rods and end-gear designed with one aim in mind – to land a 100lb plus GT. The Hilo Casting Club yearly championship is always won by an angler who has caught more than 100 fish, of which one is normally over 100lbs. Fishing mainly at night from precarious perches high above deep water, these die-hard anglers bait with whole moray eels, octopus, lobster, whole fillets of fish and many types of live-bait as temptation for GT’s, the killing method being a locally developed technique called the ‘slide’. Although also caught on lighter line from sandy beaches and also by plugging (called ‘whipping’ in the islands) giant trevallies in general are considered the king of the coral, and the heavier gear you can use, the better.The methods employed in Hawaii also work throughout the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, but they are by no means the only ways of catching giant trevally. On Christmas Island and in the Seychelles for example, these fish are often targeted by fly-fishermen, whether as a break from catching bonefish, or intentionally, as at Midway. One of the ultimate shore targets for fly-fishermen, a GT is liable to quickly alert an angler to any weak links in the tackle system! Fly-fishermen who deliberately fish for GT’s go well prepared with plenty of fly-lines and flies. Surprisingly, the hook is very often the weak link as it meets a throat and a set of pharyngeal teeth designed to make short work of lobster and crab. Other locations around the world where one could realistically encounter GT’s from the shore include the whole of the northern coastline of Australia – from at least Exmouth on the west coast to Cairns on the east, most if not all of the Pacific islands, the eastern coastline of Africa from the Suez canal in the north and southwards to St. Lucia in South Africa, Madagascar, Reunion, Rodriguez, Mauritius, the Andamans, any other island in the Indian Ocean (!), most of the Indonesian peninsular and the surrounding islands, the Philippines, Japan and other countries in south-east Asia. I strongly suspect that they are also present in the far east of the Mediterranean now, having followed many of their cousins through the Suez Canal. If you want to specifically target a GT from the shore, go to Midway, Christmas Island, the Seychelles or northern Australia. Take plenty of line, hooks and lures. And a final word, do not trust any GT offered up as food, anywhere. They are one of the commonest carriers of ciguatera poisoning. Oh, and pack a spare pair of arms for yourself, your regular ones will get pulled off !! Leerfish – these silvery flattened members of the jack family are one of the world’s least-known sportfish. A deep-bodied and relatively slim fish of the surf and shallows, leerfish (or ‘garrick’, as they are called in South Africa) roam warm water from Mozambique on Africa’s east coast, southwards around the Cape and up the west coast as far north as Spain, though whether they occur in the hot waters of the equatorial African countries is a matter of conjecture. As well as being widespread throughout the Mediterranean, they are also present in some numbers in the Black Sea, especially on Turkey’s northern coast. It is here that some of the best fishing for this species can be had – if an armed escort can be found to watch your back !Superficially resembling a cross between a yellowtail and a permit, leerfish grow to over 70 lbs, have a skin like silver leather and inhabit coastal waters throughout their range. Commonly found in the surf-line and close inshore to rockmarks and headlands, leerfish also have an endearing habit of running the tidal reaches of estuaries in search of small baitfish, particularly mullet and small bluefish. Angling methods include live-baiting, spinning, plugging and trolling. Rarely are they caught on dead-bait tethered to the bottom. Although large fish may be loners, leerfish will shoal in numbers if bait is present in large quantities and fishing at this time, such as during Natal’s sardine run, can be phenomenal. Light line can be used with success since leerfish rarely head for snags (unlike other cousins in the jack family) and they are an obvious target for the fly-rod. Leerfish should be fought hard and brought to hand as swiftly as possible since they will fight themselves to death if given a chance, often jumping during the course of the fight.South African anglers have always fished for leerfish, but European anglers who even know of the species are rare, which is a pity, since the Mediterranean offers an excellent chance of big leerfish in comfortable surroundings. Although the largest leerfish on record is a 71lb fish from Port Alfred in South Africa, the current world record stands at 54lbs and was caught from Nice, France. A fish of 52lbs caught in the Catania river in Sicily also holds a 30lb line-class record. Other previous world records have come from Italy and the Riomar in Spain. The Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal also have leerfish, as do the surf-camps of Mauritania. Leerfish are often ignored by commercial fishermen due to worms in the flesh (although small fish up to 5lbs or so are excellent eating), and so it is often difficult to locate them unless one has local help. In this respect, in Europe at least, the leerfish has a cult following amongst a small number of anglers who know what they are doing. If I wanted to catch one of these fish I would have no hesitation in taking a car, some tackle, a sleeping bag and a throw-net to the seaward side of the Carmargue during the latter half of the year. The lure of 20lb bass in the same area, eating the same bait and liable to be caught on the same tackle, would only heighten the anticipation and not be contributory to the journey at all…………………naturally. ! Contacts and contributions

Geoff Thomas ….Florida – jflsahm@gate.net , Steve Starling….Australia – starfish@shoalhaven.net.au Glen Walling…. western Australia -gwalling@wn.com.au Shane Griffiths….eastern Australia – sgriff@one.net.au Rick Gaffney….Hawaii – captrick@kona.net Kevin ….western Australia – kevin@amitar.com.au Martin & Anna Lewis ….Seychelles – bestof@seychelles.net Jerry Swanson….Seychelles – tel: 001 503 639 6400. Call 6 – 10pm GMT only