A few months ago five of my friends and I decided to go fishing in Struisbaai.
We arrived in Struisbaai before sunrise. Seeing that the spot we were planning to fish was not accessible with a car we had to walk about 2 hours down the beach with our fishing trolleys.
We arrived at the spot just as the sun rose from the horizon. The water was looking good and the temperature was perfect. My plan for the day was to scratch around for some smaller fish for the first two hours and when the tide turns and start to push I would put out a big bait for a shark.
I baited up and casted out. It was not long before I had my first enquiry. The fish pulled me flat and I set the hooks. About five minutes later I landed a blue stingray of about 10 kg. I took a quick pic and released the fish.
Baited up again and 10 min later I caught a sand shark. The sand sharks were on the bite and for the next two hours we managed to catch about 10 Sand sharks each (all released).
I then decided it was time to put a big bait out for one of the bigger sharks. The bait of choice was a yellowtail head.
I waded out as far as I could and cast the bait out into the deep. I loosened the drag and put the rod in the rod stand. I then carried on catching sand sharks with my other fishing rod keeping the one eye on the rod in the rod stand.
About an hour after I put the big bait out I saw the rod in the rod stand getting pulled down slowly and I knew that can only be one thing…
I reeled up my other rod as fast as I could and ran towards the rod in the rod holder. When I arrived at the rod the fish was already peeling line off the reel. I took the rod from the rod stand and set the hooks…. Fish On!
The fish took about 300m of line before I managed to stop her for the first time. I gained some line and then the fish took some line…. This tug of war carried on for about an hour or so until the fish was about 80m from the side.
From the size of the shadow in the water I could see the fish was a sizer!
Another twenty minutes later my friend Ashley managed to grab the Spotted Ragged Tooth Shark by the tail and drag it out onto the breach.
After a quick photo session with the magnificent beast we took her measurements and released her. She measured 201cm from the tip of the nose to the precaudal notch where the tail begins. According to fish to weight conversion tables the estimated weight of the fish was 156kgs.
After I caught the Raggie I managed to catch another few sand sharks and a Kob for dinner.
What an awesome day we had and I cannot wait for Summer to go back to Struisbaai to catch another Raggie.
Raggie,
Kob
