Overberg Angling

I'm totaly disgusted.Walking around in the Strand area you see commercial fisherman selling under sized Elf and other fish as well.If this was in KZN you loose your equipment,vehicle and you still appear in court.Checkers and Pick n Pay sell fish that are way to small such as Yellow Tail they have not got a chance to reach their breeding size and people are crying out we the rock and surf angler are depleting our waters.It's about time they open their eyes and see it is the commercial fishing industry.
When a person approaches an angler taking undersized fish and asks why don't you put it back,you get a thousand words or they want to beat you up.I have seen our so called conservationist just walk pass people and do nothing about it.
I have been back in Cape Town now 5 years and I tell you the fishing is not what it use to be.There is a certian sector of our community that don't care a shit what is happing,we the rock and surf angler must just pay and be happy and watch how others destroy it for us and our future generations.

Totally agree with you on this topic which has been around especially the Western Cape for a long time. The policing of these type of actions by the responsible bodies has been very poor here in the Cape. I make peace that the group I fish with do there bit in the complete conservation issue. A word of warning, be very careful when u approach these folks destroying our future in the ocean, it could turn nasty.
I am convinced that only by a complete joint attemp by all, we will succeed in addressing these problems. Your thoughts do not fall on deaf ears on this forum, keep up the great work.

Guys it's a serious situation and I reckon for the millions of rands spent by the average angler, the taxes etc. nowadays, governement need to employ watchdogs on the beaches frequented by the angler to enforce stricter controlls. What is the point of only cordening off certain areas of the coastline and leave the rest to be plucked bare with no fish getting the chance to even grow to legal size. With the new liicences coming into play the situation is going to get 100 times worse than what it is right now.

What, in 10 years time, is going to be left for our children and theirs after that, buggarol, because the people with the authority to do something about this are sitting on their f*t arses doing squat!!! If each city, or "dorpie" recognises the problem areas and commits to having a couple of guys keep a look out, things will definately improve.

We can only hope and do our bit to conservate.

Tough subject, but only tough because there is virtually no controls / measures to police the problems.

I for one, believe 100% in the conservation aspects needed to keep our fishing stocks healthy and to sustain the stock for future generations.

And to keep bitching about it, seems to fall on deaf ears anyway.

Maybe we should think about what we as normal anglers can do to contribute in our own small ways to fix this problem. If we get 1000+ anglers to follow suit, then hopefully in 3 - 5 years time we might build a culture whereby we police ourselves and hopefully it rubs of on the not so nice other people out there.

Not that I believe this is the only answer to the problems, but at the end of the day, if you get enough people to believe in a certain set of rules, then that becomes the accepted norm, and then people will act against those who do not play the game

I must admit, someone bribed me with 1 000 000 zim dollars to say this
Hey Stef, stuur my weer so 300 van daai perlemoene wat jou tuinbooi gisteraand legally gekry het vanaf sy rubberduck asb!, Jis jy moet vir hom se daai nuwe Range Rover wat hy laas week cash gekoop het is naaise ne!

A few weeks back i was in Plett , saw the some local folks Slaughtering the baby Elf and not releasing ANYtHING , makes me sick to see ,most guys i know have permits , ect .Spend alott of cash on fuel place to stay , and yet we pull on the shortest side of things , It seems lawlessnes Pays big time , such a pity we have to have beings , on our planet with such a horrid , selfish outlook !!!!!

Me again , this time I see at Velddrif the locals slaughter the small Elf there by the bridge.I was enjoying myself spinning as usual and throwing the fish back as I'm a strict catch and release guy only keep for when I really want a fish for a meal.Can you believe people get upset when you refuse to give them the fish.It seems to be the norm there catch undersize fish.At Paternoster you can buy crayfish tails that are by far undersize and believe it or not the public buy them,so how is a person going to educate the public.
Where I stay in Table View you can see who are the abloan poachers they are open and can be seen observing the coast line and they don't care a shit who is watching them because they know people are scared of them.We have a fairly big Chinese population here and I'm sure at least 80% of them are involved in illegal fishing or poaching