Mazeppa Bay

- A Bucket List Item that can easily turn into a lifestyle! Going fishing at Mazeppa was on my bucket list for many years, and I always drooled over pictures of Garrick, Kob and many different species of shark caught off the island, or at many of the surrounding hotspots. The best catch of the day, a Bronze Whaler of 148,46kg, landed on the island. The luscious green valleys can only be crossed by foot or at the narrow low water bridges. Each residence has a rondawel adjacent to the other buildings and a well maintained set of water tanks to catch rainwater. Each residence has a rondawel adjacent to the other buildings and a well maintained set of water tanks to catch rainwater. Arriving at Mazeppa Bay Hotel you are greeted by the friendly owners Gerald and Vanessa Fischer, and also the most impressive view of the bay area and beautiful beach. I heard of ‘the Point’, ‘the Garage’, ‘Coffin’, ‘Tiny's Rock’, ‘Salt Rock’, ‘Boiling Pot’ and a few more I could not even remember. These never meant anything significant to me, but I always wondered what the spot looked like, where does the name come from and are they any more special than the next place - but once you have been there and felt it though your veins, it is different! On our way down to Cape Town for the annual cycle tour, we took a quick two-day detour via Transkei to visit a friend of mine, Johan Donald, a veteran angler who has fished many different destinations and is almost part of the furniture at Mazeppa. He invited me and wife Annetjie to spend a few days with him to fish and also to probe the possibilities that a drone would bring to shark fishing. He has been fishing Mazeppa for more than ten years and certainly knows what is cooking where. He is a specialist on fishing with the kite and has landed a few sharks in excess of 200kg. He loves fishing for Kob with paddletails and never lets a chance go by to cast a plug for Garrick. I knew I would be safe in his hands and have the best chance of success. A small Kob caught at dawn made excellent bait for a biggie that almost stripped the reel. It is just about a day's drive from Kempton Park - we left at 04:00 down the N1 south to Bloemfontein, Aliwal North and Queenstown. About 80km out of Queenstown the R61 takes you through Cofimvaba, then hands you over to the R409 to lead you through Tsomo, Butterworth and eventually Kentani, where the beauty of the Transkei enfolds you as you turn off onto a dirt road of 47km. Well, it is not A dirt road, it is THE infamous Mazeppa Bay dirt road. In your trip plans, allow at least 90 minutes for this piece of road, especially if it is wet. When we embarked on it, we decided not to let our impatience to get to the water interfere with our enjoyment of the journey. As the road winds through the hills of the former Transkei, runs over and through the low water bridges and up steep hills, the beauty and serenity of the place found a new spot in my heart. The deeply engrained culture of the locals is intensely visible in the clean, neat and well-organized villages. They are conforming to some cultural rules that we obviously do not understand, and each piece of property has a round or hexagonally shaped building or rondawel adjacent to the main house. Each building has well-fitted and maintained gutters, with a water catch-up system or series of tanks. Quite remarkable! After more than an hour's driving, we saw the ocean peeking from behind the massive dune line and my heart rate increased a few beats! The game changer, the powerful and rugged Cuta Copter. So we arrived and met up with Johan and his wife Marié, had a welcome cup of coffee and headed straight to the island on a recce trip so that I would know what to expect the next day when we set out at 04:00 in the dark. We only had two days to spend hence the urgency to make it count. Obviously we had a rod and some plugs just to see if there were some Garrick around. Fishing in these rocky areas requires good footing, focus and rugged rock boots with thick comfortable socks. Once a shark fight begins, it can take several hours of climbing, jumping, running and digging in your heels, so these must be sturdy as well as comfortable. As we crossed the channel to the island on a hang bridge, now in serious need of repair, Johan pointed out that the sand below only washed in recently and that it used to be quite a deep gully to cross. At low tide you can now walk with dry feet to the island. We had about an hour of daylight just to get familiar with what can be expected on the island. With the Northeaster predicted for the next day, it would be possible to put out some lines with the kite to the right of the island into the hotel beach bay area. With winds up to 30 km/h, and both of us being total novices on drone fishing, we did not know whether it would be possible to fly the drone at all, not even mentioning our nervousness. A few paddletails to choose from in the 1- 1.5oz range. In the early dark hours of the morning, the shape and the related vibration it causes seems to be more of an attractant that the colour. The plan for the next morning was to cast a few paddletails off the rock until sunrise to see if we could get a few kob, and then to put out the shark rods. The sea was not friendly however, and with a strong current and wind we had no results on the paddletails, so at first light we started getting the shark gear ready. A few paddletails to choose from in the 1- 1.5oz range. In the early dark hours of the morning, the shape and the related vibration it causes seems to be more of an attractant that the colour. Johan is well set up with good quality tackle and spends time preparing the terminals exactly to specification. He uses Sensation Rugged Extreme 13ft (10oz) rods that were shortened by Craig Neil to 12ft to give more pulling power, coupled to Okuma Makaira 3011 two-speed lever drag reels filled with 100lb braid. As topshot he uses 150m Double X Hi Viz, High Abrasion (0.64mm / 60lb) and a 2mm wind-on leader of 15m. Terminal tackle consists of a 2m long 2mm coated steel trace with a 20/0 Eagle Claw Circle hook. Over the years experience taught Johan that smaller baits produce consistently better fish. Sandshark fillets or small kob heads were carefully prepared and attached to the circle hooks. We put in two lines with the kite and one with the drone before the wind became too strong and left them in for about three hours. The strong current however eventually washed the baits onto the beach and with the wind picking up and the direction changing it was impossible to get them out again. We packed up and moved to Boiling Pot, where the wind direction was a bit more favourable for the kite. We managed to get the lines out although still not far enough, but at least at the best angle we could get given the weather conditions, but three hours later, still fishless, we called it a day. Just the day before, Johan had caught a few sizeable kob. Just the day before, Johan had caught a few sizeable kob. It was a nice opportunity for me to go for a run and explore the place further. I ran along the beach to Salt Rock and the lagoon at Kob Inn. This is so beautiful that I left with a promise to myself to fish off this point some time in the not so distant future! The weather forecast for the next morning showed the wind to be south-west, turning south-south-west, making the conditions ideal for fishing the island. The first two hours were spent again on casting for Kob on paddletails, but on the protected side of the island at Tiny's Rock. A few bites, one lost fish and one small Kob landed brought us to first light and the shark gear was prepared. The Kob head was brilliant bait for the sharks and we decided to put out one line with the kite and two with the drone. The trial run on the previous day gave me some confidence in flying the machine and three LiPo batteries were fully charged and ready for action. We took the lines about 250m out, had everything settled and ready before sunrise, sat back and had a nice cup of coffee, waiting for the reels to scream. Nice Garrick are regularly caught on the Mazeppa shore line. A Bronze whaler male of 165kg Johan caught in October last year. Johan's biggest shark from Mazeppa, a Dusky of 265kg, which gave him a 5-hour fight of a life-time. The following few hours were filled with joy, fear and anxiety – it was a rollercoaster of emotions like nothing I have ever experienced before. The first reel to scream resulted in a tug of war around the southern point of the island, with my first Dusky shark ever. Positioning is important and mobility on the rocks critical. You need to keep the line clear of the rocks, and preferably land a shark on the beach. The shark was moving in the right direction perfectly and I was already moving over to start a quick and efficient run through the gully and onto the koppie, from where I could move to the beach. It was just there that the shark decided to move back around the point. With the quick hands and feet of our two guides, John and Beef, the line was prevented from getting snagged in the rocks and the small Dusky of around 80kg was landed in a small gully referred to as the "Stairs". It was a good training run and I learnt a lot about positioning, how hard to pull, how to rest my back and arms and how to gain line by walking up and running back while keeping maximum tension. The rocky point at Boiling Point is a great place to fish from and enables a better angle to launch the kite in the fresh North Easter. Our guide, Beef showing the in-line release clip used when taking the lines in with the kite. A good rule of thumb is that the main line attachment should be at least 150m from the kite. A chunk of sand shark is probably the best bait for the scavengers of the ocean. Johan also believes that bigger is not better and that a small, neatly tied fillet can produce a 200kg shark. Moments after the rod was loaded and another perfect bait dropped, the next rod bent and it was on. The shark took a few hundred meters of line and Johan stood by to give advice and keep a watchful eye. 15 minutes into the fight the rod we put in with the kite took off and Johan was on as well. Now I was on my own and John took over the guiding. The next hour or so we had to keep the lines from touching as the sharks started criss-crossing the water. At a stage we swopped rods and I was on my way over the koppie to the beach. It was a decent size fish that was fighting hard. Clearly on its way to Boiling Pot, it was important to get to the beach fast and then turn its head around. As I was jumping over the rocks and racing along the island, I discovered that the benefits of all my Triathlon training came in handy – namely that leg strength and endurance can be used for more than just Ironman events! Ninety minutes later the beast was still about 200m from the shore and still kiting to the right. I tried my best to keep it away from the rocks, but I felt the dreaded abrasion of the rocks and eventually the topshot broke just a few meters from the leader. What a disappointment! Our Cuta Copter was performing well, and we could get two drops at about 250-300m with one battery. The much debated issue of what the drop length of the bait should be was on our minds as well. We found that 10m was perfect and that the pendulum effect was greatly minimized in the wind. By this time Johan was on the beach with the other rod and called me over to take the fight further. He stood next to me, coaching and guiding so as not to make the same mistake as the previous one. With a great team effort, we landed another Dusky on the beach, which according to the measurements weighed in at 125kg. We were still releasing our team prize when we noticed the lonely rod on the island folding double with a good run. Beef and I had a dual sprint over nearly a kilometer back over the rocky shoreline to find about 300m of line stripped by the time we got there. The hook was fortunately set properly and two hours later a male Bronze Whaler of almost 150kg was landed in the "Garage" on the northern bank of the island. What a day! Under the watchful guidance of Johan Donald, I did my best to execute the tactics correctly. I felt really safe in his hands, as he has so much experience, knowledge and wisdom. My first Dusky shark, landed on the island. The 20/0 circle hook gave a perfect hookhold, and the cable tie method presented the bait perfectly. In a fairly strong wind we sent in all three lines again. The Cuta Copter did well to compensate for the strong wind and still carry about 1,5kg of Kob head - the one caught early that morning - way into the ocean. At last we had time to sit down, have some lunch and drink a well-deserved cup of coffee. It did not last long, as the rod with the head took off with a slow steady scream. I set the hook and stood there for fifteen minutes watching the 80lb braid getting stripped. It took about 300 meters of line, and I managed to win back only 10 meters. Just when I thought the beast was now coming in, it turned around again and took another 300m. I started to tighten the drag more to get it to turn but with about 100m of line left on the spool, the topshot broke. Taking out the well-set hook must be done with caution so as not to be in the way in case these sharp teeth start making sudden movements! The 125kg Dusky was safely released back to fight another day. Although a disappointment, there was a piece of me that said: "Thank You". Five runs, three fish landed and a total of five and a half hours of shark fighting can be classed as a good day out. My Garmin showed 27 812 steps, 25,12km and 34 floors climbed for the day. Not a bad workout for going fishing! The rocky island proved to be quite a challenge and the day as recorded by my Garmin was quite a workout! The thick rumpsteak on the braai that night was well-deserved to put back some of the 6868 calories burnt.