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Ramsgate, South Coast, South Africa
- Thread starterSASpearo
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Since no-one seems to be able to help me, I'll post my findings after 2 days of fishing there ....
There are two really productive reefs in Ramsgate itself - both of them accessible from the main beach.
The one on the right is the best for fish - you can choose to swim to any one of the three gullies, which makes the swim 100m, 150m or 250m, or swim right down to the next sandy bay, which makes the swim around 600m. This last option is the best imho, as you get to a very impressive reef structure in this smaller second bay (called Little Billy after the river - the Little Ibilhanlolo)
This reef structure is awesome for any type of bream - from blacktail to bronze bream to galjoen (Yes galjoen) to zebra etc. Not a lot of bugs there, but still a nice dive for pan fish.
The reef on the left is a fairly difficult one - it's a 2.5 km swim, no exit point in between, and if the wind is a southerly, forget it. Best time to dive here is two days after a Northerly came on. BIG bugs - and loads of them. Be prepared to dump smaller bugs as you get around the corner ..... this is the corner of the rocks, where you swing left off the beach to go along the rocks. This is also a very good spot for Snapper Salmon (Not a type of snapper, a type of Kob) and a little further in about 10m water (about halfway down the reef) you'll see some interesting caves and holes - not big anough for a person to get into, but perfect for some nice rockcods (Grouper) Exit is on the long sandy beach right after the rocks. Between there and Louren's Rock there's a lot of shallow reef structure that's not ver productive. Louren's rock is apparantly also a good spot - I didn't dive there.
The best spot in this area though is Margate pier. The water there is DEEP - some spots behind the back reef is 20m deep - this is only about 150m offshore. there's a series of reefs lying paralell to the pier, the best spot is to cruise between the two outer reefs - be carefull of the fishermen that fish off the pier - some of them cast over the back reef whilst I was diving there. Entry and exit point is the same, the small beach south of the pier. Watch for anglers there as well - they tend to get excited when they see you in the water with a gun. These reefs are Excellent for anything from Cuda to Tuna to Wahoo to BIG cob, shad, Prodigal Sons (Cobia), Garrick, Shad (Bluefish, Elf) etc - plus all the usual reefies that lurk there. Watch your back - there's also quite a few Zambezi's (Bull Sharks) that hang out there. They circle the reefs every 30 minutes or so, and seem to be a permanent fixture there. I lost a stringer full of nice reefies there to one, but took a 6.2Kg Yellowfin tunny on the next dive - the weirdest shot I've ever taken on a fish - from below and behind. I had to cut my spear out (on the beach), and cut my foot on some rocks when I wasn't looking what I was doing - so no more diving for the rest of the week
Riaan
There are two really productive reefs in Ramsgate itself - both of them accessible from the main beach.
The one on the right is the best for fish - you can choose to swim to any one of the three gullies, which makes the swim 100m, 150m or 250m, or swim right down to the next sandy bay, which makes the swim around 600m. This last option is the best imho, as you get to a very impressive reef structure in this smaller second bay (called Little Billy after the river - the Little Ibilhanlolo)
This reef structure is awesome for any type of bream - from blacktail to bronze bream to galjoen (Yes galjoen) to zebra etc. Not a lot of bugs there, but still a nice dive for pan fish.
The reef on the left is a fairly difficult one - it's a 2.5 km swim, no exit point in between, and if the wind is a southerly, forget it. Best time to dive here is two days after a Northerly came on. BIG bugs - and loads of them. Be prepared to dump smaller bugs as you get around the corner ..... this is the corner of the rocks, where you swing left off the beach to go along the rocks. This is also a very good spot for Snapper Salmon (Not a type of snapper, a type of Kob) and a little further in about 10m water (about halfway down the reef) you'll see some interesting caves and holes - not big anough for a person to get into, but perfect for some nice rockcods (Grouper) Exit is on the long sandy beach right after the rocks. Between there and Louren's Rock there's a lot of shallow reef structure that's not ver productive. Louren's rock is apparantly also a good spot - I didn't dive there.
The best spot in this area though is Margate pier. The water there is DEEP - some spots behind the back reef is 20m deep - this is only about 150m offshore. there's a series of reefs lying paralell to the pier, the best spot is to cruise between the two outer reefs - be carefull of the fishermen that fish off the pier - some of them cast over the back reef whilst I was diving there. Entry and exit point is the same, the small beach south of the pier. Watch for anglers there as well - they tend to get excited when they see you in the water with a gun. These reefs are Excellent for anything from Cuda to Tuna to Wahoo to BIG cob, shad, Prodigal Sons (Cobia), Garrick, Shad (Bluefish, Elf) etc - plus all the usual reefies that lurk there. Watch your back - there's also quite a few Zambezi's (Bull Sharks) that hang out there. They circle the reefs every 30 minutes or so, and seem to be a permanent fixture there. I lost a stringer full of nice reefies there to one, but took a 6.2Kg Yellowfin tunny on the next dive - the weirdest shot I've ever taken on a fish - from below and behind. I had to cut my spear out (on the beach), and cut my foot on some rocks when I wasn't looking what I was doing - so no more diving for the rest of the week
Riaan