Page 87 - Bulletin 18

84

From the start of construction of the breakwater exceptional catches were recorded from the

pier and inside the harbour, and logged in the Kalk Bay Harbour Record Book. (Figs. 2.40 -
2.42.) Leo Biden recorded much of the inter-war fishing history in his book Sea Angling

Fishes of the Cape. Virtually every species of migratory fish passed by in countless
thousands during their annual passage through False Bay: the small ones like masbanker and

pilchard, chased by the larger carnivores elf, leervis, yellowtail, geelbek, and snoek; white
stumpnose were plentiful and huge kob were landed during the early days. Descriptions given

by Biden of fishing on the pier, and from the fleet drifting inside the harbour, capture

something of the atmosphere of those long-gone times

TALES OF ALBACORE (11 January 1920, pp. 78-9)

“………. A dense brown mass, a hundred feet broad, came slowly towards the pier. But what
was that olive-green, silver, and golden-tinted multitude of living things following? The
fishermen’s trained eye could well see the albacore ready for attack. As the huge school
passed line after line stiffened out in quick succession till the men at the far end had their
chance. Back came the school, every line taking its toll along the full length of the
breakwater. Women unhooked the fish, rebaited the lines which the men flicked out to pull in
again and again till their arms ached. The albacore were ravenously charging en masse into
the densely banked masbanker, throwing up a continuous spray in their frantic rush. Men
directing youths to prevent fouling, shouts to boys to hurry up with more mackerel, women’s
cries that the lines were rebaited, the monotonous thud of falling fish, and the patter of
hundreds of albacore wriggling on the pier, all made a scene strange and weird. And still the
fish came on in relays rushing upon the cornered fry like packs of wolves, and chasing them
with fury. For two hours this slaughter lasted till the fish lay out, not in piles, but in one great
sheet along the whole length of the pier. And then the glutted albacore withdrew. When the
last of them had gone and the sea resumed its colour and its calm, hundreds of wounded fry
floated on the water; and the sea birds came, wheeling and screaming, to end their plight.
Then came the dealers – the fish buyers – with their long line of carts to take over the catch at
the cheapest price. ….. The larger fish were sold at twopence, and the smaller at a penny
each. The total catch was estimated at more than 6,000 of which three-quarters were of a
uniform size of 5 lb. and the remainder of 10 lb. The estimate was based on individual
catches of 50 per man, for that was approximately the number caught by most of the 120
fishermen.”

THE WHITE STUMPNOSE (pp. 195 – 197)

“On many nights the little harbour at Kalk Bay presents an unusual scene. The fishermen
know instinctively whether the fish are due in the evening; and towards dusk a file of men,