Getting HOOKED

IT HAS been another profitable week for anglers with an abundance of fish being bagged on the coast and off-shore.

Umhlanga has been alive with shad activity, with local angler Donny Ramburan hooking a one weighing more than 7kgs, quite by chance.

He landed his big catch with a chokka/prawn combo bait, but Ramburan was hunting for a grey shark.

Ballito, Tongaat and Westbrook have attracted plenty of shad, stumpnose and bronze bream.

To the delight of fishermen targeting non-edibles, grey sharks have been landed in the Seabelle area, mostly on a football-style bait.

Zinkwazi yeilded many notable catches, which included sailfish and snoek, caught on sardine cutlets.

Tinley Manor has been a good ground for snoek and tuna.

Richards Bay waters are still producing some excellent diamond rays, especially to the north, as well as a few honeycomb rays, which were caught mainly off the banks.

There were plenty of sand sharks present between the Kosi Bay and Sodwana Bay areas, and experienced anglers looking for bigger catches were landing this species instead.

Starting in Sodwana, anglers have also been rewarded with brilliant catches of dorado, sailfish and tuna, landed mostly with pink and blue hard plastic diving lures, being trawled along dirty water lines.

Cape Vidal has had a nice influx of shad. While these were on a feeding frenzy, some anglers also bagged stumpnose in the process.

Sea lice emerged as the bait of preference for the stumpnose.

Cape Vidal and St Lucia anglers had their hands full dealing with an abundance of big tuna some couta and dorado

There have been many reports of big brown rays harassing light tackle anglers who were fishing for grunter in the Durban Harbour.

The bloody sardine and cracker shrimp bait used by these anglers proved too tempting for the rays.

Durban has also produced good catches of tuna and dorado.

South Pier has produced plenty of kingies and pickhandle barracuda, with some measuring a metre. This species, commonly known as spikes and sharp teeth, is very aggressive.

On the South Coast, tuna were popular catches in the Port Shepstone/Shelly Beach areas.

Anglers in Port Shepstone and nearby areas are also still finding kob.

Transkei, too, is producing some good catches of kob, especially in the north, as well as a number of hammerheads on a chokka slide.

The southern parts of Transkei have yielded nicely-sized grey sharks, raggies and the odd catch of kob.

Send any info about fishing, fish caught or competitions in your area to mike.pereira@ kingfisher.co.za.

Until next week… TIGHTLINES!