Getting HOOKED

MAY has come and gone and the first proper winter month is upon us.

Excitement over the annual sardine run is starting to build. Let’s hope we have one this year.

The sardines bring with them a host of game fish and sharks.

This is also when garrick and shad are in abundance. The gold Falcon slim blinker is the outright winner for shad. Retrieve it slowly and feel the vibrations it puts out.

The North Coast has seen the best of the fishing for recreational anglers. Couta, tuna and snoek have been landed regularly and all the facets (Jet Ski, ski-boat and kayak) have been sharing the catches.

Some very good fish landings were seen in the past week. There has been some snoek around and the paddle ski guys have been having a blast with these backline beauties.

Kingfisher regular Quade Kincade landed a trio on a quick paddle up north.

The central zone has seen its fair share of tuna over the past week. Most of these fish have fallen for the very effective popper method.

For those who have not yet tried this, it involves throwing a popper close to or among a pod of dolphins.

The tuna hang around with the dolphins, so nine times out of 10 you will get a strike if you can get close enough without scaring the dolphins.

The Rock and Surf scene was on fire this past week with very good fish, including late season inedibles.

This has been due to the water temperature drop – the sea temperature was down to 20°C in some places.

The cooler water is ideal for most fish species and causes the flatfish and sharks to feed.

This is also a good sign for the eagerly awaited sardines, for if the water temperature can hover around 20 degrees, we should see a good run this year.

The north zone saw a few very big inedibles landed last week. The big fish have not made an appearance this week, but the brown skates have been feeding well on the sandbanks.

Further north, there was some good edible action with stumpies, kob and kingfish all being caught.

Live bait has been the winner for the kingies, while the kob and stumpies have favoured chokka and prawn respectively.

A notable catch from our central region this past week was a Zambezi of about 180kg caught off South Pier.

The beachfront continues to produce fish when other spots have gone quiet.

Pompano have been coming out fairly regularly on prawn and sealice bait.

The grunter and snapper kob have also made an appearance at some of the piers, but have favoured a nice sardine bait.

Errol Hayes Point saw a beautiful 6kg yellowtail kingfish caught by Alan Nair.

“I was fishing for shad for live bait and with no bite I changed to a No 10 karrenteen hook. Still using my top bung, I hooked and landed this fish,’ said Nair.

Well done on a great fish! Another notable catch from the same area was a 25kg prodigal son caught by Marcus Padayachee using a live blacktail as bait.

This is a fish not many can claim to have caught.

A reminder that the uMhlanga Ski Boat Competition is on June 16 and 17 and the excitement is beginning to build.

This is another competition that sees ski-boats, Jet Skis and paddle skis pitted against each other.

Visit www.ursc.co.za to enter and see the amazing prizes they have in store.