GETTING HOOKED
FEBRUARY already?! The year is flying but the fishing has been good for all facets. Summer is here and many have suffered sunburn while pursuing their passion, so be safe out there and be sun savvy.
The summer fish are here, so make sure your knots are good and your backing is in good condition. You don’t want to lose that fish of a lifetime because you wanted to save a few bucks.
Please pick up your rubbish when you leave the beach. Let us be the solution rather than the scapegoat for the public. Let them rather say that fishermen are the reason the beach is clean instead of the reason it is dirty.
The North Coast is the place to be this time of year. An important note for first-time visitors, bring some shoes. The sun cooks the sand and blisters on the feet are a painful reminder of shoes not brought.
Fishing-wise, there have been plenty of bites for those fishing at the right tides and times.
There have not been as many diamonds as there should be, but there have been plenty of other fish coming out. The night-time bite has been far better than the day-time and the species coming out have been feeding on the pushing tide. Mackerel and bonito have proven to work for honeycombs, duckbills, milkies, spinners, hammers, browns and diamonds.
The central section of KZN has seen some good fishing for both edibles and ineds. The basin and beaches between the piers have been producing some decent grey sharks between the 10kg and 20kg range during the nights. There have also been some brown skates, sandies, honeycombs, diamonds and a few giant thorntails hooked. These fish all enjoy chokka, redeye sardine, mackerel and bonito. A combination of chokka and one of the meaty baits is a great way to multi-target these species.
Look for areas of deeper water and get your bait to these spots. If you are not wanting to catch the sharks, omit wire from your traces and use a good quality nylon such as Maxima Ultragreen. For the edibles, there have been some very good grunter caught off the piers on cracker baits. This is a deadly bait for most edible fish and will work very well for stumpies, kob and pompano.
The South Coast has had a large number of bronze bream caught. These fish are very shy feeders and it takes a master to learn to hook them when they are in a mood. It is best to use an abrasive, resistant thin line with a Mustad Chinu 1/0 and a small orange float. If they are not taking your bait, take the float off.
The rest of the South Coast has seen a few good inedibles coming out as well as some decent edibles.
There have been a few garrick on the live baits as well as some decent kingies.
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Please send any info about fishing, fish caught or competitions in your area to mike.pereira@kingfisher.co.za