Colder water brings good angling prospects
WE CONTINUE to see good specimens of pignose grunter being caught around the shores of Port Elizabeth and this is due, most probably, to the colder water conditions that still prevail rather late for the season.
The Bay has a pocket of colder water trapped by the warm off-shore Mozambique current that passes south of Port Elizabeth. As the water warms we should say farewell to these beauts until the cold water returns around autumn again.
These are one of the most exciting fish species to catch. They have a characteristic first run where the reel’s drag squeals as the line is stripped off. Many an angler has been “spooled” by these “steam trains”, as they are affectionately called.
They take any well-presented soft bait such as pink prawn in combination with sardine or a piece of tenderised chokka. Any worm imitation works well too if you don’t have bloodworm.
On the angling scene, some decent kob have been caught – 64kg, 25kg and 12kg – in the surf zone of Sundays River along with two very good spotted grunter in the 8kg class last weekend.
Pignose grunter have also been caught around the sandy shores inside the bay between Swartkops River Mouth and the Coega Harbour. The musselcracker have also taken the hook around the wild side in the Beachview area and at Bird Rock where an 80cm specimen was caught by Wilson Camacho.
Corrie Zeelie in today’s photograph also landed a steam train of 108cm estimated at 21kg at Kings Beach in the vicinity of the
harbour wall.
Generally, angling is reasonable and there seems to be no localisations of fish to specific areas. Now is a good time to move around and make the necessary observations.
Now onto a worrying subject. This week, plastic particles or nurdles, suspected to be from a spill in Durban harbour, began washing up on the Bay’s beaches. These particles are considered toxic to marine life as they can be mistakenly ingested by fish thinking it is food.
Pot anglers must inspect the stomach contents of the fish they catch while gutting them and report any sign of these plastic par- ticles found.
Better still, place the stomach contents in a container and deliver it to Bayworld. I am sure they would appreciate the information and sample.
This type of spill can have devastating consequences all round, but I do not know whether the flesh of fish to be consumed would be affected.
We experience a reasonable amount of wind this weekend with a strong easterly blowing today, turning west overnight and becoming south westerly for the duration of the weekend.
The water should be well aerated, increasing chances for a fish or two. Low tide is at 9.24am tomorrow with a full moon. Absolute spring tidal conditions mean one should be careful of strong rip currents.
The water temperature is 17°C in the bay with the barometer remaining high. In all, the prospects look good for some exciting angling this weekend.