Change of seasons, change of fish
FISHING this past week hasn’t been too productive as the amount of fish and quality has been decreasing over the past while. Winter is approaching now and the summer fish are starting to filter out as the winter fish are slowly arriving.
The ski boat guys up north have been persisting over the past couple of weeks as fishing hasn’t been up to par due to the changing of the season. The guys who have persisted were rewarded with some nice size snoek on live bait and Clark spoons.
The occasional couta has been harassing these anglers attempting to fish for the slightly smaller species. Some of the anglers fishing heavier did however manage to land some of these couta by using a heavier wire and a stronger hook when targeting the big Snoek that are around.
Moving further south to the Umdloti and Ballito area some very big tuna have been coming out as well as bucket loads of snoek.
The bigger tuna have been taken on big Halco Rooster Poppers, the red head in particular. Guys trolling live bonnies have had their fair share of excitement with the big tuna picking up on their live bonnies too.
The guys that have specifically been targeting Snoek in these areas have been trolling small Halco plastics, small Rapalas and mostly the Strike Pro Arc Minnows.
Our local waters have been showing great potential over the past few weeks as there have been lots of species at decent sizes being caught while bottom fishing as well as quite a few big dorado, snoek and tuna showing their faces. Most of the dorado have been coming out on konas and poppers.
Off the Bluff the guys have been getting some very nice size tuna in the 10kg to 20kg range predominantly on live bait and the Pink Kingfisher Rattlers and Alowal Shoal has been quite consistent with the wahoo coming out the past while.
Fishing in the Durban Harbour continues to be quite consistent with the addition of kob that have entered the harbour. The guys spinning for kob have been somewhat successful on 4 inch drop shots in colours such as white, olive pearl and goldfish.
As for the bait fisherman, live mullet have been doing the trick. A meter of 25 lb. Maxima snelled to a Mustad Fine Demon circle hook in a 4/0 size on a sliding trace with a ¼ oz. ball sinker is the preferred trace when targeting these bars of silver.
Apart from kob there have been other species showing such as rock cod on sardine baits, torpedo scads on tiny bullet spoons and kingies on all of the above.
There have been lots of brown rays in the harbour lately picking up prawns that are intended for grunter giving the guys false hope when fighting these aggressive fish. If one were to target these rays for some sports, one would use slightly heavier tackle such as a surf spinning outfit, 4/0 Mustad circle hooks snelled with a 25-35lb line using either the preferred running trace or a fixed trace .
If you plan on targeting these fish off a boat or paddle ski, never gaff these fish because it will damage them quite badly and will possibly lead to an infection. Rather use a net.
The Kosi Bay area has been very quiet, apart from the rock and surf guys spinning. Anglers throwing plugs and bullet spoons have been getting decent kingies as well as some nice snoek off the surf. The white Chaos plugs have been doing the trick for the kingies, but the bullet spoons have been taken by both the snoek and kingies.