Could the conditions in Port St Johns south be ideal for sardines?
THE weather has been getting better and fishing has started picking up, especially for edible anglers, as calmer seas have inspired ambition to land an early garrick or a bus of a shad.
Kosi Bay to Vidal has seen stumpies, pompano and quite a few speckle salmon and lemon fish picking up chokka baits and sealice. For most of these species anglers like to get heavy as they often pull you into the bricks.
Vidal to Richards Bay the flat sea conditions have seen a few small brown rays. Funny enough they have been taking sealice baits. Black fin sharks in the 60kg to 80kg region have been picking up the slide baits, generally a live bait.
The Vidal area has been productive for those fishing artificials. Three-inch jerk minnows in the Chrystella colours have been doing the trick for the three-spot pompano.
From Richards Bay South to Tugela snapper salmon and small kob came out on chokka baits on the low tide. There have been small milkies coming out that some anglers have been sliding for the blackfin.
From Tugela to Ballito salmon up to 18kg have been coming out on live bait. Closer to Ballito stumpies and pompano were caught on sealice and chokka, and grey sharks on almost all baits in the evenings.
Anglers fishing for pompano picked up the odd eagle ray, which smoked them, putting strain on their tackle.
A few winter diamond rays came out near Blue Lagoon. Anglers sliding shad have had success with the odd early garrick picking up their bait.
Toti has been quiet apart from the odd stumpies off the rocks. Winklespruit has seen some garrick caught.
Shelly Beach to Margate has seen garrick, kob, kingies and prodigals come out on live baits such as shad, karenteen and black tail.
Port Edward to Port St Johns shad are scarce. Anglers who got their hands on a live bait landed garrick.
Port St Johns South has seen loads of garrick, kob and shad. The water temperature has been nice to fish in and the sea has been calm. Hopefully the sardines find these conditions as desirable as we do.
In Sodwana Bay anglers on paddle skis have caught smaller yellowfin tuna and big snoek. The odd dorado has been coming out on konas and small poppers. In Maphelane big snoek have been caught on strip baits and small live baits.
In St Lucia snoek have taken small bullet spoon and toby spoons right on the backline. Couta have been deeper, picking up mostly down rigged mackerel and small bonnies.
Cape Vidal has had couta caught on lures, specifically the bigger deep divers. There have been a few wahoo biting off anglers high up their trace, and the kids have enjoyed fishing light bottoms with loads of reef species being caught.
Richards Bay to Tugela has had decent catches of tuna, couta, snoek, and even reports of game fish giving anglers hassles. Besides snoek caught on strip baits the rest have been taken on live bonnies, mackerel and mozzies, most down-rigged.
Our local water has proven productive with fish coming out off shore, trawling and fishing bottoms. Anglers trawling in shallower water have had their hands full with shad and small grey sharks while targeting snoek.
Stumpies and pompano have been caught on chokka baits off Lime Stone and near the harbour mouth. Anglers in deeper water have succeeded with tuna and couta coming out on Kingfisher rattlers around the bait marks.
In uMkomaas there have been reports of wahoo, couta and tuna, using lures ranging from Halco Lazer Pros to Clone stick baits. Most of these lures are being rigged with American fishing wire as you never know which toothy creatures may give your lure a go!
Shelly Beach to Port Edward has seen tuna landed in deeper water on big live baits, and a few hook-ups of sailfish.
In Durban Harbour anglers spinning for kob have had the most success in terms of consistency as the kob seem to be picking up paddle tails throughout the day and evening. The kob haven’t been huge but a decent size nonetheless, weighing an average of 3kg. The grunter that has been coming out has been big, which is unusual as the small grunter has almost disappeared in the deeper water.