Not many smiles as fish stay away

IT’S the second installment of the Kingfisher Biggest Shad Competition.

The heaviest shad for this month will receive a Daiwa BG 5000 Reel filled with Daiwa 8 weave 30lb J Braid, valued at R3000, the second heaviest a 13’6” Kingfisher Coastline 5pce (L, M & H tip) Graphite rod, valued at R1998, and third heaviest will receive a Daiwa Laguna 5000 spinning Reel valued at R998. All Shad (fresh and not frozen) must be weighed at either, The Kingfisher, 53 Hunter Street or Tackle Centre, Old Fort Road or The Fishing Tackle Shop, Warner Beach. There is a bag limit of four and the minimum size is 30cm. The season closes September 30 and re-opens December.

A mixed bag of fish including a variety of inedibles from our North Coast as well as the Transkei region has kept anglers smiling as we move steadily into the summer months. Shad have been coming out accompanied by a number of garrick and kob, mostly caught on live mullet or shad.

Kosi Bay has not been too productive on the spinning side with only a few reports of small kingies on plugs and bullet spoons, but the summer fish are starting to make their way in as a few sandies have been showing in the area.

In the Sodwana Bay area, the spinning anglers have not been to successful either as only a few small kingies and queen fish have been coming out on small drop shots or chaos plugs. The bait fishermen have had their fair share of success as a few sandies have been landed on mackerel baits. There have also been a few small stumpies caught on sea lice baits.

Fishing in Cape Vidal has been quite a good with a few reports of speckle snappers landed on chokka baits. There have also been a few small diamond rays and small 3 spot pompano. The diamond rays are coming out on sardine blob baits and flapped mackerel baits, and the pompano on very small chokka baits.

Richards Bay area, the fishing has not been too productive with very few fish. The few fish that have been making their occasional appearance have been kingies on small live baits and the odd diamond ray on mullet fillets.

Tugela Mouth, there have been reports of a few garrick in the area throughout the day on live shad that have been in abundance along this stretch, the garrick have also been caught on paddle tails and jerk minnows in the afternoons. The odd kob has also been landed on chokka baits just north of the mouth in the evenings. Zinkwazi has been rather quiet with only a few reports of grey sharks, a few decent sized shad and the odd sandy. The grey sharks and shad are taking small live baits and local sardine baits, either being slid or cast. The sand sharks on the other hand have been coming out on shad heads, fillets and flapped shad. Land based spinning anglers have been landing a few snoek on bullets spoons in the Jex area. There have also been a few shad landed in the area on s-bend spoons. There has been a very big sea in the Ballito area, making it very difficult to fish for some of our anglers. The summer fish have, however, started to make their appearance in the evenings. The odd bronze bream has also started to come out on prawn baits.

The Mustad Chinu size 1 and 1/0 hooks have been the best hooks to use for the bronze bream as they are extremely sharp, with a slightly offset eye which makes snelling the hook a better way of tying it on.

At La Mercy not a lot has been happening. There has only a been bronze bream coming out on cracker, chokka and of course red prawn baits. There has been a few in-edible fish in the area that anglers have been targeting with little success.

There has been a few small pompano, many undersized shad and the odd grunter coming out between the piers in the Durban area. The pompano have been coming out on small sea lice and small chokka baits and the shad have been on spoons and sardine baits. The grunter have been more attracted to cracker and chokka baits.