HEAD TO CAPE VIDAL FOR THE GAME FISH

THE weather and the sea have not been friendly over the last week. Only the determined (foolhardy) have managed some decent fishing. With the weather not looking too good for this weekend, it might be time to sort out your tackle box and tie some traces at home.

The north coast has seen many rock and surf anglers making the trip to the diamond grounds. This time of year combined with the NE wind generally results in some wild action. Unfortunately no big hauls have been made yet, but there have been a few raggies mixed in with the diamonds that have been caught, so take your FMJ traces with you. As we move further into summer, expect more action. The best way to choose when to go is to wait for at least two days of solid NE wind to blow and to pair that with a flattish sea. If you get all of that and some hot weather...hold on to your rod!

In the central zone with the piers protecting the beaches from the side wash, anglers have fished fairly unhindered. As most of these anglers are targeting edibles on light tackle, the skates that also favour a chokka or prawn bait are almost never landed if they pick the baits up.

The fish that have been landed are the usual shad (that must be put back), stumpies, pompano and blacktail. Most of these fish have been taken on chokka or prawn baits. Of the inedibles that have been caught the two main culprits have been blue rays and grey sharks. These both love a soft mushy fish bait and a piece of chokka with an insideout sardine belly sure to get you a pull.

The south section of the KZN coast is blessed with many bays and gutters. This means that you can still scratch a fish even in a monstrous sea. The anglers that persevered landed bronze

wbream and stone bream. For this type of fishing, braid is a must as its sensitivity allows you to feel the bite even if your line is being pulled all over the place. Do this with a light spinning setup as you do not need to throw far, but you need to cast accurately. Keep your baits small and your hooks sharp. The fish generally do not peck at the bait in these conditions and instead will swipe at it. If your hook is buried in the bait you could miss the bite completely.

For the offshore anglers, the dorado are starting to become more common in catch reports and on the Facebook pages. The sea has been friendly on some days and vicious on others, so choose your days off appropriately. The north, particularly Cape Vidal, has been a hub of gamefish activity. There has been everything you can imagine popping up in the catch reports. Couta, tuna, sailfish, dorado, wahoo, jobfish...to name but a few.

All of the usual gamefish methods have been working, so adjust your methods to the species you are wanting to target. For example, if you are after the sailfish; keep a live bait rigged on a circle hook with a fluorocarbon leader ready as you troll around with some smaller Kona’s. As you see the bill or any sign of the sailfish, you can flip the live bait in front of him and you are almost guaranteed a bite.

The central zone has been producing three of the most sought after game fish, dorado, wahoo and sailfish. These have been keeping the ski boaters busy. The sailfish have been falling for the smaller Kona-style lures trolled on the temperature changes. The biggest so far has been estimated at over 45kgs! The dorado and wahoo have been coming out of the boats. Mostly on live baits and some on trolled lipped lures. The key with this type of fishing is to keep yourself mobile and to move from ship to ship to find the fish.

The south has seen various success in both the gamefish and bottom fishing scenes. The bottoms have been mainly of the rockcod and red variety. The deeper reefs have been producing the better hauls as would be expected. The shallow side of things has produced the better variety although the fish have been smaller on the whole. The gamefish have been mainly taken on live bait or trolled lipped lures. The Kingfisher Rattler in the purple with black stripes has been devastatingly good and has accounted for many good fish over the last few weeks. The baitfish have been full up down south, so fishing in the vicinity to these shoals with a live bait puts you in the right spot to catch one of the patrolling gamefish. THE Currie Cup semifinals are upon us, after average matches last week. These games will be enhanced with the boost of returning Boks, which should raise the tempo. The Sharks play hosts to the Lions, in potentially their last home game. Sharks’ young team looks good this year and shouldn’t disappoint come tomorrow afternoon, where I see them winning by 8 to 15 points.

In the second knockout game, Province is playing against the Bulls. The hosts are the form side and it will take a hell of an effort to stop them hosting this year’s final. The Bulls may suffer an over fifteen point loss here, and should concentrate on getting a new coach for 2019.

It’s also the Mitre 10 Cup semifinals