Mixed reports from KZN dams as temperatures start to climb

WITH water levels still dwindling at Inanda Dam, carp fishing has been quieter this past week.

The water has been an off-green colour and there are not many fish over the 6kg mark coming out. However, there was one report of a fish of 17kg coming out next to the last slipway of the camp sites. This fish was reported to have been caught on a tiger nut bait.

Nagle Dam has been producing lot of fish in the 6-8kg range with anglers opting for the sweeter essences for their feed, as well as their hook bait being raisins. This seems to be doing the trick for most of the fish in this dam, as there are multiple pick-ups during the night.

Hazelmere Dam is producing a most luck. With the heat rising, the fish are moving deeper and deeper, so if soft plastics are not your style, then a deep lipped crank bait will do wonders for your catch percentage.

Inanda has produced some decent fish for the anglers over the past week, with plenty of these fish coming out at around 2kg.

Anglers from the sides are at a bit of a disadvantage as the cover from the trees and submerged structure is now well up the bank.

Hazelmere is still producing good fish in its new submerged grass areas on almost anything.

Guys are having the most fun on light fly outfits and smaller woolly buggers and falcon poppers.

Nagle Dam is still predominantly full and has produced some good fish. Surface baits are the name of the game at this dam. Most fish coming out are around the 1.5kg mark but there has been at least one fish of over 2.5kg to report from this last week.

There has been plenty of redbreasted tilapia taking the smaller jerk and crank baits as well in this dam.

Underberg has been producing excellent rainbow and brown trout over the past few days in most of its dams. With the weather heating up a bit, a fast sinking line and beaded head streamer fly will work well. The streamer fly is used to mimic the minnows the bigger trout prey on when down deep.

The Mrs Simpson and Hammle’s Killer will work just as well over this time of the year.

However, we have been hearing lots of reports that the Walker’s Killer seems to be the fly of choice at the moment, if you are lucky enough to have one.

There has been plenty of action in Durban Harbour lately with few excellent fish being caught. Light tackle anglers who are lucky enough to have boats are making their way to the coaling wharf. There are plenty of kingies, pick handle barracuda and other game fish around this area.

There are still plenty of brown rays around at the mo- ment with the hot bait still being cracker or baby squid.

If you are using cracker to target these fish, there is a high chance you will pick up more grunter, but it is not out of the ordinary to pick up these large flatfish. There are plenty of grunter around the centre bank if you are able to get yourself onto a boat. Otherwise if you wait for low tide, you can wade the banks and fish around the Wilson’s Wharf and yacht mole areas. You will pick up a lot of the much smaller fish, but the opportunity is there for you to catch a monster.