getting HOOKED
THE sardines have dominated fishing news the past few weeks. The fishing has been quiet, but the action should heat up soon. The offshore fishing has been slow.
The shark activity has decreased off the Durban coast with all the taxmen heading south for a feast.
The Durban beachfront area has not produced much in the line of gamefish. There have been plenty of bottom-fish for the guys on the charters and commercial boats. There have been some lovely red fish caught over the past week.
A few of the boats have been lucky or skilled enough to land some musselcracker. These are amazing, slow-growing fish that deserve to be let go. The geelbek and daga are still around and it is a good time of year to target the fish on the bottom. If the sharks show up, move!
The south coast has had the sardine action but the gamefish have not been with the sards. It is still worth targeting the fish around the shoals of sards and a live sard is the best bet with lures coming in a close second.
The lures prevent you from hooking sharks, although the blackfins do occasionally jump onto the lures. The bottomfishing has also been particularly good on the south coast and all of the deeper wrecks and reefs have been producing the goods.
Predicting where the sardines will be is an art that the netters have an eye for. If you are wanting to chase the sardine activity, start at Toti and head south.
The central coast has seen some baitfish action but the sardines have not made their arrival on to the Durban beachfront as yet.
The piers have seen the most action with a lot of shad and other edibles coming out. With sardines available at most tackle stores, the shad have been given the best of baits to nibble on. The basin and Addington beaches have seen a couple of inedibles coming out. Blue rays and grey sharks have been the main fish landed, with a few diamonds in the mix.
The odd net of sardines have been coming out along the Toti coastline and this is the area to start looking at if you are lucky enough to spend a day chasing the action. The drone anglers have had all the luck with the sardines so far and they are the only ones that have landed the bigger sharks that are patrolling the deep. The gamefish have been scarce with a few garrick and kingfish coming out. The kingies have been trophies with some of the blacktip kingies pushing the 10kg mark!
■ Please send any info about fishing, fish caught or competitions in your area to mike.pereira@kingfisher.co.za