Westerlies, huge swells make it difficult

WITH bad weather on its way, anglers will be doing as much fishing as possible early next week, and ski boat anglers in the Durban Ski Boat Festival will be hoping for the best, with only Sunday looking launchable. Good luck! As far as Sodwana Bay up north, and as far as the lower Eastern Cape stretches, anglers have met with relatively big surf, massive running swells and strong surge currents.

North and south, most anglers settled for light tackle off ledges and in gullies, targeting smaller edibles on prawn baits.

Many fishing at Kosi Bay did relatively well with wave garrick, stumpies, stone bream and small pompano.

Further south at St Lucia, very few anglers took to the water, and even fewer fish were seen.

Richards Bay fished much the same and produced the odd grey shark as well as various edibles.

The harbour was on form in the strong westerly winds and saw dozens of good edibles coming out, for boaters as well as from the side.

Grunter in the 2kg range were common, as well as stumpnose and perch, all landed on cracker.

The stretch from Salt Rock to lower Ballito was among the more popular and saw many anglers as well as fish.

The best approach in a rough sea is sometimes to downscale completely and scratch in the gullies, instead of fishing in the rough seas where the sanded-up waters can have a negative impact.

A small prawn bait in the gullies will produce a variety of species from blacktail to stumpnose, rock cod and even shad at times.

Ballito and Salt Rock produced a good number of fish, particularly in the Sheffield area. uMhlanga was much the same and saw anglers scratching for smaller fish at the lighthouse.

A variety of edibles were taken here, as well as a few grey sharks and the odd lesser sandshark.

Blue Lagoon saw some huge seas and was unfishable for most of the week.

When the sea did start to settle, the fish came come back on the bite in the cleaner water and anglers caught a few shad, bonito and even a pompano or two.

Durban beaches have been another spot for anglers to congregate in these strong south-west winds, as the Bluff and interior of Durban act as a shield.

Yet the Bluff fished very well. Prawn-and-squid mix baits produced many an edible, and anglers willing to put up with the conditions were rewarded.Toti had another small shad run, but anglers soon left and set off to find calmer waters to fish. Umkomaas was a washing machine and saw few fish apart from a few brown rays and snapper salmon.

Scottburgh had some lovely clean water moving though, thanks to the westerly, but unfortunately suffered from rough seas. Grey sharks, pompano, grunter and smaller edibles were the only fish around for most of the week.

For the rest of the coast, down to the Transkei, most beaches were cold and miserable and had big seas.

Durban harbour has come to life in recent weeks. Charter boats report a number of good catches of grunter up to 5kg, snapper salmon, huge Malabar rock cod and plenty of others.

It seemed the fish were feeding closer to the bottom, and dropshot such as five-inch McCarthy Minnows or the smaller paddletails were cast, allowed to sink and retrieved with an erratic action along the bottom.

Around the rocks can be deadly for Malabar rock cod and rock salmon. However, one should stock up on lures and jigheads as the target species tend to run straight for the rocks once hooked, which can lead to tackle loss. In the deeper water, there have also been good catches of grunter.

Many marlin were landed off Zululand as well as down the coast, out in the deep as well as some fish in surprisingly shallow water. Good reports came in of Natal Snoek on backline and slightly deeper water off Mapelane, being landed on strip baits with pink dusters and also small rattlers, Halco sorcerers and chrome spoons.

For those lucky enough to have some of the 18g Anchovy spoons, there was no better option. Most Snoek have been between 2kg and 6kg, with reports of larger fish landed on fillet strip baits.

Couta have been on the bite throughout the week, many of them landed off St Lucia and Cape Vidal on live baits.The seas are predicted to settle after the bad weather, and most days of the week and next weekend should be fishable.

The Dolphin Coast has produced plenty of gamefish over the past week, most coming out on either live baits or diving lures. With the introduction of the new Rattler 120 range to the already popular Rattler diving lure selection, paddleski anglers will be happy to know that there is now a range of lures which can be trawled at a much higher speed with excellent results.

Down South, good catches of Queenfish on Aliwal Shoal were landed.

Please send any information about fishing, fish caught or competitions in your area to mike. pereira@kingfisher.co.za. Go to www.facebook.com/thekingfisherdaiwa and “like” us on Facebook to catch reviews, videos, fishing reports, great promotions and lots more.