Can always count on the Couta
THE weather over the past week has giving most of our anglers chance to go wet a line and been somewhat productive as there have been a couple of reports of decent fish coming out on and off shore.
The main highlight of the week has been the copious amounts of big Couta being caught up North and down South. Starting up North around Sodwana Bay, the Ski Boat fishing has been rather productive with reports of decent Couta, Wahoo and Tuna being caught off the Paddle Skis as well as off the boats. The majority of the bigger fish being caught have been picking up dead and live Bonnies.
When fishing with a bigger bait such as this, one would have to up size on hooks due to the size of the baits and maybe consider using a darker hook. St Lucia and Cape Vidal have also been rather productive with large amounts of big Couta and Tuna coming out as well as a few Sailfish! When targeting these bigger fish, heavier tackle is required as you trawl bigger lures and bigger baits and need a reel that has a strong enough drag to trawl the bigger lures.
A lot of anglers who use a heavier main line will also have at least 300m of braid as backing as they do not have much spool capacity using a heavier line and targeting a fish as fast and aggressive as these, especially a Sailfish, having braid is a good option. Moving to Richards Bay, fishing has been about the same here as everywhere else with good reports of Couta and Tuna coming out.
There have also been reports of Sailfish in the area picking up baits intended for the Couta and Tuna. Spoon whipping continues as the shoal size Couta still can’t leave the spoons alone. Moving a bit further South from Tugela mouth to Zinkwazi, apart from the Couta coming out there have been some very nice size Dagga coming out. The majority of these Dagga have been caught on live bait and big Chokka baits fishing on the bottom. When fishing for Dagga, don’t be shy to use an abnormally large hook as many anglers use hooks up to 12/0 in size due to the huge mouths that Dagga have.
The whole Umdloti area has been one of the most productive areas on our coastline with plenty of huge Couta being caught almost every day for the past week. 90 percent of the Couta have been caught on bait of which Bonnies and Wala Wala were the proffered bait. Larger and heavier traces are being used now that our anglers know what they’re up against in terms of the size of the fish. Our local water has also been rather productive with quite a few Couta, Tuna as well as some Snoek on the backline coming out.
Majority of the Snoek are being caught on fillets and small bullet spoons as usual. The majority of the Couta coming out our local water are shoalies making them rather easy to catch as they pick up almost anything you put in the water. Whipping spoons for them seems to be working very well at the moment; there have also been reports of Garrick in the vicinity too. Guys fishing light bottoms just off the backline are getting some decent edibles the past while with some nice size Stumpies and Blacktail being caught on Chokka and Prawn baits.
Moving further South to Umkomaas the fishing hasn’t been as productive in terms of quantity like the rest of coastline up North but there have been decent catches none the less. Reports of big Dagga just off Umkomaas has persuaded our anglers to put in some extra hours on the water into the evening.
Closer to Aliwal Shoal there have been a few Couta and Wahoo showing their faces, picking up the guys; Rattlers and Bonnies! Shelly Beach to Port Edward has been rather quiet the past while with not too many fish coming but the few that have come out have definitely been worth speaking about!
Some very big Couta have come out of Shelly Beach over the past week mostly on bait. Towards Port Edward, not much has been happening apart from the few Dagga and small Garrick that have been coming out.
From Kosi Bay to Sodwana, the rock and surf fishing hasn’t been too bad as a decent amount of edibles have been coming out.