Let’s hope a good sardine run catches us

THE fishing has been very good for most of the facets. The sardines are making their way up the coast and with the colder water temperatures we can hope to see a good run this year… fingers crossed.

The offshore fishing has been tough. There have not been many catch reports coming in and the ones that have come in have not made for the best reading. The northern KZN zone has seen the warmest water along our coast. Temperatures have been in the mid-twenties.

There have been some good couta and snoek coming out off of Jex Estate. These fish have been coming out on trolled mackerel and fillet baits mainly. The only issue has been the sharks. The tax in this area has been astronomical. Some anglers have yet to get a fish out! The only way to beat the main in the grey suit is to move away from the area and to make sure you tackle up.

A reminder that the Umhlanga Ski Boat Competition is next weekend, on June 16 and 17, and the anglers can’t wait. This is another competition that sees ski boats, jet skis and paddle skis pitted against each other. Visit www. ursc.co.za to enter and see the amazing prizes they have in store. The central region has seen a lot of baitfish action, some of which has been the pilot sardine shoals.

The pockets of bait have been mixed redeye sardines, mackerel and Natal sardines. The game fish have not been smashing these shoals yet and this is probably due to the large amount of bait in the area. The tuna have been the only guaranteed game fish to target. For the bottom fishing crews, the fishing has been good.

The South Coast has seen water temperatures drop below 20 degrees.

This is fantastic news as we need this cold water to get the sardines to move in to the inshore area where they can be netted. If the water remains at this temperature then you can bet that we will have a great run.

Ray’s tip: Circle of winners.

Using circle hooks when scratching is almost a no-brainer once you have done it a few times. With the design of the circle hook, the point facing inwards, the number of hookups on the rocks is reduced by a large percentage. The hooks simply bounce off the rocks whereas the same size J-Hook would see itself hooked solidly into the rocks. This would normally result in the tying of a new trace and a drastic increase in frustration. This is why most competition anglers have shifted towards the use of circles, to save time. The Mustad Tuna circle has been tried and tested on all the common (and rare) reef fish, and it has come out smiling.

The rock and surf scene has seen a fantastic run of very late season summer fish like sandies and various other flatfish coming out.

The far north (Vidal, Sodwana, etc.) has been fishing very well for the edible fish. The stumpnose, speckled snapper and cat face rockcods have been the main culprits. These fish are all very strong and love feeding around rocky areas. There have been some big inedibles mixed in to the edibles coming out, but most of these are not landed due to the lighter tackle being used for the edibles. For this type of fishing in the heavy structure and the chance of some big fish, I highly recommend the use of strong Maxima hook snoots. I would use 0.7mm as my hook snooting and 0.8mm as the line between the swivels.

The Kingfisher YouTube Fishing channel features new content every Monday to Friday at 10am on products, baits, methods and fishing. Go to: www.YouTube.com/TheKingfisherFishing and register, it’s free. The Kingfisher’s trading hours are Monday, Wednesday to Friday 8am to 5pm; Tuesday 8:30am to 5pm, and Saturday 8am to 1pm. Please send any info about fishing, fish caught or competitions in your area to mike. pereira@kingfisher.co.za