Angling Report – 17 January 2014

After some relatively good sea conditions during the festive season, a big swell moved down the coast last week which caused some unpredictable seas. This swell was probably what remained of the cyclone that moved across the islands of the Indian ocean during the new year period. It was also windy, hot and humid the rest of the time which meant that anglers did not spend a lot of time at the beach during the day.
The northerly winds of late have sanded-up many of the beaches, which was not good news for anglers. The tides of last week were also not in the surf anglers’ favour as low tides were in the early mornings with little water running across the sandbanks. Most guys I spoke to said that they struggled with the conditions and only a few fish were caught.
A friend told me of a couple of anglers casting into deeper water and sliding baits out in the Umdloti area. By the late afternoon they had some pick ups, but got smashed each time after a short fight. These were almost certainly sharks and they must have been sizeable specimens. The offshore anglers have been complaining about losing fish to big sharks and one surf ski angler said he saw a big Zambezi one morning just past the backline.
Although the sea conditions were not all that good last week, deep sea anglers recorded some decent catches around the Bluff with tunny, couta and one or two nice kingfish being landed. Word was that a couple of nice dorado were caught as well, but the anglers did not venture too far from the launch site because of the windy conditions. It looks like the conditions will be much better this week with the southerly on Monday sorting the sea out and the tides set to assist the rock and surf anglers.
The summer flatfish can now be found all along the coastline and some decent-sized rays and skates have already been caught. These summer flatfish enjoy the sandy conditions. A friend fishing the Umhlanga area last week had some excellent sport with two large rays he landed in the afternoons. Both weighed in excess of 30 kg and were caught on fresh fillet baits.
Interestingly, I have not seen a lot of drop-shot being used in the rocky areas of late. This method of fishing can be really rewarding and in the past I have seen some good fish caught, including pompano, stumpies and even rockcod. The beauty of fishing with drop-shot is that you do not get bored, casting and retrieving the line continuously and also trying different areas. The pompano should arrive any time now, but other species such as moonfish, wave garrick or spotted pompano and even kingfish can be found around the rocks at this time of the year.
Anglers fishing the estuary at Amatikulu have had some excellent sport fishing with light tackle. A variety of fish have been caught, including snapper salmon, perch, one or two rock salmon, some nice moonies and even a few small skates. This is an excellent area to fish if you have some time and you should try to find out from the locals about what is on the bite and where.
The crazy holiday time is now over and I will be targeting the summer flatties and hopefully have the chance of catching a kingie. Your best bet for hooking a kingfish remains sliding a live bait from one of the local deep water rocky points. Best of luck to all anglers.
Sealice