Angling Report – 14 March 2014

The weather was really bad early on Monday morning with the westerly pushing strongly and a lot of rain about. Fortunately, it was not like that last week and there were some days that were perfect for fishing, be it from the shore or from a craft at sea. Although the rivers came down on Tuesday morning last week the water cleared sooner than I expected to set up the excellent conditions.
I spoke to three anglers on Thursday evening and each of them fished a different local spot that day. What they had in common was that they all caught pompano ranging in weight from four to six kilos. The fish were caught at Salt Rock, Sheffield and north of Westbrook beach. One angler was using baby squid as bait, another crab and the third a mixed grill of squid and mussel. All the fish were caught in rocky areas. Pompano like clean and warm water with calm surf conditions which made last week ideal to target these fish. I have been quite lucky in the past when fishing for pompano and I’ve found that a fairly long, all nylon, trace worked well. My favourite bait has always been live crab, but I have also had pulls using squid, sealice and mussels.
I believe that anglers fishing with light tackle have been catching a few small edibles such as stone bream, blacktail, and a few small stumpies. Fishing in rocky areas and moving around to find the fish can become expensive when tackle is lost to getting stuck. I still hold the believe that drop shot is the best way to go in these areas as you carry the minimum amount of tackle, it’s proven to attract fish and lures can be changed quickly.
I was talking to several offshore gamefish anglers at the weekend and they told me that the fishing had been pretty good during the week. I saw some nice couta, ranging in weight from around fourteen to twenty kilos come out. A few disappointed anglers also ended up with only the heads of their fish as the “tax man” claimed his share.
Several of the local gamefish reefs were working last week and as I said a while ago, anglers should not become despondent because this is normally the time that the couta become more numerous. It also seems the fish are all going to be a decent size this season. Apparently, dorado and a couple of sailfish were all caught last week and with the sea temperature hovering around twenty six degrees, now is the time to be on the water. I also heard that a prodigal son of 11kg was caught in the Durban area during the week which is interesting as these fish are pretty rare in our waters.
Anglers were telling me that live bait is plentiful and it took just a few minutes to catch enough for a morning’s fishing – small shad seems to be the most abundant at the moment. It seems strange that these shad can be found by the hundreds at the shark nets but there is nothing inshore. I believe that the heavy sandbanks have something to do with this, but as the southerlies of autumn begin to blow these should slowly start to break up.
Hopefully the good fishing persists once the front has passed so tight lines.
Sealice