Angling Report – 25 April 2014

The holidaymakers really struck it lucky it with beautiful weather throughout the long weekend. One can however start to feel and see that winter is slowly approaching with the cooler early morning air and the sun rising now at around 6am.
At the beginning of last week the weather was really good with the surf settling nicely and there was no wind for the whole of Monday. I saw the barometer dropping however so I knew that some bad weather was on the way and sure enough, a strong south westerly began pushing on Tuesday morning. Large swell and rain was the order of the day by the afternoon and things were looking grim for the weekend.
Luckily things turned around and when I was on the beach on Friday morning fishing conditions were near perfect. Unfortunately, I could not fish because I had damaged my knee, but I watched a few anglers trying their luck. I saw one pull in a small shad and another landed a small sandie before it went quiet as the tide dropped. I knew that there were several anglers fishing at the Tongaat mouth so I decided to take a drive and have a look at what was happening. I probably spent a hour in the vicinity of the mouth, but the fishing was quiet and I never saw anyone even have so much as a pull. Some of the anglers leaving the beach told me that the fishing was a bit slow with just a couple of small shad having been caught at first light.
Anglers were telling me that the Ballito area had been fishing quite well recently with some decent sized copper bream being caught in the rocky areas with these fish showing a preference for crayfish and baby squid baits. One guy told me that he had caught two very nice spade fish in the sweetwaters area plus had landed a shoal salmon of 4kg on Monday evening. Another told me that he had seen an angler catch a very nice pompano of around 6kg on Monday morning in the Salt Rock area.
A big swell moved inshore on Friday night and this resulted in some big surf on Saturday morning deterring most anglers. I did see a stumpie of around 5kg that was caught on a sardine fillet before first light. Stumpies love the rough water.
Because the fishing was not good locally, I decided to phone a couple of my friends who fish the Durban area and they told me that very few fish had come out last week except for a few small shad and a couple of skates. Anglers fishing the South Coast are catching a few shoal salmon in the dark and I hear that a couple of very nice grunter have also been caught. Most of the South Coast anglers are gearing themselves up for the winter fishing season and are hoping that the garrick and big salmon will arrive soon. As soon as the shoals of green China shad start moving up the coast it will be time for the garrick.
Deep sea anglers who managed to launch last week found a few barracuda off Umdhloti, Peace Cottage in the Umhlanga area and off Durban. Apparently the fish were feeding early and went off the bite quickly as soon as the sharks arrived. A couple of lucky gamefish anglers found sizeable couta on the bite deep off Umdloti, on the bottom and a prodigal son was reported to have been caught by a Durban angler fairly close inshore off Glenashley. The bottom anglers reported that they have caught a bit of bottom fish in some areas but currents and cold water has hampered them.
I heard from the security guys at the weekend that vehicles left unattended by anglers in various areas were broken into. Apparently the culprits do not play around as they simply smash the windows and make off with what they can find. One angler fishing alone at a popular fishing spot in the La Mercy area returned to his vehicle only to find that the driver’s side window had been smashed and the inside of the car plus the boot had been ransacked. Even the spare wheel had been stolen. Anglers should be very wary when they decide to go fishing leaving their vehicles unattended.
Sealice