Angling Report – 30 May 2014

It was another week of bad sea and weather conditions and most of the popular angling beaches remained deserted until just before the weekend when the surf moderated considerably and fishing conditions remained good for the entire weekend. The winter fronts moving up the coast at present are normal for this time of the year and could do more good than harm. I have already seen signs of the sand banks breaking up and there are some nice channels and holes at many of the beaches.

I happened to bump into a good friend of mine who just came back from a business trip down in the Eastern Cape. Being an angler himself he enquired about what was happening in those waters and word is that Port Elizabeth is seeing some encouraging sardine activity with plenty of birds and dolphins around. In East London anglers are catching plenty of shad and some decent sized garrick. This is nice to hear although the Eastern Cape is far away and it could be a while before these shoals arrive in local waters.

Rock and surf angling is pretty poor at present with sea conditions not helping much. My brother fished the Umhlanga area with spoon on Saturday morning for three hours without any success. On the way home he decided to call in at Eastmore which is just a little south of where he had been fishing. He saw a friend on the beach who had been fishing from the dark and was lucky enough to have caught two small stumpies of around 1.5kg each. In all, there were only about half a dozen anglers on the beach which tells you that there was not much happening.

When I asked the Durban North regulars about shad, they told me they had heard of a few small fish being caught although they haven’t seen any themselves. Maybe with a bit of luck this week, the surf will not be too bad and the guys who fish in the dark may be lucky and pull a nice salmon or two.

I replaced the line on one of my reels last week and decided to take a trip to the beach and have a few casts with just a sinker to stretch the line a bit. While on the beach two conservation officials approached me and asked for my fishing permit. I told them I left it at home as I wasn’t fishing but merely casting. They indicated that even though you aren’t fishing you have to carry your license if you have your fishing equipment with you at the water.

I was not aware of this and was fortunate to only get a warning as I offered to take them to my house to show them my permit and they saw I had no tackle with me except a rod and a sinker. Anglers or divers should remember this because it could become embarrassing even though one does not have any intention of either diving or fishing.

Apparently crayfish divers are catching some very nice bugs in the Westbrook area but in the deeper water.

Sealice

Send your name, photo (best possible quality) and details of your catch to sport@northcoastcourier.co.za. Our catch of the week winner will receive a R300 voucher from the sponsor. Catches must be submitted within two weeks of being caught.