Angling Report – 15 August 2014

On Saturday morning I had an appointment in Durban North so I decided to call in at the beach by Virginia airport and check up on the fishing. There were quite a few anglers around and although there was not much happening at the time, I was told there had been some smaller shad around that morning. Apparently the shad fishing was quiet at the start of the week but things picked up a bit by the weekend.
Whilst I was at Virginia, I met another angler who told me he had just returned from a week long fishing trip down in the Transkei. Although the weather and sea conditions were apparently tough at times they did catch some decent edibles and larger sharks at night. There had been some decent shad around at first light and live bait had produced some decent garrick and salmon (kob).
Local news I received was that the Umhlanga area was dead with very little water in the early mornings. I did however hear that there were plenty of small shad caught at Chaka’s high rock with shad, garrick and salmon on the bite in the Tinley Manor river mouth area. Another angler who I talked to on Saturday morning said he had been fishing in the Tugela north bank area and some decent fish had been landed there recently. Catches included shad, salmon, a few garrick and some sizeable sharks in the surf. Right at the river mouth anglers were catching some nice sized snapper salmon and perch in the river.
I spent a considerable amount of time on the beach during the mornings last week and because of the low tide the water was generally very shallow. It did give me the opportunity to retrieve a fair amount of tackle in the form of lead sinkers and swivels stuck on the exposed rocks. Many anglers told me they struggled to find gullies that were not sanded up. The tides will be better this week and I think that because of the windy conditions at present, the early mornings will be the best chance of catching a couple of fish.
I saw a headline in a Sunday newspaper that read “Durban stinks”. The story was about the sewerage spill in the Umhlanga river and how dead fish are being seen floating in the water. One can only guess at the quality of the water of most of the rivers along the local coastline. This is a hotly discussed topic every year before the Duzi takes place.
Looking at the sea last week I could see that the water was not clean and one could see a distinct line beyond the nets where the clean water began. Every day I watched whales heading north and some of the creatures were pretty close inshore. With a telescope or a pair of binoculars, one can clearly see these huge mammals and watch their antics for hours. We are very privileged to be able to see these magnificent animals and their smaller cousins the dolphins in our “back yards”.
Sealice

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