Angling Report – 10 October 2014

The stormy weather unfortunately made for a disappointing end to the shad season last week as anglers struggled to wet a line. I heard that a few very nice sized shad had been caught at Umhlanga and Virginia, so I thought I would have a go on the Monday at Umhlanga. An early morning storm made me cancel the idea however and I ended up heading out on Tuesday. I arrived early while it was still dark, but I could see that the surf had built up during the night and things were looking really rough. There were a few anglers on the beach already so I decided to watch for a while before having a throw, which turned out to be the right move.The guys who were fishing got their lines entangled in weeds, plastic bags, pieces of rag and one guy even had to battle with a sari that got hooked onto his line. The result was that there were no fish caught.
The inclement weather lasted all week and although the much needed rain was welcomed, the stormy surf made fishing near impossible. The water also remained dirty and it was actually a little disturbing to see what the river washed into the sea. The plastics and other debris shows just how polluted some of the rivers have become. The sea cleaned up a bit towards the weekend and the smaller surf meant that guys could finally get their lines wet again.
Luckily it is not the end of the world now that the shad season is closed as there are plenty of other species of edible fish about. One angler caught two nice brusher on the Monday last week in the rough water and these fish weighed around 8kg and 5kg respectively (see catch of the week). A couple of decent stumpies were also caught and big blacktail are still on the bite in some areas. Many of these fish like rough water with brusher prefering daylight hours while stumpies are often landed after dark.
As expected, there was no news of any garrick from the locals, but these fish will still be around until November before they start moving back down to the colder Cape waters. I saw that an angler caught a garrick weighing over 16kg up in the Richards Bay area last week, using a live shad as bait. Up until now, the local garrick season has not produced any fireworks, although a few fish have been caught.
Another species that will still be around for a while is the daga salmon and with the ginger beer water at present, there is every chance of pulling a nice salmon in the dark with a live bait or a fresh fish fillet. Anglers should not be in too much of a hurry to strike if they are having a pull from a daga because these fish tend to suck on the bait before moving off and swallowing, so it is better to let these fish take some line before setting the hook. One must also be very patient when fishing for these big salmon so a rod holder could be a good idea. One very competent angler once told me that the best angler is the rod holder and one should not have the drag on the reel set tightly.
Deep sea anglers have said that there have been some decent bottom fish on the bite when they have been able to get out and I have also heard that there are plenty of shoals of small bonito about. This could have been what the marlin that I saw two weeks ago were feeding on.The deeper water is looking a nice blue color so early gamefish could be in local waters soon.
Sealice