Angling Report – 17 October 2014

The surf was rough during the beginning of last week but moderated steadily as the days went by. The water was quite clean as well towards the end of the week, but the strong north east on Saturday, soon brought the dirty water back.
A couple of the local regular anglers were actually glad that the surf was rough on Monday morning as they caught a couple of nice sized stumpies in the Tongaat area before first light. Both fish were caught on live crab baits and it seems as if there are a number of stumpies around at present. I was told that the large stumpie shown in the photograph last week had several hooks in its mouth – it was obviously hooked and lost on several occasions. A fish of nearly 6kg has very powerful jaws and can crush hooks without much effort.
As expected, there were fewer anglers on the beaches during the early morning periods because of the shad season being closed. I noticed that some of the anglers were still using wire traces and it was probably just as well because the sharks were back on the bite on Thursday morning. The guys were getting pulls on a regular basis and had a great time fighting these sharks that all weighed around 6kg. Small sharks should become more abundant from now on so anglers can expect some good sport especially during the early mornings and late afternoons.
My friends from the Umhlanga and Durban North areas tell me there are some big bull mullet being caught in the surf and the odd decent sized wave garrick have been caught in the Glenashley area. Unfortunately the shad have been a bit of a problem at times but anglers will have to accept this for the next few weeks. Apparently two small skates were caught from the beach at Glenashley during the latter part of last week. There was no news of any garrick which was little surprising, but I hear a decent salmon came out in the Virginia area also during the latter part of last week. Apparently the crowds have not been as large in these areas so fishing should be pretty comfortable.
I did not see too many guys fishing from the rocks last week and those who I had a word with said that things were pretty quiet apart from a couple of blacktail and karrenteen coming out. One angler fishing in the rocky La Mercy area said that he had lost a couple of nice fish when the line became entangled in the rocks. He believes that it was rockcod, swimming back into their hole after being hooked. The angler also said that the gullies where he regularly fishes have been nicely scoured out by the heavy seas and he expects to have some excellent fishing in the near future.
The spring storms have now started and as a kid I was always told by the older experienced fishermen that once the storms arrive, the salmon come on the bite. Through the years I have found this to be largely true in local waters and have seen some very nice salmon caught at this time of the year. Two spots that proved productive in the past were the aptly named Salmon bay in Ballito and the Salt Rock area.
The news of small skates being caught certainly gives the surf anglers a bit of a ‘heads up’ because this could mean the beginning of the summer flatfish season. If the weather holds up, some exciting sport can be expected.
Sealice

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