Angling Report – 12 December 2014

Anglers flocked to the beaches at the beginning of last week as the shad season opened again. Unfortunately the tides were unfavorable with low tide at first light and although I saw a reasonable crowd at Westbrook on Monday, I didn’t see anything caught. Surf conditions were excellent however – maybe too good as the water was crystal clear which sometimes cause the fish to be more cautious.
Apparently the fishing was also dead on Tuesday morning at first light, but I did see two very nice shad of around 1,5 and 2kg caught at lunch time that day when the tide was full. The moderate easterly was still blowing but the fishing conditions remained good. From Wednesday onwards, there was more water at first light and the anglers did catch a few fish. Because the shad are quickly moving south at present, the sizes of the fish being caught are varying from just over the legal limit to very nice sized fish. Two beauties caught at Westbrook last week weighed 5,3kg and the other 3.5kg.
During the years I have found that although some big shad are caught in the mornings, these larger fish do show a preference to feed during the late afternoons and even into the night. These days the monster shad seem to be loners and are not shoaling like they used to in the golden years of shad fishing. Another thing that anglers will notice is that the shad have an appearance of being slender and this is because they have now spawned, meaning that they have dropped their eggs and are moving back to cooler waters. In the old days we used to call these fish return shad.
The fishing was quiet at the weekend and the sea was looking very green with the clean blue water far out to sea. I believe that the surf ski anglers that launched in the Umhlanga area all returned to shore and said that the fishing was quiet even though they all had quality live bait. I could understand why these guys caught nothing after seeing how far out the clean line was. I did hear though that a couple of big grunter were caught in the Virginia and Beachwood areas late on Saturday afternoon. It was the anglers using sealice who scored.
I have heard reports that the big summer flatfish are definitely a lot closer to local waters with a nice honeycomb ray being caught at the Blythedale mouth and a couple of sandies being landed during the week at Glenashley. There have been some nice grey sharks caught in this area as well but most of the anglers are still targeting the shad.
The holidaymakers are arriving now and I would like to just give a word of caution for those travelling to and from fishing spots. There are a lot of parties at present especially during the weekends where a lot of alcohol is consumed and even though there is an abundance of law enforcement officers around, the roads will be dangerous. I saw many inebriated people on the beach at Westbrook again on both days last weekend and just after nine on Sunday morning, there was a horrific accident right opposite me on the link road from the M4 to Tongaat. The accident involved a taxi and a resident of Westbrook and I believe there were several fatalities.
Every year I like to warn the visitors to be very careful when fishing on the rocks. These rocky outcrops can be very dangerous at times, especially if wet and some serious injuries have been reported in the past. I wish the visitors many happy fishing hours and remember, the early mornings and late afternoons are the most productive fishing times.
Sealice

Awards Evening
Umhlali Angling Club honoured their achievers at a prize giving held on Friday night at the Hackland Farm. Big winners included Ian Mulcahy, who received the angler of the year and coveted chairman’s cup trophies as well as Alex Whitehead who scooped second position in the angler of the year as well as top edible caught for 2014.