Angling Report – 19 December 2014

Surf conditions were good for fishing for most of last week with Thursday and Friday the best days with almost no surf at all. The north easterly winds are blowing most days now which is normal for this time of the year and I can see that the summer sandbanks are already beginning to build. The days are also becoming hotter with a lot more humidity and these conditions are ideal for the summer fish.
Shad were caught most mornings last week but the fish are becoming smaller which shows that the season is coming to an end. Most of the fish caught were still over the legal limit of 300mm, but it will not be long before these fish are gone, leaving only undersized shad around. Most of the local popular shad angling spots produced fish, but they are not staying on the bite for any length of time – mostly only between 4.30am and 5am. I think that the second half of this week will be ideal to try for shad during the late afternoons as the tides will be right.
I mentioned in the last column that a few grunter had been caught from the Durban North beaches and this past week, some anglers had some hectic fishing with the grunter. Some big fish up to 6kg were landed and a friend told me he caught limit bags of four really decent fish on two evenings running. The grunter seem to be feeding from the Umgeni North bank to Virginia beach but sealice bait is a must. The fish seems to feed mostly on the grey sealice that can be caught along most of our sandy beaches. I was told that there were a couple of anglers using the spotted sealice variety but that they had no luck at all. The grunter are mostly feeding from late afternoon into the night.
Anglers looking to catch the big summer flatfish could be in for some excellent fishing from now on because these fish seem to be well established in local waters. I saw an angler pull a very nice sandie of around 30kg on Thursday afternoon at the La Mercy river mouth. The fish took about forty five minutes to land in the calm conditions. I have also heard from other anglers that a few skates have also been caught locally this past week. Fresh sardine bait will work well for these fish. I believe that the guys fishing for grunter in the Durban North area have also landed a few sandies on sealice bait. The sandsharks and large rays love the sandy beaches so one must not be put off if there is a bit of a sandbank in the water.
Anglers using light tackle with drop-shots could be in for some fun with wave garrick and small pompano. It has also been reported that small kingfish have been seen by divers in several areas and these fish really give a good pull when fishing light. Ballito has some excellent fishing areas when using drop shot and some of the rocky outcrops could produce a few really decent fish.
There have been some decent sized sharks caught from rocky outcrops recently with the larger fish being caught on live shad – mostly by anglers using the sliding their bait.
The water has not been very clean inshore recently, but I have heard that anglers have been catching dorado out deep off Durban and Ballito. There was even a very nice sailfish caught off Durban last week. In the past we always used to say that the 16th of December is the time when the couta come on the bite and although this has not been the case in recent years, anglers could do worse than try for an hour at first light for a couta or two. There are still some big yellow-fin tunny about and deep sea anglers have reported seeing shoals of bonito working on the surface.
Good luck to everyone this week and keep the photo’s coming.
Sealice