Fish Eagle / Angling Report

The weather was excellent for fishing for most of last week and it was only at the end of the week that a bit of bad weather moved in and spoiled the chances of the weekend anglers. One of my fishing friends had been fishing the Virginia area recently and a few very nice edible fish were landed. Apparently the roads and parking areas in that area had been nicely re-vamped and a boom had been erected to only allow a certain number of vehicles access at one time. With the extra security in place, anglers are feeling a lot safer when fishing in this popular spot. Although there is a build up of sand in the area (like most other beaches at the moment), there is a nice deep channel and this is where the fish have been feeding. A few good sized grunter have come out during the late afternoons and early evenings. These fish have apparently been feeding on sealice and sometimes on fresh sardine fillet baits. I believe that there have also been a few big blacktail caught in the dark so Virginia could be well worth a visit at present.
Local surf anglers will be glad to hear that a few decent pompano were caught from a couple of local beaches last week. I have been told that several pompano came out in the Tinley Manor area and a large specimen was also caught at Salt Rock on a crab bait. The regular anglers will now be trying their local spots and targeting the pompano and they will no doubt be joined by the many visiting fishermen over the long weekend. One of the popular pompano fishing spots is Salmon Bay in Ballito where I have caught some big pompano in the past. An all nylon trace, which should not be too short, a 3-0 hook with crayfish, prawn or crab baits work best for these fish. Pompano have also been known to take artificial lures such as the rubber drop-shots. They don’t normally feed early in the mornings so anglers should be patient when fishing for this species.
Visiting anglers will likely be happy to hear that there are still a couple of nice sized sharks and summer flatfish being caught from the local beaches. Live or fresh fillet baits plus a fresh mackeral or sardine heads has produced a few pulls. Again, the Ballito beaches should produce a few of these fish with Salmon Bay southwards a good area. Another area to try is the Tongaat long beach at the mouth and Sheffield, which has produced a few big flatfish recently.
Offshore anglers found plenty of livebait again this week and big tuna continue to feed, with some of the fish caught weighing close to 40kg. The dorado seem to be tailing off a bit and unfortunately the water in the inshore gamefish grounds was not all that clean so just the odd couta was boated. A few snoek were also caught close in, but the fishing for this species was not as good as it should be at this time of the year.
A friend tried fishing on the bottom last week but found that the were some strong currents running that made things very difficult. He said on his way home one day he came across a surf ski angler fishing on the bottom close inshore in the La Mercy area and the angler said that he had caught a couple of nice rubber lips.
Rock and surf anglers fishing this long weekend should be vigilant when fishing because there are a few unsavory characters hanging around and just watching for any opportunity to rob the unwary. Tight lines.

Sealice