Angling Report – 3 July 2015

A small pocket of sardines appeared in the Umhlanga Rocks area again on Monday morning but the fish soon disappeared and it was only on Wednesday that another shoal suddenly arrived off the Durban beachfront. An isolated pocket moved inshore in the Zimbali area on Wednesday and these fish could have been chased inshore by gamefish because a couple of garrick were caught in the area before the sards disappeared again. On Saturday morning the netters found a fairly large shoal of sardines in the Scottbourgh area which led to some good catches. On Sunday morning there were a few sardines in the Umgababa area but these were small pockets. I saw a bit of sardine activity off Westbrook beach at lunchtime on Sunday, but the fish were far out at sea and they were only visible because there was a bit of bird activity.
After some rather quiet fishing in the Durban North area the weekend before, the shad suddenly came on the bite in the Virginia area last week. One angler told me that they smashed the shad in the area and the one or two anglers that swam out live shad were soon into garrick. As the week progressed, catches of shad dwindled and in moved the maasbanker, pinkies and surprising enough, sand soldiers.
There have been shad caught from a couple of the local spots but the fish have all been on the small side, only good to use as live bait for garrick which are feeding in local waters. The Zimbali and Tongaat river mouth areas have produced garrick, but I believe that these areas were pretty quiet during the weekend. I also saw three nice shoal salmon that were caught locally during the week and these fish weighed between three and four kilos.
I hear that the Tugela north bank is still working well with small shad, shoal salmon and garrick being caught. Anglers fishing that area have been enjoying a good run of salmon, even though the fish are not all that big. It’s a pity that fuel costs so much these days because one has to think very carefully before planning a trip to the Tugela area.
Another area that has fished quite well recently is further south at Tinley Manor. One can almost be assured that garrick will be in this area now and from what I hear, there is plenty of live bait around.
Offshore anglers fishing the backline in the Durban North area during last week managed to catch a few snoek plus several garrick. Those anglers that prefer fishing on the bottom have been catching some nice fish when using fresh bait, landing big rockcod among other things. I heard at the weekend that the light tackle boat anglers fishing in the bay have caught a couple of big Scotsman and this is also a bit unusual.
I think that this week will be another one of watching out for sardines and with the calm seas there is a chance of the fish moving closer inshore.

Sealice