Angling Report – 17 July 2015

Although the fishing conditions were not all that ideal last week for the rock and surf anglers, a few regulars did manage to throw a line on most mornings.

I have been hearing a lot of reports that there have been a few big shad around and on Thursday afternoon I had a call from a friend who told me that he was at Durban View that morning and saw an angler pull a really big shad. I was tempted to visit the area the next day but the swell picked up in the afternoon and I decided against going. Turns out that this was a good decision as apparently not much was caught in the region the following day due to the adverse conditions.

Although a few fish were caught along the local coastline last week, anglers had to work hard for their fish and there were many that caught nothing at all. There are still plenty of baitfish feeding in the surf and this is making the fishing all the more difficult because there is plenty of food about for the likes of the shad, garrick and salmon. Many of the regular local anglers have been fishing the rocky areas because of baits being stripped in a very short time in the surf, but the big waves have restricted the guys a bit. From what I heard not many fish of any size were caught among the stones last week however. Tides will be more favourable this week and it just depends on what type of weather we will have whether anglers will be able to spend time at the beach.

I hear that the Tugela north bank is still fishing well at times with some decent salmon and garrick on the bite. Apparently there are plenty of small shad in the area so there is no shortage of live bait.

No sardines were sighted at all last week along the coast, but the netters seem confident that the sardine run is not yet over and they are watching the sea in the Transkei area carefully. I had a word with a deep sea angling friend during the week and he told me that he had caught a daga salmon off Umdloti and when he brought the fish onto the deck of the boat, it coughed up a fresh sardine which is a sure sign that there are sardines out deep.

Whilst the launch in Durban has been okay, conditions for surf launches have been tricky which meant that not too many boats went out. I did hear that some big couta have been caught up north and there have been some large bottom fish and a few big musselcracker landed as well.

Apparently some offshore fisherman are currently concentrating on fishing for baitfish and are catching plenty of mackeral, massies and red eye sardines that they then sell to local fishing stores. It is a good idea to stock up on these fresh baits while stocks last. All these baitfish are also excellent fare to tempt large blue shad.

Sealice

Fishing Competition

ACDP Kwadukuza will be hosting a fishing competition on Saturday, July 18 at Tinley Manor Beach. Prizes to the value of R4000 are up for grabs, including a Dawai SL50 reel valued at R1500. Registration fees are R150 per angler or R100 per angler for groups of four and more. Contact Loshini Mohanlal at loshinimo@gmail.com or phone him on 084 619 9796 to register or for more information. Registration on the day is from 6am-7am.

Send your name, photo and the details of your catch to sport@northcoastcourier.co.za. Our “Catch of the week” winner receives a R300 voucher from our sponsor. Catches must be submitted within two weeks from being caught.