Angling Report – 14 August 2015

The surf was mostly on the rough side last week but conditions settled nicely over the weekend. The weather report for the first couple of days of this week does not look all that great but the predicted rain will be most welcome.

The surf angling last week was mostly about the shad and they were thick in a couple of places. Blue Lagoon to Umhlanga Rocks again produced most of the action and my contacts told me that at Durban View the shad were eating both spoon and bait with anglers quickly exceeding limit catches. Looks like the fun begins at first light but the fish continue to feed during the day at some spots. Some anglers are even catching shad well after last light and well into the night. It looks like the average fish caught is now in the region of 1 to 1,5kg and even an excellent specimen of 5,4kg was landed. This fish presently leads the Kingfisher largest shad competition for the month of August.

I heard on Wednesday morning that anglers were averaging between 16 and 20 fish per before the conservation people arrived and the usual digging up of buried fish began. Plenty of shad were confiscated and as can be expected nobody took ownership. One excuse I heard before was that once the shad come on the feed, anglers forget all about the catch and size limits in the excitement which is absolutely nonsense. The problem is that there is an illicit ready market for the fish and the dollar signs begin to ring. I can remember some years ago that there was one angler that was caught on numerous occasions breaking the laws of fishing. Eventually he had to pay his fine after being caught again and was sentenced to weekend duty on the beach which soon stopped his nonsense because he was a shift worker and the weekend duties interfered with his normal work duties and he was nearly fired from his place of employment. Just a word of warning for the local surf anglers. I have spoken with a couple of the conservation officers and they tell me that they mean business with protecting our marine resources. This year’s run is turning out one of the better one’s in years so do not spoil it for yourself.

The local beaches are producing a few shad but nothing like the Durban North areas, which is consistent with a trend I have noticed over the years. The shad feed up to around Umhlanga in the south and then only seem to feed from Tinley Manor northwards. In between there are a few fish but some beaches that used to be renowned shad spots remain pretty dead. Maybe there is something wrong with the water in the local areas or is it something else. Whatever the problem, local anglers have until the end of September to catch their quota of fish before the season doses.

There has been quite a few snoek and garrick around along the backline and even in the surf along the Durban North beaches. Surf ski and ski boat anglers have experienced some excellent fishing and I saw that quite a few craft have been fishing the backline in the Tongaat mouth area so there must be garrick around in the area.

Sealice