Angling Report – 23 October 2015

Anglers had a lot of wind to put up with last week and at times it was really uncomfortable on the beach with the sand being blown around. The wind blew mainly from the north east but there were southerly winds as well with one westerly buster that came through during the middle of the week. The northerly winds have brought back the sand and some of the popular angling beaches again have sandbanks that stretch across the mid-break area, making it almost a waste of time fishing during the low water periods.

Last week I mentioned the people that call themselves subsistence anglers and apparently these guys had another run-in with the authorities when about a hundred and fifty of them arrived at Durban’s North pier to fish a competition. Everyone is aware that angling from this pier has been stopped for some time now, but these guys tried to force their way onto the pier saying that they had a permit to fish from this venue. Of course they were stopped from entering onto the pier and they are now saying that the authorities are stopping them from earning a living as most of them are unemployed.

I can’t see how these people earn a living fishing from the surf unless they are breaking the laws concerning catch and size limits. The vast majority of edible fish caught throughout the year in the Durban area and the lower North Coast are shad and all anglers are aware of the closed seasons and catch limits. Although the weather conditions were not on the side of anglers last week, you could still find copper bream on the bite in numerous rocky areas. Anglers reported catching two or three copper bream an outing and those fishing the open stretches have had some excellent sport with grey sharks. I heard that one or two small sandsharks have also been landed as well so the summer season could well be underway. With the windy conditions the water has been mostly discolored which at this time of the year could be an advantage to anglers. The big blue shad will start moving into the local beaches very soon and they will actually prove to be a bit of a nuisance until the season reopens at the beginning of December.

I had an interesting conversation with a couple of surf ski anglers during the week and they were telling me that some of their friends have already caught a couple of small yellow fin tuna close inshore and one of these anglers told me that he had caught two big garrick in the Peace Cottage area with live pinkie as bait. Peace Cottage is the area just north of the Umhlanga river mouth. The guys were also saying that sharks are a problem when fishing the backline with live bait at the moment.

Anglers have also mentioned the presence of bluebottles in the water so there should be dorado in the deep. Apparently there is still plenty of live bait around so the offshore angling could improve as the sea settles a bit.

Sealice