Angling Report – 11 March 2016

Sea and surf conditions were excellent for most of last week with really small surf at times. News was that anglers experienced some excellent fishing from many of the popular fishing beaches.
There were shoals of baitfish moving along the backline and gamefish could be seen smashing into these shoals in several areas. Anglers fishing from the beach in the Umdhloti area mid-week had some hectic fishing when gamefish chased baitfish into the surf and several species were caught spinning from the big bricks. The fish caught included snoek, small yellowfin tuna and even a barracouta. Sharks were also seen smashing into the baitfish and a couple of anglers fishing from the beach had some excellent sport when they hooked into these sharks. The anglers had two good days in the flat conditions but the swell moved in from deep on Friday night and there was a big backline running by the morning with only one shad coming out.
I had a word with one of the local regular anglers in the Westbrook area on Friday morning and he said that he had fished most of the week and had caught two small stumpies and one big blacktail weighing just over half a kilo. He said that there was a sandbank stretching across the area preventing the fish from moving inshore through the shallow water.
One of my friends in Durban contacted me on Friday afternoon and he said that he was told that a couple of snoek had also been caught from the rocks in the La Mercy area.
Local ski boat skipper, Poobal Govender, told me that the baitfish shoals stretched from La Mercy down to Umdhloti. He said that he could not get in close to the baitballs because of the presence of surf ski anglers but apparently the guys did manage to hook a couple of fish. He went on to where the ships were anchored off Durban because anglers had got into wahoo the day before. Unfortunately he did not manage to catch any wahoo but did pull two yellowfin tuna. One of my Durban angling friends did manage to catch two wahoo among the ships on Thursday after arriving late on the scene.
Gamefish anglers are saying that sharks have been a real problem this year and apparently there are some real submarines around. The problem with sharks during the gamefish season has been around for a few years now but the numbers of sharks seem to have increased and anglers are finding it almost impossible to boat fish.
Crayfish divers were blessed with almost perfect sea conditions for the start of the crayfish season and I saw some really big crays brought ashore by divers in the Tongaat area. One diver told me that he had been in the water no longer than half an hour for his bag limit of eight crays and he said that he had caught plenty but sorted out only the best to keep.
For a change it was an excellent week for anglers so lets hope that the weather holds and the catches keep coming.
Sealice