Angling Report – 1 April 2016

Surf and sea conditions were not all that great last week and although it looked like things were improving on Friday, it was not to be as fresh winds continued to make for rough seas. The sea water itself has been a horrible green color, partly caused by river water flowing into the sea and also churn- up of the bottom that happens when the north easterly winds blow. On Thursday morning, I saw  the sea was full of holes after the wind the day before and as expected I did not see many fishing craft at sea because travelling on the water in such conditions could be dangerous, not to mention very uncomfortable. There have, however, been some very nice couta caught recently and I was told of one of around 19kg landed from Stud Rock in the Westbrook beach area. Further south in the La Mercy area a couple of nice fish have been caught as well recently.
Unfortunately, the greenish water attracts sharks which seem to be almost everywhere at present, with anglers losing fish and tackle. It will be interesting to see what tactics anglers will use in this coming weekend’s big competition hosted by the Durban Ski Boat club.
Surf anglers struggled for fish last week and most catches were made up of small shad, some blacktail, a few wave garrick and a couple of big skates. Anglers have been complaining about plenty of weed in the water in some areas and also the strong surf conditions. Fishing during the low water periods has also been difficult because most of the popular angling spots are sanded up badly and there is very little water on these banks.
People seem to be shying away from fishing the popular rocky areas in the La Mercy area because criminals are very active and it is not safe to fish this stretch at present. A shame because La Mercy is well known as good grounds for brusher and copper bream. Anglers and divers seem to be seen as soft targets for the criminals who break into vehicles and cause a lot of damage.
The shad anglers have been telling me that using a whole sardine as bait is the way to go these days as this normally produces a pull far sooner than fillet baits. The result is that when purchasing bait, anglers are looking for the smallest sardines they can find. The sardines are fitted to the wire trace with the heads facing away from the hook and the swivel at the end of the wire should lie right next to the eye of the sard. I normally slit open the sardine’s belly and insert the wire trace into the belly section with the barb of the hook protruding next to the backbone near the tail. The bait should be bound with cotton neatly so that oil from the sardine will slowly leak into the water.
We are now one month into the season of Autumn and although it is becoming nice and cool in the early mornings the north easterly winds are still bringing the hot humid weather with them. These winds should start easing off a bit from now because the month of April is normally the time of the year that the best weather is experienced at the coast. Usually it brings with it days with light winds and calm seas so let us hope that this year is no exception.
Sealice