Angling Report – 6 May 2016

The weather played a major role in the fishing conditions last week and this began on Monday morning with a rough surf after the weekend’s strong winds. On Tuesday morning a strong south westerly buster came through before first light and the strong wind continued all day long resulting in rough seas. The big surf swell continued for much of the week but was moderating on Friday morning before another weather front ruined anglers’ plans for the long weekend. I could see during the week that some of the local beaches were being scoured by the strong surf and south to north side wash. Fortunately, the south westerly blew itself out on Saturday afternoon and left behind cold and wet weather and rough seas.
As expected with the unfavourable fishing conditions, very few anglers tried their luck and very few fish were caught. A friend phoned me on Monday evening and said that he had been fishing in the Umdloti area late that afternoon. The surf was rough and he decided to pack up just after dark as he hadn’t had any bites at all. As anglers do he decided to have one more throw before heading home and about five minutes later the tip of his rod suddenly dipped and he was into a fish. He soon had the fish in the shore dump but when using the wave to land the fish, the hook pulled and the fish was washed back into the water. My friend had been close enough to recognize that it was a salmon or kob weighing around eight or nine kilos.
It is amazing that just as soon as the fishing improves, along comes some bad weather and angling goes off the boil again. I have noticed this time after time and it is no wonder that anglers become frustrated and pack their equipment away in disgust. From now on anglers can expect more cold fronts moving up the coast and it always seems like these coincide with the weekends more often than not. Not to despair however as this time of the year can also be the most productive time in fishing circles. I have seen and caught some very nice edible fish in the past and the trick is to persevere even though the conditions are not that great.
I heard that before the onset of the bad weather, anglers were catching some nice edible fish far down south and a few decent sized salmon and garrick were caught by the rock and surf anglers. I know that many anglers do not like to travel these days because of the cost but it could be a good idea to gather a group together to share the cost and embark on a trip down south. These days one can see the weather patterns far in advance so it is pretty easy to plan a trip.
Sea conditions should settle during the week and the fish could be back on the bite again and I am sure that shad will make up the bulk of catches. There could be some larger fish like salmon and garrick around as well so anglers should make sure that their equipment is in good order.
As soon as the surf settles a bit, offshore anglers will be able to launch again and this is the time of the year that the big couta can be found. Fishing the relatively shallow reefs for bottom fish, a trap stick near the bottom could produce a nice couta. In the past, the ledges off Ballito would start producing some nice moff grunter along with lantern bream and rockcod. Unfortunately, sometimes we would find plenty of barbell on these reefs which could be a real nuisance so the best of luck for the coming week.
Sealice

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