Angling Report

The sea and surf conditions were not all that great during last week because of the changing weather conditions, but weekend anglers were able to spend some time fishing. The water remained dirty throughout the week but the colour was looking promising during the weekend.
The surf ski anglers found pretty decent launching conditions on Sunday and the guys fishing along the backline in the La Mercy area pulled some nice snoek weighing around three kilos. The water was perfect for the snoek, just a bit off-colour and the fish were hungry. I noticed at the weekend that the ski boat anglers are now fishing the backline at the Tongaat river mouth for garrick and it is the correct time of the year to catch garrick at this river mouth. Although I watched the guys for a while, I did not see any action but everyone knows that fishing for these fish takes a lot of patience and so these anglers probably did catch a couple of fish.
The only time that I saw anglers fishing from the beach during last week was on the public holiday on Wednesday, but the surf was not looking that great and again I saw no action. I did hear that there were a few shad caught early but the fish quickly went off the bite. A few shad were also caught at the weekend but again anglers had to brave the cold and arrive at the beach early. Surprisingly, I have not heard of any brusher being caught yet and I would have thought that the rough conditions would have suited these fish.
I saw a small article in the newspaper last week about the Chinese authorities warning other nations about poaching in their territorial waters. They were saying that harsh action would be taken against any vessels caught fishing illegally. This is very ironic because their fishing fleets roam the world in search of fish and this includes the South African coastline. You just have to look back at the fiasco that played out in the East Coast waters a while back and it is now August and there is still no news of sardines. I still say that the sardine run as we knew it in the past will be no more. There may be a few pockets moving up the coast at times but that will probably be all.
On Sunday a friend called me and said that he had been fishing in the Umdloti area that morning and had caught a couple of very nice sized shad. I was up very early on Monday morning, made some coffee and then had a look outside at the weather. I could see the trees bending and saw that there was a fresh southerly wind blowing. All thoughts of fishing disappeared. This is what we have to expect for the next couple of months because this is the beginning of the windy season along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline.
Normally the north easterly winds begin to sweep down the coast with the odd change to southerly. In recent years, however, the Easterly winds have dominated, pushing day after day without any let up for months at a time. When I was growing up the windy season would begin at the beginning of August and end late October. Weather patterns have changed and nowadays anglers have to make use of any favourable weather windows. Usually the early morning and late afternoon periods remain the best times.
Sealice

Basil Manning is sponsoring a weekly prize of a R200 voucher for the “Catch of the week”. With a specific focus on sustainable use of our ocean resources, preference will be given to fish that has been released – although fish caught and kept will not be disqualified.
Send a good quality photo of your catch to sport@nothcoastcourier.co.za.