Angling Report

The pier at Virginia beach has been in the news recently because of the drowning of four anglers who were fishing off this structure. I was there the Friday morning just two days before the two anglers drowned on the Sunday afternoon and was talking to a couple of anglers who fish the area on a regular basis. We were watching half a dozen anglers who were fishing off the pier when the topic of how dangerous it was and that something needed to be done came up. I mentioned that the pier was built when the pipeline was extended out to sea and not for the convenience of anglers, hence it is definitely dangerous. Just four days after the two anglers drowned, another fell off the pier and drowned. He was on this structure even though the access was locked and the public was prohibited from entering. He fell off the pier at around 1am in the morning and the question must be asked why he climbed onto this structure in the dark, knowing full well that what he was doing was extremely risky.
During the week I had a word with several anglers fishing the local angling spots and all of them had caught bronzies or copper bream. Some had two or three fish but one angler had four beautiful bronzies in excellent condition. This season is very much as it was last year at this time because these fish are widespread. The crayfish divers also confirm that there are plenty of copper bream to be found in the rocky areas. They are also saying that they have seen a number of big stumpies so it seems as if the anglers that fish solely for the edible species can expect some productive angling.
The crayfish season is now closed until the beginning of March next year and the divers will probably be gearing up for the forthcoming game fish season. I spoke to a pair of spear fishermen that had just walked off the beach in the La Mercy area towards the end of last week and between them they had speared one garrick of around 6kg plus a couple of spadefish. They said the plan was to target snoek that had been quite plentiful in the area recently, but they had not seen any all the time that they were in the water. The divers also said the water was not all that clean and when I queried other species of gamefish, they said they did not swim much beyond the backline as they were a bit worried about sharks in the murky water.
I heard that boat anglers caught some excellent bottom fish during the week deep off Durban. Catches included trawl soldiers, big rockcod and geelbek salmon. Offshore anglers also caught a few sizeable yellowfin tuna and one angler that was fishing out deep said that they saw a big marlin break surface a short distance away from where they were fishing but it was only a fleeting glance and they could not identify which species of marlin that they had seen. Apparently the water was beautiful out in the deep so the first of the gamefish species cannot be far away.
Surf ski anglers fishing the Umhlanga area again had some great fun with yellowfin tuna and some really nice fish were caught. A couple of these anglers were towed around by the big tunny and it certainly seems as if it is going to be another great season with these hard fighting fish. In the past the deep sea anglers did not really spend time fishing for the tuna because there was a plentiful supply of other gamefish species. It was only when fishing competitions that anglers caught these fish but even then, the weight points allocated to this species was low and emphasis was on the barracouta and billfish. Today it is different and the yellowfin have become a target for mainly the surf ski anglers or those that fish the catch and release programmes.
Sealice