Angling Report

Last week did not begin on a good fishing note as Monday’s weather was terrible with a southerly wind and rain. Two excellent days followed, however, on Tuesday and Wednesday when the weather and sea conditions were perfect for fishing throughout the day and night. Unfortunately, it changed again on Thursday and the north easterly began pushing through before first light. By lunchtime the wind was pretty strong and the sea was looking ugly plus the water had turned dirty.
Several big shad weighing between three and four kilos were caught by local anglers, with some being put back into the water and others not. Two anglers fished the Sheffield area on Friday morning with live karranteen and they were trying for garrick when one of them was “picked up”. The angler thought that he had hooked a nice garrick but the fish turned out to be a shad of 3,5kg and this was one of the fish that was released. At least some people obey the rules these days. I believe that several big shad were caught in the Umhlanga and Glenashley areas as well, but I don’t think that too many fish were returned alive to the water in these areas.
Anglers fishing amongst the rocks caught some nice fish again last week. Bronze bream were on the bite again and a couple of nice sized spade fish were also caught. The bronze bream that I have seen recently have all been of a decent size and are in excellent condition and they seem to be everywhere where there are a few stones. More and more anglers are starting to target these fish nowadays whereas before just a select few would fish for this species as they were only found in selected areas locally.
Anglers fishing the South Coast areas also found that the fishing was productive with a few decent salmon and grunter being caught in some areas in the dark and in the mornings there have been the inevitable shad at first light. Anglers looking for the larger fish have found sharks feeding from the deep water points and there have been a couple of early season skates as well. Surprisingly, there has not been any news of garrick being caught but anglers tend to keep the news of catches quiet to try and stop the crowds gathering. I believe that there have been a couple of garrick caught on the lower South Coast.
In past years, one would see numerous anglers targeting shad at this time of the year but I have only seen a few that are blatantly fishing the early mornings during the closed season for this much sought after species. When talking to the locals one senses that the anglers are nervous about fishing for shad because nobody really knows anything about the new patrol officers because I believe that the word is that they do not wear uniforms and it is difficult to distinguish between them and normal members of the public. I have spent a considerable amount of time at several beaches recently and I have not seen anyone that could be a patrol officer. I have not seen any angler being asked to show his fishing permit or have his tackle checked but this does not mean that these guys are not around.
I wonder whether it is just the surf and offshore anglers that will come under the spotlight or will the people that poach under the cover of darkness also be in the spotlight? I read the report on the gill nets in the Tugela area and those fish that were in the photograph were tiny juvenile fish on the protected list that were killed. The shoveling of mussels off the rocks also happens mostly at night so I think that the few officers that are allocated to patrol the local beaches have their work cut out for them. Will they cope? I do not think so and it is still not clear as to who is going to be allowed to do what.
Sealice

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