Angling Report

Rough surf conditions kept anglers off the beaches for much of last week and the fresh north easterly wind on Wednesday did not help matters. The water was dirty far out because of the rivers flooding into the sea and the Umgeni brought down tons of rubbish. It is actually a disgrace just how much rubbish humans dump into this river and others along the coastline. The problem has been ongoing for a while but the situation has become much worse and people walking along the promenade at Umhlanga Rocks were shocked by the amount of rubbish deposited on the beach by the big surf. I was talking to a friend just a couple of weeks ago and he told me that after many years, he would not be paddling in the Duzi again because of the condition of the river water.
When I had a look at the sea on Friday, it was not looking good as there was a fresh south westerly wind blowing that created very rough seas and a strong south-to-north drift. The fishing conditions were surprisingly good on Saturday morning and the sea beyond the waves was looking pretty glassy. I had a word with one angler that fished the early morning and he said that the fishing was quiet with just a few peckers cleaning up fillet baits. I saw some photos again last week of big shad that have been caught recently. Again, some fish were returned alive and unharmed while others were not. The best fish was one that weighed in excess of 6kg and this fish was caught in the Umhlanga Rocks area. This beautiful fish was returned alive to the water and the angler that caught the fish said he thought that he was fighting a nice sized garrick. This was also the largest shad that this angler had ever landed.
I was watching during the week as some anglers were fishing amongst the rocks for copper bream. They were struggling in the strong surf and I didn’t see any fish caught – but there was a fair amount of tackle lost in the rocks. I heard that the copper bream were back on the bite again over the weekend and one angler lost a big fish thought to be a brusher. The angler was using medium to light tackle at the time and he was targeting the bronzies. One guy fishing the Umhlanga area early on Saturday caught a stumpie of 5kg on a sardine bait whilst targeting salmon in the dark. The water was a nice ginger beer color which is ideal for the salmon.
It was a pity that the sea turned ugly at the beginning of last week because I am sure that anglers would have enjoyed some excellent fishing, especially the guys targeting the large inedible fish.
There have been reports of anglers being smashed-up by large sharks of late and the skates are becoming more numerous. With better weather this week and the tide moving off springs, anglers are speculating that some nice fish will be caught. There is just a week to go before the shad season opens again and I am sure that there is going to be an early morning rush to the beach on December 1.
I didn’t receive much news from the offshore anglers because of the bad weather but I am sure that a few big tuna were caught at the weekend. These fish are widespread now, especially where bait fish can be found. I must admit that the sea looked a bit cleaner at the weekend but one cannot really tell from the beach. On many occasions, I have seen that the water was clean but on launching through the surf, have found the water to be a horrible green color.
I believe that the anglers that braved the big surf conditions up at Sodwana Bay managed to catch some nice dorado and there have been a few billfish hook-up’s already this season. There has not been any news of couta being caught in that area but historically, it is not the best time for couta.
I mentioned earlier about people dumping rubbish into the rivers. On Saturday morning I was on my way to Ballito at around 7am. I was driving behind a taxi in the vicinity of the sewerage plant when suddenly a plastic shopping bag came flying out of the passenger side window. I swerved to avoid the bag that landed on the road and inside there were empty fast food containers. It seems that dumping is the culture these days.
Sealice

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