Angling Report – 23 December 2016

There was a windy beginning to last week with a fresh to strong north easterly wind on Monday, then a fresh southerly on Tuesday. The sea and weather conditions were perfect on Wednesday and Thursday, however, and holiday makers really saw the best of the Dolphin Coast. The weather changed again at the beginning of the long weekend on Friday morning when a southerly wind began blowing early in the morning and the sky began to cloud over but all it did was flatten the surf and bring a bit of welcome rain.
I visited a favorite fishing spot just north of Westbrook beach last week where I had enjoyed some excellent fishing in the past. There was an angler fishing from the beach and when I walked up to him, I realized that it was one of the regular anglers in the area. On enquiring about the fishing he said that nothing was happening but that he had caught a nice stumpie of 4kg the day before. He also said that he had had a bit of an altercation with a pair of foreigners.
Apparently, he was fishing during the low tide when this couple arrived at the beach and proceeded onto the rocks to pick mussels. The angler watched the couple and he said that they filled three plastic shopping bags before walking off the rocks. As this couple were walking off the beach, the angler said to them that there was a limit on how many mussels they could take off the rocks and they were way above the legal limit. The couple became really angry and began shouting in their own language. The angler could see that the people were becoming aggressive so he backed off a bit. They left the beach still waving their arms and shouting. The angler also told me that he had managed to have a quick glimpse into one of the plastic bags and he saw that many of the mussels were very small and also contained at least one baby octopus. The rock from which the couple had stripped the mussels is the same one that for decades, the local people would gather mussels, always choosing carefully and only picking one or two from any one area.
This was what the local conservation minded people were afraid of when it was announced that the Ezemvelo wildlife contract would not be renewed. If these guys were still policing the area, the couple would not have gotten away with their bags full of mussels because they were always around during the spring low tide periods. I am sure that this was not just an isolated incident and if this type of behavior continues, all the local rocks will be bare of any life very shortly.
Early morning anglers managed to catch a few shad during the week but they were not as plentiful as this time last year. It has been a pretty decent year for stumpies and a couple of nice fish were landed last week with the preferred bait being crab. There was a nice 4,5kg stumpie caught on sardine fillet in the Umdhloti area early on Wednesday morning. I believe that a couple of holiday makers had some excellent sport with inedible fish in the Ballito area as well.
It has been a long, long time since I have seen jellyfish washed up on the beach or even seen them at sea. I can remember way back when I used to go fishing with my dad during the months of October and November and no matter where we were, there were big pieces of jellyfish washed up on the beach. During the 1970s we would launch from Westbrook beach during the summer months and there would be acres of jellies floating on the water. It was well known amongst the anglers at that time that if there were jellyfish around, there would be plenty of barracouta as well. The bluebottles still arrive with the Mozambique current but not the jellyfish. Could this be because of the change in the weather patterns?
The entrance to Westbrook on the M4 side was a sorry sight on Saturday morning. This was after another all-night party and although I did not venture down to the beach, I would think that the car park was much the same. Why people must smash bottles on the road I do not know but it happens every year at this time.
I trust that everyone will have a joyous and safe festive season.
Sealice

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