Angling Report

Every day last week I monitored the sea and it was only towards the weekend that the swell and surf moderated enough to allow anglers some fishing time.
At the beginning of the week the sea and surf conditions were excellent with hot and humid days. Anglers fishing the deep water spots caught a few snoek on spoon and the anglers fishing with bait pulled a couple of nice pompano as well. These conditions lasted until Wednesday and then a south westerly wind came through on Wednesday evening and this wind blew the whole of the Thursday and Friday.
At this time of year the Mozambique current that flows from north to south moves closer inshore and with the southerly wind blowing for as long as it did, one can expect a large swell to build up. Residue from the cyclone that crossed Madagascar could also have influenced the size of the swell that caused most of the damage in the Durban area and here locally, depositing a lot of sand on the beaches.
The strong surf could have been what the crayfish divers were hoping for because a lot of holes would have been opened up with all the movement of the sand. Although the sea had moderated enough to allow the divers to swim out to the reefs, unfortunately the water was not all that clean. I watched a pair of crayfish divers in the Tongaat area on Saturday and although they spent a considerable amount of time in the water they did not venture out too deep. When the divers emerged from the water I saw that they had seven crayfish between them and they said that there were plenty of undersized crays but did not venture out too far because the visibility was not all that good and there was a bit of a current as well.
At the weekend I contacted a fishing companion from a long while back and this friend always fishes with three other anglers. My friend said that prior to the bad weather they had been having some luck at night with grunter fishing just south of Beachwood and just north of the beach that used to be called Rocket Hut, which is at the bottom of Broadway in Durban North.
On Friday evening the anglers decided that the surf had settled enough so they decided to visit the same area and try for the grunter again. They were using cracker shrimp and shell bait and between the four of them they landed two nice grunter weighing 4kg and 3,5kg.
Just before the bad sea conditions, anglers found that small salmon were coming on the bite mainly in the river mouth areas and now, with the water being a little discolored, the salmon could be back as it is the right time of the year for these excellent table fish. The best time to catch these fish is in the early evenings and early mornings in the dark. Always in the past I would have a few throws in the early evenings and try for these salmon and received the best results at this time of the year.
It is equinox time again and traditionally the weather over the equinox period is either very good or very bad. We all know that this is the time that we have the highest of the high tides and the lowest of the low tides.
Sealice
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