Angling Report

After a wet start to the week on Monday, the weather changed and it was not long before the wind began pushing from the North East. At times the sea and surf conditions were not all that good but anglers found reasonably good fishing conditions for the long weekend and the offshore anglers were out in force fishing in the big Durban offshore angling competition.
The sea was a bit bumpy but a couple of crocodile sized couta were caught during the week and it was these big barracouta that the anglers were searching for. The weather was also kind to the competition anglers with a moderate North Easterly wind that only intensified later in the day and this allowed plenty of sea time. I had a couple of friends participating in the competition but although I tried on several occasions to contact them to find out how they were faring, I could not connect to them so I will probably only find out during the week if they won any prizes.
During the week I spoke to several rock and surf anglers that fished the coast from Durban through to Amatikulu and they all said that big sand banks had built up across the popular angling beaches which resulted in poor fishing. I saw the same situation in the Tonga at area so I think that anglers are going to need some of the winter’s cold fronts to move up the coast and break up these banks. It is going to take some real rough weather to do this.
Anglers fishing the rocky areas have found that the copper bream are beginning to be caught again and hopes will be that these fish will be as numerous as last year when anglers had some excellent catches. The copper bream that I saw during last week were quite nice fish and worth trying for. I believe that the catches have not been isolated to any one area so the rock anglers could be in for some productive fishing from now onwards. Other edibles that I have heard of was just a couple of small stumpies that have been caught in the dark but anglers have said that bites have been few and far between.
Down South small garrick are becoming more plentiful and anglers fishing with lures have caught several of these hard fighting winter fish. Live bait seems to be scarce and gone are the days when anglers could rely on catching pinkies and karranteen to use as live bait. One hardly finds these once plentiful fish these days and many believe that it is overfishing in the past that has led to the scarcity of the pinkies and karranteen. Anglers used to catch sack full’s of these fish during the low tide periods and today anglers are reaping the rewards of the over fishing. Species such as the winter shad and garrick will not venture into the surf if there is no food.
Angling up North in the Tugela area was producing some nice salmon but I believe that the fishing last week was a bit patchy with just a couple of fish being caught. An angler that I spoke to at the weekend said that they had fished the Amatikulu area but had caught nothing and he said that the area was dead with not even peekers touching the baits. The fishing does seem to be a bit more productive in the Richards Bay area but it is a long way to drive in the hopes of catching a couple of fish.
Usually at this time of year the surf anglers would find the summer fish feeding with the winter fish moving up the coast but this year this has not been the case so far. The Summer fish seem to be moving back up North and leaving a vacuum behind them and the few garrick that were caught recently were the only one’s that I have heard of. I used to catch a lot of small salmon early in the evenings at this time of the year when fishing locally but so far this year, nothing.
Many anglers do not like fishing the rocky areas because of the possibility of losing a lot of tackle but I think that this is the way to go at present with the news that copper bream are on the bite.
Sealice

Send a photo of your catch to sport@nothcoastcourier.co.za and share your success with all the ardent fishermen on the North Coast. Include the angler’s name and surname, species, weight (estimated or actual), where and when it was caught and what bait was used. Who knows, you could win a R200 voucher from our sponsor for “Catch of the week”.