Angling Report

All seemed good last week with offshore anglers catching some big fish in the mornings before the north easterlies messed the sea up a bit later in the day, and then the cold front arrived on Friday and all thoughts of fishing during the weekend were shelved.
The front created big seas and the south westerly winds were pumping but for the surf anglers, the heavy seas could bring the inshore fish on the bite once the water settles during the week.
Offshore anglers lucky enough to launch during the week found big barracouta on the bite again. Most of the big fish weighed over 30kg and there were a few shoal couta caught.
The offshore game fish grounds off Umdloti produced a number of big couta and the word is that the fish are quite widespread and are being caught both north and south.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that a friend of mine always said that the month of May was the best time to catch barracouta and this year some real bombers have been hooked.
Unfortunately, anglers are going to have to wait a couple of days until the swell drops before putting to sea again.
Surf angling was quiet last week with just a couple of copper bream caught locally but the heavy seas may just scour out the sandbanks and create some nice deep channels to allow the fish to swim in close and then the fishing could pick up again.
The heavy seas could also hasten the winter gamefish, such as the garrick, into local waters. I have spoken to several of the regular local anglers and they said they are patiently awaiting the arrival of these fish although at present live bait seems to be a bit of a problem.
In all the years that I have lived in the Tongaat area, I have seen very few anglers using spoon, plugs or other lures to fish for the garrick.
When I was younger, I used to only use spoon when trying for the garrick with fairly good results, although there were times that the fish would not look at a spoon but that was normal if there were live baits in the water near where I was spooning.
It certainly seems as if there is going to be an early winter this year looking at the weather patterns and the cool temperatures of the early mornings.
This could bring the much sought after brusher into local waters and catching a nice brusher always brings a feeling of great achievement.
This species is not easy to catch because of their strength and where they normally feed, so anglers tend to use heavier tackle but even then a big brusher is really a handful when on the end of one’s line.
It was really interesting to read the story of the two great white shark carcasses that were found in the Cape recently.
Both sharks were well over four metres in length and both had huge bites around the stomach area with the livers missing.
Researchers said that it was the work of killer whales or orcas that had deliberately targeted the area where the shark’s livers were situated and this was because these organs contained all the nutrients that the orcas needed.
The rest of the bodies were left alone and this shows that these animals are really intelligent and know just where to attack a shark as large as the ones found.
There is a big crocodile hanging around the Tongaat river mouth again and this croc has been seen basking in the sun on one of the small islands in the lagoon by several people, including myself.
The crocodiles seem to like this particular area and several have been seen basking over time.
People should be wary, especially in the vicinity of the lagoon, because the unwary will not see these creatures lurking in the water.
I myself only saw the croc because I noticed some birds taking to flight in a panic and then I saw the crocodile crawling up the bank to lay in the sun.
Sealice
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