Angling Report – August 11

The sardines disappeared last week and this may be because of the storm out at sea that created a big swell, resulting in big surf at the beginning of the week.

By Wednesday the sea and surf conditions were looking good again and by Thursday, the sea was flat and there was just small surf that was perfect for fishing. Unfortunately the weather turned again on Saturday when a South Westerly wind began pushing that was fresh by lunchtime and strong by the afternoon.

I fully expected to see sardines last week and although I checked every day, there was no sign of the small fish.

Sometimes the shoals of sardines do pass by but out deep and out of sight.

I believe that there were some sardines for sale locally, but at R50 a dozen it was just not worth it and I believe that the fish were very small as well. Late shoals could surprise us and appear on the South Coast again but who knows, everyone was caught flat-footed by the first shoals this year.

A few small shad were caught at times in the Eastmore area of Umhlanga last week but other areas remained largely quiet with just a few rats and mice being caught. Closer to home, a couple of nice garrick have been caught in the vicinity of the river mouths but the shad remain elusive.

Most locals are still persisting in fishing the rocky areas where some small fish are being caught with the odd stumpie and I heard that one angler caught a nice pompano somewhere in the Tongaat area, using sealice as bait.

I was talking to a couple of divers mid-week who had seen several garrick whilst diving at the Tongaat River mouth but at the time they were diving solely for crayfish.

The word must have been passed around pretty quickly because on Thursday morning the offshore anglers were already targeting garrick along the backline at the river mouth. These guys normally catch live bait at the barge in the Umhlanga area then run up to Tongaat to catch the garrick.

Last week the offshore anglers caught some snoek along the backline between Umhlanga and the Umgeni mouth and I believe a couple of garrick as well, but anglers fishing for garrick had to be really patient when waiting for a pull.

One does not see too many boat anglers fishing the backline for garrick these days and it may be because this mode of fishing can be dangerous if the anglers do not have their wits about them. In my younger years we used to do a lot of fishing along the backline for garrick and there were occasions that we actually ventured into the surf in search of the fish.

These days the authorities frown upon anglers fishing too near the wave line because there have been accidents in the past where anglers have been injured and there has also been loss of life when boats have been caught by waves and flipped over.

Anglers continue to catch some really nice fish up North from the beach with a few decent salmon and big shad being caught.

The problem is that fish are not being caught every day and some anglers that I have spoken to said that they have returned home disappointed after a fishing trip up North. Fishing in the dark remains the more productive way to go and at this time of the year anglers have to plan carefully because of the weather patterns.

It is no good driving all that way only to find that the sea is not right or there is a howling gale blowing.

One needs inside information from the local anglers.

I heard at the weekend that anglers fishing the Durban beachfront area have been catching small shad but most of the fish are undersized and have to be returned alive to the water or risk arrest by the fishing officers. A number of anglers have already been arrested in the Durban area for keeping undersized fish and being over the legal bag limit.

Blue Lagoon is another area where anglers have been apprehended. Anglers are well aware of the legal bag limits and minimum size of the shad so I do not understand why they take the chances that they do.

Sealice

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