Angling report

The weekend was another disappointment for anglers as the weather turned on Thursday night and created a rough sea and surf.

There was a drop in temperature as well on Friday and combined with the rain, the weather could be described as miserable. Fortunately by Saturday morning the rain had stopped and the cloud cover was breaking up showing that the cold front had moved away.

Temperatures were still low but although the sky was overcast there was no rain and it turned out to be a nice day. During the week there were days ideal for fishing from the beach with just light breezes blowing but there were also a couple of days that southerly winds were blowing hard.

Because of the southerly winds, the surf was not ideal for angling, though there were times that the surf looked quite good so it was a bit of a mixed bag throughout the week.

More than a week back, Ivan from KwaDukuza phoned me from Blythedale beach where he was fishing and he said the sea water was full of small plastic balls that were being washed up on the shore.

It turns out that these plastic balls were from a container that had broken open in the big storm of a couple of weeks ago and the contents were found down South as well as up North.

As expected the rock and surf angling was very patchy last week in the unpredictable surf and few fish were caught by the anglers that persevered during the week. Anglers fishing amongst the rocks caught a few of the usual small fish found around the stones but nothing substantial.

On Thursday morning I had a word with an angler leaving the beach in the Tongaat area who had caught two small stumpies using crab bait. He said that the fishing was hard work and he had waited a considerable amount of time between bites. This angler told me that anglers fishing the beaches had caught a few shad but they had also proved to be hard to come by even though the water had cleaned up nicely.

Deep sea anglers only managed to launch a couple of days last week but again catches were mediocre.

The anglers searching for gamefish had to contend with bumpy seas and fishing was said to be uncomfortable and the fish were off the bite.

I believe that a couple of yellowfin tuna were caught but not much else in the adverse sea conditions. The guys fishing inshore found plenty of shad feeding and one angler said that these shad were a real pest.

I believe that the anglers fishing the bottom reefs caught a few fish but again the conditions were not ideal. Anglers said that it was a week best forgotten. Now is the time that shore anglers should plan to travel North to fish for grunter that gather for the annual spawning season.

There are several areas that historically produce grunter at this time of the year up North.

Most anglers that target the grunter have their preferred fishing spots from the Tugela Mouth Northwards but I hear that St. Lucia could be a place to visit this year.

Another favorite area is Mapelane which always seems to produce big grunter at this time of the year. A North Easterly wind was predicted for Sunday and this wind began puffing before 6am.

This wind could shake up the fishing and hopefully last week’s cold front was the last of the year and the warm and humid weather conditions can begin so that the Summer flatfish can become more plentiful.

Anglers have been targeting these fish for a while now with mixed results but I hear that a couple of big sandies have been caught down the south coast so the local anglers could start catching these fish any day now.

Anglers are reminded to return these flatfish alive and unharmed to the water so that they can provide sport another day. Anglers are also reminded that the closed shad season still has another month to go before the open season begins.

Sealice

Catch of the week

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