Angling Report

All the river mouths from Durban northwards had opened and dirty water was pouring into the sea at the start of last week.

Even the mouth of the Umdhloti River at La Mercy was open and it was great to see salt water running into the lagoon. If this mouth did remain open at all times, then possibly the marine life could flourish again. The last time that I had a look at this area there were dozens of juvenile grunter floating in the water, probably killed by some sort of pollution that abounds in the river.

It is difficult to believe that this lagoon used to be visited annually by flamingos and pelicans.

As expected the sea was dirty all the way from Durban and along the coast with plenty of weeds in the water, especially in the river mouth areas. On Monday morning I spent about two hours at a popular Durban North beach watching the anglers and although there were about 50 anglers trying different methods of fishing, I did not see any fish pulled from the water and anglers told me that the fishing had been patchy for some time.

Anglers said that there were days when a few shad would be caught then the fishing would become quiet with just the odd small fish being caught in the surf.

The end of the year all night parties have begun early this year and the usual trashing of the party venue has reared its head as well.

Last Tuesday morning there was a refuse bin that was upended on the M4 with all the contents strewn across the busy road.

On Saturday morning I was awakened well before 2am by taxis driving past the house with loud distorted music blaring from within and people trying to shout above the music. I met some of the locals who fish in the Westbrook area and they told me that they had stayed away from the beach early in the morning as they deemed it unsafe.

Some of the anglers traveled to the Tongaat River mouth to do their fishing because some decent sized shad had been caught in the area recently and also so that they would not be hassled by drunken party goers. Offshore anglers are now having some excellent catches of dorado with some anglers catching limit bags of fish.

There is still plenty of bait around and there have been instances when anglers fishing for bait have had trap sticks out with a live bait and the line has screamed off the reels when the bait has been picked up by big tuna. There was news about wahoo off Durban again and apparently several sailfish have been seen out deep.

Unfortunately anglers were hampered by the dirty water close inshore but I did hear that a surf ski angler caught two kingfish weighing between 8 and 9 kilos just off the big bricks at Umdloti during the week. The fish were caught on live bait.

The sky looked a bit ominous at first light on Saturday but there was no wind and the sea and surf were looking good for the anglers wanting to launch. I hear that the guys caught fish again, especially some nice yellowfin tuna that seem to be everywhere at present.

So far the game fish season has begun well and anglers have great expectations for the coming weeks.

The weather at first light on Sunday was ideal for angling both offshore and from the beach or rocks. Anglers were also taking advantage of the excellent fishing conditions and the day promised some nice catches by the offshore guys and I saw one surf angler land a very nice shark after a battle lasting about 15 minutes.

Now that the schools will be closing this week the local beaches can expect the up-country visitors to begin arriving and they will no doubt be wanting to enjoy a bit of fishing.

Visitors looking for information about where the best fishing venues are and what they can expect to catch will be able to acquire all the equipment and info that they need from the local tackle shops and also by watching and talking to the local anglers.

Sealice

Catch of the Week

Send a photo of your catch to sport@northcoastcourier.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”.