Angling Report

The Easter weekend began with calm weather and a bit of light rain in the early morning.

Beach goers could not have hoped for better weather during the weekend and the spring tide meant that the water was low during the mid-morning period just perfect for those walking on the rocks or just bathing in the sea.

The water was warm but unfortunately not all that clean inshore because of the river water flowing into the sea.

On Sunday morning I saw that the Tongaat River was still flowing into the surf. During the week the sea swells were reported to be between two and three meters but by Friday morning the offshore anglers found that the swell had dropped considerably and the sea was looking pretty good.

They were out in force at the weekend making use of the favourable sea and weather conditions but many were disappointed because the game fish were not as plentiful as they had hoped. Prior to the weekend there were reports of good catches of decent sized snoek along the backline and those able to fish during the week had some excellent sport.

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The guys were saying that the couta continue to disappoint with just a few fish being caught in selected areas while past popular game fish reefs yield almost nothing.

It seems as if the northern areas are producing nice couta at present but I believe that the local offshore fishing grounds will come alive soon and the next few weeks will prove whether this is correct or not. The off-colour water has not helped anglers but as soon as the dirty water clears, there should be some action.

I did see a couple of small yellowfin tuna that were brought ashore by the surf ski anglers but they all said that they had battled to catch fish and a few had resorted to fishing on the bottom for something to take home.

Those fishing between Umdloti and Umhlanga did manage to catch a few snoek during the weekend but I believe that the fish were not exactly boiling in the water and anglers had to fish hard to be successful. During the week the rock and surf anglers also managed to catch some decent sized snoek from the rocky outcrops but there was not much else on the bite.

The sandbanks along some of the popular angling beaches mean that the fish are not moving inshore to feed at the moment.

A few small pompano have been caught in some areas by anglers with a lot of patience plus there were a couple of stumpies landed by anglers fishing in the dark. Light tackle anglers fishing the shore dump areas did manage a few small fish but they spent a long time persevering before they had any luck.

The sea seems to be settling nicely now and this is the time for anglers to persevere for the big pompano that normally move inshore to feed at this time of the year.

Baits such as crayfish, live crab, mussels and even chokka are the best to produce results.

Anglers that fish in the dark could also have good results when using similar baits as the shoal salmon should start appearing from now on.

Sealice

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