Angling Report

Saturday was the first day of Spring and the weather was great throughout the weekend so hopefully this trend will continue for a while before the windy season kicks in. The wind during the weekend was light to moderate but on Friday there was a strong North Easterly pumping out at sea but this did not influence the inshore conditions too much. By Sunday morning, anglers could not have expected better, warm at first light plus very favorable weather and sea conditions.

During the week, anglers found small grey sharks on the bite mainly during the late afternoons and a number of these fish were caught giving the guys some excellent sport.

These sharks seem to have arrived right on time at the beginning of Spring. For some these are just a nuisance but the competition anglers try their best to catch as many as possible, because weight points determine which team comes out tops. There are those though that are not happy when these greys move into the surf zone because they pose a threat to fishing.

Anglers continue to await the shoals of shad but as most of the local beaches still have major sandbanks across the mid-break area, they may have a long wait. This is not good news for those who fish only when the shad are running because this is the last month before the fishing season closes.

There will be those who will totally ignore the closed season but they do not know why the shad ban was imposed in the first place. The ban was imposed to protect the species during the spawning season.

It has been seen over the years that this worked, but took a tremendous amount of work from the officials policing the beaches. The new kids on the block have no chance at all of protecting the species as they are far too few on the ground and they will find the job impossible. The ready market for illegal shad has been in place for many years and the pull of making easy extra money is too strong.

Other species such as mussels and crayfish are also being exploited as many predicted when the Ezemvelo protection people were being disbanded.

The South Coast is still the most productive area at present with shad, garrick, some grunter and salmon all being caught but unfortunately the large crowds have spoiled the fishing and most of the productive beaches have been left in a stinking mess.

Many residents of these popular beaches have lobbied for years to ban the angling because of the mess left behind by anglers and although ample rubbish bins have been placed in these areas, this has not helped at all. When the weather and sea conditions are as good as at present, anglers should persevere at night because there have been some decent fish caught in the dark recently. A few big stumpies have been caught along with salmon and even a few big shad. The trick is to look for a nice channel and it is in these channels that the fish move inshore.

Sealice

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