Fish Eagle: Small kob have been on the bite

The winter cold fronts are beginning to move up the coast and as usual the bad weather tends to arrive for the weekend just when most anglers are considering a couple of days fishing. This is exactly what happened last weekend although anglers were able to get in a couple of hours fishing on Saturday morning before the southerly wind began to push.

On Saturday afternoon the weather had turned really grim with the wind making it uncomfortable on the beach.

Anglers have had a bit of exciting fishing lately with lantern bream or cave bass plus rubber lips suddenly on the bite.

The rocky areas have been the most productive venues for anglers as these fish normally live on the inshore reefs but they have now moved inshore and anglers have caught a couple of decent sized fish on just about every outing. It is the spawning season for these species so anglers should refrain from over fishing and allow the smaller fish a chance to return to the water. In other areas anglers have found the odd big stumpie on the bite but it has been a case of being patient and prepared to wait in between pulls when trying for these hard fighting fish.

On the South Coast border with the Transkei, anglers have been pulling small shad that are thick at present. Most of these fish have been undersized which does not seem to mean much these days but there has been the odd fish of over 300mm.

As usual, bag limits are non-existent and at times the small shad have been feeding for long periods of time. Unfortunately there have been no garrick caught among the small shad as yet.

Small kob have been on the bite in several areas along the South Coast thanks to the discolored water but as soon as the southerly wind began to blow along the coast, the water became a lot cleaner and the fish went right off the bite.

Local anglers fishing the Umdloti area have had some decent catches of lantern bream recently and as usual, as soon as the fish began to feed, so the crowds arrived at the beaches where the action was taking place. The regular anglers were the guys who caught the first of the lantern bream but the word was soon out and the chances of cashing in soon disappeared. This seems to be the trend these days. The regulars put in all the hard work but as soon as there is a bit of action, the crowds swarm to the beach and the fishing is spoiled.

There are those local regular anglers that curse the invention of cell phones and say that now there is no place to hide when fishing. The last heavy rains have certainly opened up some of the river mouths along the coast especially along the South Coast and this could be good for the coming winter fishing season. It has been a while since there have been reasonable catches of daga kob from the surf and maybe this year could be different and with the kob, the garrick could increase in numbers this year.

Last season was not a garrick season to remember but many of the local garrick angling beaches were badly sanded up and this year could be different. The copper bream should begin to feed in local waters soon and no doubt the guys that specialize in fishing for the bronzies will have their tackle at the ready in anticipation of the first of this species being caught.

The tides will favour those anglers that prefer to fish during the day this week so the best of luck and let’s hope the weather will be angler friendly.

Sealice

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