Fish Eagle: Anglers are wondering whether the winter fish will arrive this year

The issue with sewerage running into the sea at Westbrook beach is not an isolated event because over the last few years, there have been several instances of raw sewerage entering the sea.
On Friday morning, I was talking to a fishing colleague about what was happening in the Durban North area regarding the fishing and during the conversation he mentioned that there was a huge problem in Durban harbour.

There was a large sewerage spill and thousands of litres per hour entered the water in the bay and will no doubt find it’s way into the open sea. Already surfers and bathers using the surf in the Durban area are complaining about ear infections and other similar complaints.With all the pollution that has been entering the sea recently, one now wonders whether anglers will continue to catch edible fish from their favourite fishing spots and if they indeed do manage a couple of fish, there will always be the doubt that the flesh could be harmful if consumed.

I was at Westbrook beach on Sunday morning talking to the regulars and they were mentioning that they have refrained from taking mussels or crayfish from the area because of the contaminated sea water and it will be some time before they consider picking mussels again.

While I was at the beach, technicians were still busy trying to curb the sewerage spilling into the sea.

It is no wonder that the fishing had deteriorated at some of the popular local angling beaches and if the continuous polluting of the sea continues, prize fish catches of the past will remain just a memory. Local surf anglers told me this week that they have been fishing the areas from Ballito, northwards because the fishing south of Zimbali has not been productive for some while. A few lantern bream were caught in the Boulder Bay area in Ballito plus there have been a few fish caught in the rocky Salt Rock area and the best of these being two very nice stumpies caught by local anglers. Not much other news has been available from last week but I believe that the Umhlanga and Durban North beaches have been really quiet.

Recently anglers were travelling up north because the fishing was productive but apparently catches have also dwindled the past couple of weeks. Recently some decent pompano and kob were being caught but I think that the dirty water has kept the fish away from moving into the surf. The small shad are still thick down south near the KZN border and anglers have been klapping these fish early every morning. It seems as if there is no discipline anymore and it is a case of anything goes as anglers are catching as many of these small fish as they can.

Surf ski anglers were busy last weekend and some of the guys beached with nice yellowfin tuna and some decent snoek. All were commenting that the water was not all that clean and fishing was tough. The guys beached quite early on Sunday morning because the north easterly wind began pushing and the wind just made the sea water a lot more discolored plus bumpy and uncomfortable for fishing.

The game fish season was again disappointing this year and many anglers concentrated on fishing the bottom reefs but after some encouraging results, even the bottom fish seem to have gone off the bite. The anglers that have been doing quite well up north have said that catches have dropped off and the fish are off the bite. The anglers lucky enough to be able to travel deep have managed some respectable catches of geelbek salmon but the problem has been the unreliable weather recently that does not allow these deep water anglers much time to catch these bek.

As we are close to the winter season now anglers are wondering whether the winter fish will arrive this year. Last year there were a considerable amount of sardines netted along the south coast but the shoals did not travel as far as the Durban area. The surf anglers suffered a bit because the shad arrived late in the year plus the winter garrick run did not keep up to expectations. It will be interesting to see what happens this winter season.

Sealice

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