Fish Eagle: Prepare for the mad shad rush

Weather conditions last week were typical for this time of the year with light to moderate southerly winds blowing on most days and a light offshore wind at first light in the mornings. Unfortunately a moderate to fresh north easterly wind came through on Thursday and this wind did a lot of damage to the favorable fishing conditions. Although there was hardly any wind at all on Friday, sea and surf conditions were not favorable for angling at all. The light to moderate southerly winds at the weekend helped to calm the sea and surf.

Big shoals of sardines were seen passing Port Edward and Glenmore beach last Tuesday morning but the fish were about one and a half kilometers out to sea and beyond the range of the netters. There were conflicting reports that sardines had been netted then the netters reporting that the information was not correct so there was a bit of confusion. I was at Westbrook beach on Tuesday morning talking to a couple of surf ski anglers and out at sea there was a large patch of birds just sitting on the water. The birds were over a kilometer out to sea so it was difficult to see whether there were any sardines in the area but I suspect that there was indeed a patch of sardines heading north.

Also read: Sardine Run resurfaces between Bazely and Amanzimtoti

The sardines sort of disappeared for the rest of the week with people running around trying to find where the fish were then on Saturday I had a phone call telling me that sardines had been netted at Amanzimtoti. This was probably one of the first pilot shoals with the main shoals still to move up from down south, that is if they do not decide to head back towards the Cape. I believe that small pockets of sardines have been passing by in local waters for much of last week but far out to sea. There were times in past years when we would launch from the beach for a day’s fishing and all would be quiet until we reached approximately ten kilometers off Ballito and suddenly we would be surrounded by millions of sardines. It was strange because there were no birds or dolphins and other predators about.

Catches of small shad have improved during the last week especially in Durban North and with the improved catches, the crowds have begun to arrive at the venues where the fish have been biting. The usual bun fights have occurred and a couple of the local anglers told me that they are now seeking other fishing spots to try to avoid the crowds. Although shad catches have improved a bit the fish are still not being caught in great numbers and most of the fish are very small.

Local anglers have not been caught up in the mad shad rush as yet and most are persevering in the rocky areas where a few fish have been caught at times. The local rocky areas cannot really accommodate crowds at any one time and anglers should have some fishing knowledge before casting into the water among the stones. Fishing tackle is expensive these days. A couple of nice copper bream were caught again last week and a couple of the regular anglers told me that there have been a couple of nice lantern bream and in the La Mercy area, a couple of spotted rockcod weighing between one and two kilos have come out

As mentioned earlier, I had a word with a couple of surf ski anglers and they reported that the fishing was really quiet. Not one of the anglers beached with a decent fish but they all said that there was plenty of baitfish around. One of the guys showed me a few very nice red eyed sardines that he had managed to catch at the shark nets earlier that morning. As I said last week, anglers should try their best to stock up with red eyes because they have proved to be almost the perfect bait for several species of fish.

I was also told that lucky anglers managing to launch and fish during the week have had some excellent catches of bottom fish taken on selected reefs. There have been some big rockcod, very nice soldiers and even a few decent salmon included in catches. One angler told me at the weekend that he fished off Umdloti last Wednesday and caught a beautiful 15kg rockcod that regurgitated what suspiciously looked like a fresh Natal sardine.

Sealice