Fish Eagle: Shad come on the bite

It was another beautiful time in paradise last week with little or no wind during the days and the weather just a little chilly early in the morning. The magical weather came to an end on Friday evening when a south westerly wind began pushing through, heralding the arrival of a cold front that brought colder and windy weather on Saturday morning.

There was no news of any sardine activity on the South Coast last week but there were reports of patches of sardines passing Umhlanga Rocks heading north out deep and far out to sea – out of sight from the land. Some would say this year’s sardine run is over but I am not so sure.

In years past, the sardine run was said to be over when suddenly shoals of sardines appeared off Durban’s beaches during the month of August. Apparently the shoals spotted passing Umhlanga, were surprisingly free of any birds, game fish and sharks.

I think that anglers travelling out deep will be spotting patches of sardines for some time yet and many will be wishing the fish away so that the angling can become normal again.

During the days when I was fishing offshore regularly, there were times we found that fishing on the bottom was quiet because there was too much food around, then there were times when the bottom angling was not too bad and many of the fish caught would regurgitate sardines when pulled from the depths.

Some of the offshore anglers would not launch because they said that fishing would be a waste of time and some would launch and concentrate on fishing for fresh bait to be used on future fishing outings.

Surf anglers fishing the early morning periods in Umhlanga found small shad on the bite virtually every morning. The fishing was slow at first but by the second half of the week, catches improved dramatically with anglers leaving the beach with double figure catch bags.

Many of the fish were on the small side but there are several shad over the legal limit size. A friend of mine arrived at the beach on Friday morning armed with a spoon and he said he left the beach with three decent sized fish but had returned more than a dozen small fish alive back to the water. He said there was not too much of a crowd fishing but expected the crowd to swell dramatically during the weekend.

Umgeni River mouth and Eastmore also had reports of plenty of shad but I am sure that other beaches produced fish as well.

Anglers fishing for garrick or daga salmon will have more luck now that there is plenty of food around.

Live bait will probably be a must but the small shad are ideal live baits to use and one can expect to see anglers fishing the river mouth areas from now on.

During past garrick runs along the South Coast, there would be instances on some beaches when certain anglers would cast several lines into the water effectively closing off a certain area and not allowing others to persevere and it was only their baits that would be in the water. I believe that this type of behaviour should not be allowed and it is up to other anglers to stop this sort of thing.

Because many of the popular fishing beaches are badly sanded up, anglers will have to study their tide charts carefully, otherwise they will find themselves casting into just a few inches of water. So far this winter the southerly winds have not helped to break up the sandbanks created in summer and a choice of angling spot could mean fishing from one of the rocky deep water points.

This is not recommended for those anglers just beginning in the sport because fishing from the rocks does carry a certain amount of risk for unwary anglers.

The shad have arrived a little early this year and hopefully there will be some productive fishing after a long, lean period, but anglers should make sure that they have a fishing licence. There is a limit size for any shad caught and the minimum size is 300mm plus there is a limit bag catch of four fish.

Many anglers tend to ignore the size and bag limits but if one is caught ignoring these regulations, a criminal docket can be opened at a police station.

Sealice