Fish Eagle: Waiting for the north east winds

Another week of beautiful winter weather along the local coastline. It is certainly cold at first light but once the sun rises above the horizon, the temperature soon rises and the days become nice and warm. The mostly light to moderate winds of last week were from the south, but on Friday the wind began pushing from the north east and this could be a sign of things to come.

August has always been said to be the beginning of the windy season but the wind swung back to the south on Saturday so one really is not sure at this time of climate change.

I was at an Umhlanga beach at first light on Monday, just watching the anglers fishing. The conditions were beautiful but unfortunately the fishing was quiet. I saw one small shad caught and when talking to anglers leaving the beach, all were saying that small fish and peckers were a problem.

Baits were being stripped almost as they entered the water. I believe the fishing remained quiet throughout the week leaving the regular anglers really frustrated. It seems that the fishing remained quiet at most of the popular angling spots and most anglers are now targeting the shad which, after a promising showing a couple of weeks ago, seem now to have largely disappeared.

While I was watching, a friend of mine approached me and we ended up discussing the local angling for a considerable length of time.

My friend said he only fished during the shad season these days and according to him, it was still too early for these fish to arrive in numbers.

He said that during the past couple of seasons, the fishing only improved half way through the month of August. He he had never really caught shad when the southerly winds were blowing and it was only when the wind switched to the north east did the fish begin biting. But, he said he had seen some really decent catches of shad at times when the southerly wind pushed but he never really persevered during a southerly blow.

During the week I contacted another friend that had been fishing during the night and he said his group had fished on a number of occasions at their favorite angling spot but had found the fishing to be really quiet with one angler managing to catch one small stumpie on one trip.

There were a large number of peekers attacking baits in the dark and they had tried to resort to using baits such as sealice and crab to no avail as they were also attacked by the small fish. He had heard from friends of his that the angling down south was also quiet last week and that not too much of note was being caught.

Surf ski anglers were telling me last week that things were quiet at present beyond the waves although there was plenty of live bait to be had. They had been targeting the garrick for some time without any luck and were scratching their heads as to why this was because garrick had been caught up north recently.

For the past few seasons this has been the trend and anglers are now wondering whether there is something wrong with the sea water locally because some decent sized shad have also provided some sport up north. Apparently some of the surf ski anglers have reverted to catching and selling baitfish at present. Three or four seasons past, the first garrick to be caught along the local coastline occurred during the month of May so this is why the guys are now wondering.

Pilchard bait still seems to be in short supply after the initial rush of a few weeks back. Many anglers were expecting to supplement their bait supplies with fresh Natal sardine but that did not materialize as well. Certain outlets have supplies of Japanese mackeral which has always proved to be a great alternative to pilchards and of course there are supplies of red eye sardines available.

But your best option is to try and purchase fresh bait from the surf ski or ski boat anglers when they beach their craft. There are also several local anglers catching baitfish from the rocky outcrops and I am sure that they will be willing to sell their catches.

Sealice

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