#FishEagle: Offshore anglers enjoy bountiful snoek season amidst sprat shoals
The weather and calm sea conditions ensured rock and surf anglers could spend extended time at the beach and they were rewarded with some excellent catches.
Both offshore and rock and surf anglers enjoyed some beautiful weather and sea conditions into early last week resulting in some excellent fishing and notable catches. The tropical storm moving down the Mozambique channel influenced change in the fishing conditions resulting in a four metre swell at sea by Thursday morning. There was still a bit of a swell at the weekend plus a moderate North Easterly wind on Saturday morning that turned to a moderate to fresh South Westerly that halted all fishing activities.
The weather and calm sea conditions ensured rock and surf anglers could spend extended time at the beach and they were rewarded with some excellent catches. Anglers fishing at Tongaat caught some nice sized pompano in the favourable conditions for this species. Anglers fishing with light tackle also found the wave garrick or three spot pompano on the bite and some nice catches were recorded. There were no reports of any salmon having been caught but I am sure that the guys fishing at night did manage a couple of nice sized salmon in the area because some were caught a little south at night.
The area from Ballito to Salt Rock produced some big copper bream, some weighing up to three kilos, plus one or two nice stumpies along with the bronzies in the rocky gullies. A number of big blacktail were also reported to have been on the bite. Prawn and crayfish baits seemed to be the way to go and these baits produced most of the pulls but anglers fishing with rock bait and crab pieces landed the odd very nice lantern bream or cave bass. Anglers looking for bigger fish caught a number of grey sharks that always seem to move inshore when the surf is flat.
Further north at the Tugela mouth a number of labotes were caught last week with a couple of big fish amongst the catches. Some decent perch were caught at the mouth as well. In the surf there have been salmon caught in the dark but anglers seem to be reluctant to report catches made recently. These days with the high price of fuel, local anglers only travel to the Tugela area when they are almost sure that they will catch.
The area from Umhlanga Rocks to the Umgeni mouth also saw anglers catching their share of fish. A few kingfish were caught at Umhlanga and the area from Glenashley to the Umgeni mouth produced some shad, salmon and the odd big grunter. Glenashley has produced some nice fish recently, as it has for many years.
Offshore anglers continued to catch snoek off the Umgeni mouth, the Bluff and Umdloti. This summer is proving to be one to remember for the snoek season and the fish congregating in the above areas could be because of the large shoals of sprats seen in the water. There have also been a few barracouta caught amongst the snoek recently so the couta could also be feeding on the tiny sprats. Early last week there were some really nice couta caught off Durban and Umdloti with several fish weighing well over 20kg. The couta season seems to be well under way at present with anglers catching fish on every launch but sharks are still taking their toll so it is a case of crank every hooked fish and hope for the best.
The odd dorado is still being caught but the fish are not as plentiful as they were just recently so it could be near the end of the dorado run. There were unconfirmed stories of a nice marlin caught out in the deep, but what was confirmed is the number of shoals of bonito. These shoals can be found in patches almost everywhere at present so there is no shortage of fresh bait for the bottom anglers.
During the early part of the week the bottom anglers recorded notable catches including various species of rockcod, the odd cape yellowtail and albacore, big reds plus the odd musselcracker and half kob. The bottom anglers have had a good year so far and the much sought after geelbek salmon seem to be back on the bite. Unfortunately the rough seas moving down the coast resulted in a halt to fishing the bottom reefs and the weather at the weekend was not the greatest for offshore angling but take heart, good weather will soon be here.
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