#FishEagle: Windy conditions continue to hamper fishing efforts

*Note: The Zambesi shark caught at La Mercy was released back into the water safely.

Another windy week has just passed but it is to be expected at this time of the year and the winds will continue for some time from now onward.

Anglers had to choose their fishing times carefully last week but even then they had to put up with some rough surf and currents at times.

Local experienced anglers found that the fishing conditions on some days last week were bad enough to keep them off the beach but by the weekend, the surf had moderated enough and the anglers were back.

Sharks are becoming more numerous at present as the late afternoon anglers have found and I saw a video last week of an angler having a grunter chopped just about at his feet while fishing in the bay during the week.

On looking at what was left of the fish, it was estimated that the angler had just lost a grunter weighing between 5 and 6kg.

The angler said that it was a large Zambezi shark that had taken the fish. Another angler fishing earlier in the week at the La Mercy mouth, had his bait taken beyond the surf by a drone and he was rewarded by landing a big Zambezi shark weighing over two hundred and fifty kilos.

The shark took two hours and forty five minutes to subdue.

Although the fishing conditions were poor last week, anglers fishing the Northern areas managed to catch a few big Summer flatfish with large rays making up the bulk of catches.

Apparently a couple of these fish weighed over 80kg and there were a couple of big fish lost as well when anglers were not able to stop the fish from taking line.

The local Durban North beaches have also produced a couple of skates as well although the fish were a lot smaller than those caught up North.
Fortunately the skates caught locally were returned unharmed to the water. This year’s Summer angling season from the shore could be a reasonably good one as early catches are encouraging.

I also saw some photo’s this week taken by a concerned angler who was up at Kosi Bay.

The photographs showed the catches recorded by subsistence fishermen in the area and most of the fish were undersized juveniles and there were plenty of them that had been caught. On looking at the photo’s it was easy to see that if this practice had to continue, very soon local anglers would not catch any stumpies or other species caught in local waters at present.

It is amazing that these guys are allowed to kill off the nurseries as they had been so well protected in the past. There was even a gill net that was removed from the Umgeni River recently.

This net was in the vicinity of the Athlone bridge and it stretched across the entire river.

The early morning shad anglers also struggled a bit last week and each morning produced just a few fish.

There was one fish caught on Friday morning that weighed 3kg and this shows that the fish are definitely becoming larger as the days pass by but unfortunately these are prime breeding stock which are on their way to spawn. Apparently the shad have been caught on bait and are also taking spoon just after first light.

Anglers using spoon say that a spoon weighing thirty grams and shaped like an ‘S’ is the one doing all the damage. Anglers swear by this spoon at present and are calling it “the shad killer”.

It is the middle of October and the billfish anglers will be checking their equipment and readying themselves for the billfish season about to begin up at Sodwanna Bay.

The anglers that fish this area are mostly from the Transvaal and these guys do not hold back with the costs that come with this form of angling. When the guys are in town, the equipment on show runs into millions of Rands in value and it is only the best that will suffice.

We were up at Sodwanna at this time of the year and we felt like plebs. With our basic sixteen foot boat which we used to fish locally.

I contacted my friends at the weekend to find out whether they had been fishing for grunter at night but they had refrained from fishing because of the adverse sea conditions but had definitely planned a couple of angling trips this week.

They also said that they were considering a trip up north for a week or so in search of the big grunter.

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