#FishEagle: Department of fisheries lacks the man power

On Sunday, November 3, the normal weekend crowds looking to fish for the shad arrived at Durban View beach in Umhlanga just before first light.

They proceeded to fish and just after first light the shad came on the bite and the guys did not see any problems because most of them had been poaching shad for a month already.

One angler had a catch of eleven shad so he decided to pack up and head off home. The angler was suddenly confronted by two officers from the department of fisheries and he panicked, dropping his catch, his fishing gear and rod, then took off running.

A friend of mine watching the action described that what happened and resembled the panic when one lops the top off an ant hill and the ants run in all directions.

On Monday morning anglers were back at the beach but so were the fisheries officers then many anglers decided that it was not worth having a throw and trying for the shad.

This past month has proved that the fishery officers are far too few on the ground and cannot hope to police the coastline properly especially as this part of the year has always been a problem.

The poaching will continue but I think that anglers will be more wary for the rest of the month.

I was lucky enough to have been fishing long before the closed season for shad was introduced.

When it was realised that the shad species needed to be protected, the first step was to impose a catch limit of five fish per day and when the catch limit was perceived not to be working, a closed season of three months during the spawning season was imposed.

Anglers were not happy about the closed season as it was imposed only along the KZN coastline so anglers would travel to fish just over the Natal border in the Transkei.

The problem was that as soon as they crossed the border back into Natal, there was a good chance of being apprehended by the then Natal Parks Board and many anglers paid the price of bringing shad back over the Natal border.

It was not long before the Parks Board realized that policing the entire Natal coastline and stopping the poaching was going to be difficult so they embarked on recruiting Honorary Parks Board officers that were basically part timers.

The plan worked well and much of the poaching was stopped and anglers on an outing, whether it be deep sea or from the beaches or rocks, made sure that they kept to the catch regulations and had with them the appropriate documentation needed.

Unfortunately the department of fisheries does not have the personnel to patrol the coastline and they basically have to rely on information received about where problems are occurring.

It did not take long for certain members of the public to realise that they could probably get away with catching fish during the closed season, catch undersized fish and ignore catch limits, poach crayfish and pick bags of mussels plus catch any catfish they come across. Most of the hard work done by the Natal Parks Board, then Ezemvelo, has now been undone.

Surf ski anglers using live mossie baits have been catching some nice yellowfin tuna recently when conditions allow.

The guys have also managed a few garrick as well but at times baits have been taken by large shad especially close inshore when the guys are fishing for garrick.

The winds have been a problem for anglers wanting to fish offshore and there have been very limited fishing times when the guys have launched.

In the limited time that was available, anglers fishing the backline in Umdloti have managed some nice catches of snoek with the larger fish being caught on fresh fish fillets.

Local rock and surf anglers have caught a couple of decent sized copper bream while fishing among the rocks.

Anglers fishing for the copper bream said fishing was difficult because of the rough conditions created by the winds but there was one day last week when there was hardly any surf at all.

Unfortunately one does not always find the fish feeding in perfect sea conditions.

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