#FishEagle: Open season begins

One could not fault the weather for the first half of last week when there were just light north easterly winds and because of the lack of wind, sea and surf conditions just became better and better.

Late on Wednesday afternoon the sea was looking great and there was just a small surf plus the water was a lot cleaner than it has been recently.

The long range weather report suggested that the weather would change during the second half of the week and although the winds still persisted, they remained light to moderate but the temperatures rose as did the humidity levels.

I think that one can definitely say that the summer is here but it is best to keep off the beach during the midday period.

Anglers found perfect fishing conditions at the weekend with calm surf meaning that it was perfect shark water.

There were just a few anglers on the beach on Saturday morning but on Sunday, the numbers increased because it was the first day of the open season for catching shad.

I was at the beach before first light and already there were anglers with their lines in the water but the anglers found that there were plenty of peckers attacking the fillet baits.

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Just after first light I saw a couple of shad come out but the fishing was slow in the calm sea conditions. It is normal for the shad to be a bit scarce during the month of December because most of the fish have spawned and have already moved back south.

Later on Sunday morning I heard that a couple of the beaches that had been productive recently were crowded but not too many shad were caught.

At one Umhlanga beach an angler pulled a shad of 3kg but the majority of the fish caught were on the small side.

A couple of nice sized bull mullet were also caught and one angler landed a sandshark of around 10kg. Many anglers returned home empty handed and very disappointed but it was to be expected in the perfect fishing conditions.

Anglers fishing up north have seen some excellent action again recently catching a number of big sharks.

The sharks have mostly been raggies and it is unusual for so many to be caught from the beach.

The northern beaches have fished well so far this season and a number of big summer flatfish have been caught.

I believe that several big shad have also been caught as well so a trip up north could be worthwhile for anglers looking to have their arms stretched.

Friends of mine fished on Friday night and managed to catch a couple of really nice fish.

They managed to land two stumpies averaging 2kg in weight and one nice grunter of 4kg.

The anglers said fishing was quiet and the three fish were caught almost all at the same time.

After that they never had another pull even though they tried a variety of baits. One angler was bitten off by what was thought to be a shark and just after that they decided to pack up and return home.

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Offshore anglers are still finding some excellent fishing at Cape Vidal where a variety of game fish have been caught recently. There has been something for everybody – billfish, plenty of dorado, a few barracouta, snoek plus a couple of nice kingfish.

Local anglers have been catching a few dorado and tuna but the game fish season has not really begun in local waters as yet.

Apparently some nice bottom fish have been caught by the guys fishing off Durban but strong currents have hampered the anglers at times.

There are plenty of baitfish to be found and the seine netters in the uShaka area netted some Natal sardines again. Hard to believe but true. The sardines were mixed with other baitfish that included mossies and some mackerel.

One surf ski angler hooked a large yellowfin tuna when using a live mossie but after being towed around the ocean for a while, the fish was lost when the line parted.

A few guys are launching and just fishing for bait so that they can stock up while the going is good and some of the guys are saying that small shad are really a nuisance destroying bait rigs which are expensive these days.

It is nearly time for the holiday makers to arrive on the coast it is also the time of the year that there are mishaps at the beach. One should remember not to turn one’s back on the sea.

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