#FishEagle: Sprats a plenty!

The coast enjoyed hot and humid but beautiful weather at first light during the first half of last week.

Sea and surf conditions were favorable for anglers but there were just a handful of guys with lines in the water and in fact there were more anglers waiting to launch their fishing rigs through the surf.

The light to moderate north easterly winds persisted every day and it was these winds that helped to keep the humidity levels high but also gave some relief from the searing heat.

The weather remained favorable right up until Friday morning when the north easterly wind was on the water at first light and continued to increase as the day progressed.

The sea was already becoming unsettled by 8am and the hot humid weather coupled with the wind made it a bit unpleasant to be on the beach.

The weather was blistering hot with high humidity throughout the day and night on Friday and unfortunately for the anglers, a moderate south westerly wind arrived early on Saturday morning with the result that any plans of fishing were shelved.

I noticed last week that there were very few anglers on the beaches and this could have been because it was the first real week back to work for the new year.

Many of the local rock and surf anglers prefer to fish for edible species and tend to not try for the big summer flatfish and sharks which appear now.

Surf conditions were excellent throughout last week for fishing and I believe there was a little bit of action towards the Fairmont Hotel area but I am not sure what was on the bite.

Local anglers who do target the summer fish have had some good sport recently.

Sandsharks weighing just over 25kg have provided some excellent sport and anglers have been returning these fish unharmed to the water, unlike other areas up north where ragged tooth sharks have been left to die and rot on the rocks after providing the anglers with a lot of fun.

These days anglers have to really work hard for their fish and it is disturbing to hear of people disregarding catch sizes or limits and doing their best to destroy a certain species of fish.

Plus the never-ending stories of the gill nets at Kosi Bay that are killing off all the juvenile fish in the nursery found in the lakes.

This after many years of dedicated work to protect these juveniles.

Although offshore angling conditions were favorable this past week, I did not see many craft fishing the local inshore game fish reefs.

This was no real surprise because for some time now anglers have been saying that most of the action is up north.

Recent game fish seasons have shown that the game fish such as the couta have preferred the grounds off places such as Zinkwazi at this time in the season but anglers have also had to try and outwit the sharks that have tended to arrive just as the couta come on the bite.

Couta caught off Zinkwazi are normally deemed to be crocodile-sized fish and it seems the days are gone of the darts that used to arrive in huge numbers.

There are still plenty of small dorado around in the deeper water and this year is matching last year’s catches that were regarded as really good.

Apparently a few bigger fish weighing in the region of 20kg have been caught off Durban so it does seem as if the larger dorado are beginning to arrive in local waters but at the same time, the weather is turning against anglers.

Inshore surf ski anglers fishing the local backline areas report that there are plenty of sprats in the water.

I heard it said that the shoals of sprats spread from Umhlanga Rocks up to Zinkwazi.

Once there is so much food in the water, trying to catch snoek really becomes difficult because they can be elusive at times and really frustrate anglers.

The sprats have ensured that the yellowfin tuna remain in the shallower water and a few nice fish have been caught this past week. Sharks have been a bit of a problem but this is normal for this part of the year.

A couple of nice queenfish were caught just off the backline between Umhlanga Rocks and La Lucia plus a few big springer have attacked lures being used by the surf ski anglers.

The first half of the week could see quite a bit of rain and anglers may be kept off the water for a few days but hopefully the rivers do not become flooded again.

Download The North Coast Courier mobile app, now available free from the Apple iStore and on Google Play, for IOS and Android phones.