#FishEagle: Light tackle yields results

Light tackle has proven to be the name of the game as we move into summer, November having knocked on the door and bringing with it warmer conditions and the summer fishing season.

Weather and fishing conditions remained favourable up until lunchtime last Wednesday when things took a turn, becoming windy and hot, ruining good sea and surf conditions.

There was a further change in the weather at first light on Friday morning when another front arrived, bringing with it southerly winds and rain.

Can you believe we are already in November?

Anglers are now looking forward to the summer fishing season.

Although the usual poaching of shad continues, anglers are already starting to catch the odd ray or skate, and some have had their arms stretched after being picked up by one of these big fish when using light tackle.

Other anglers fishing the shore dump areas with light tackle have found spotted pompano on the bite, and they have had some excellent fishing.

The odd copper bream is still being caught with a few big blacktail but, the lantern bream seem to have gone off the bite.

Now is the time for anglers to pursue grunter which will now be shoaling for the spawning season.

Several big grunter have been caught recently by anglers fishing at night, with cracker shrimp or prawn as bait.

But the place to be could be up north at places such as Mapelane or St Lucia.

These areas have been extremely popular in the past at this time of the year, anglers targeting grunter.

There is nothing better than fighting a large grunter when using light tackle, it’s a great thrill.

In the past, anglers have also caught some big kob or salmon when fishing for grunter, so a weekend away at one of these resorts could be well worth it.

Anglers up north are finally enjoying some excellent sport with big skates and sand sharks, despite weather conditions often proving a challenge to work around.

While it’s still early days, anglers certainly seem set to enjoy another excellent season like last year.

A few big rays have already been caught and released, including the huge diamond variety plus a couple of really big sandies.

Anglers have also reported that big sharks have been on the bite with a variety of live bait available.

Some great sport could be had by anglers using the correct tackle.

I believe that anglers fishing at night have caught a few big stumpnose plus shoal kob, so angling up north seems to be alive at present.

Off-shore anglers have also got a lot to look forward to although the sea was bumpy for much of last week owing to winds.

It is the time of the year for safety equipment inspections for the seaworthy discs for next year, but there is always time for a bit of off-shore fishing for the early season game fish such as dorado and possibly even a billfish which could be in local waters.

So far, there have been a few big yellowfin tuna that have been caught along with some sizeable bonito and, really decent dorado.

It is still very early days in the summer game fish season but, fishing looks really promising.

Off-shore angling is however very dependent on the elements so, hopefully the ‘gods’ will be good this season. 

So far, this year the bottom fishing has produced some excellent results when conditions have allowed and there has been a number of big cracker caught along the coast.

Down south there has been a couple of red steenbras as well, but the 74 numbers seem to be rising.

These fish are still on the banned list.

Big rockcod have been found in some areas along with several of the red fish species such as Scotsman, Englishman, soldiers and slinger.

The daga and geelbek salmon continue to provide decent sport and, it is time now for half-kob so, there is still a lot for bottom anglers.

With the rainy season upon us, the rock and surf anglers could do well to concentrate on fishing the river mouth areas where a variety of fish can be caught at this time of the year.

There will almost always be that bit of discolored water which attracts species such as garrick, kob, grunter, mullet and other fish such as snapper salmon and, of course, various shark species.

With the water waters predators such as the kingfish could also make an appearance, so it is a case of spending time at the water.