#FishEagle: Skinny shad on the rebound

The end of a rather strange and difficult year is on our doorstep, and as the second wave of Covid-19 rages through the country who knows when life will return to normal.

The restricted fishing hours have not resulted in regular early morning anglers changing their fishing habits that much.

Yes, nobody was allowed on the beach during the public holiday on Wednesday, but by Thursday morning regulars were back at their favorite angling spot at Durban View in Umhlanga Rocks and other popular angling beaches along the coastline. 

The tides were right, plus surf conditions favorable and a couple of big return shad obliged.

The name return shad can be traced back many years and is given to the shad that spawned and were returning back to the Cape.

They are easily recognised as the fish are a lot slimmer and sometimes anglers refer to these as skinny shad. 

These big blue shad are rapidly disappearing as they make their way back to the Cape waters so anglers wanting to catch a bus fish should make sure that they use any favorable fishing conditions at present.

I have found that the best results at this time of the run are in the late afternoon.

Most anglers use a cork or top bung but, I have always preferred to use a running wire trace without a cork and this style of trace has allowed me to land some memorable catches of several varieties of edible fish.

Hot bait at present is mackerel fillets or fillets of bonito.

These fish have a reddish colored flesh that really attracts predator fish.

Another trick for anglers targeting the big shad is to not try and cast too far.

This is because fish prefer to feed right in the shore break.

Fishing in Durban Bay has always been very popular.

During the past few weeks several species of edible fish have been caught but there have also been garrick and a couple of big shad and several nice sized kob caught recently. 

Unfortunately, the water in the bay is polluted and on Friday there was another warning issued of a sewerage spill in the bay. 

Summer is here and already off-shore anglers have recorded some decent catches of dorado and yellowfin tuna.

In the past, off-shore anglers would spend time fishing the in-shore reefs for couta just after launching at this time of the year but, the couta run as we used to know it has changed significantly.

December 16 used to be when couta would appear on the in-shore reefs, but the fish now arrive a lot later and the numbers have diminished dramatically.

This is the last column for 2020, and it is really difficult to predict how the Christmas weekend will be this year.

In the past, people would flock to the beaches on Christmas day and New Year’s Day, but this year the beaches are closed but, this is South Africa and like always ‘we will make a plan’.

I would like to wish all readers a Merry Christmas and, may the year 2021 be a much better time for all.