#FishEagle: Clean waters yield good catches!

In-shore game fishing grounds and the surf have been left with nice, clean water despite an abundant amount of rainfall which has not as yet seen rivers and lagoons flood the ocean.

While rock and surf angling was very quiet, off-shore game anglers continued to pull some decent fish and on one outing, one angler hooked and subdued a black marlin that was released, not long after he hooked and subdued a sailfish – also, released.

Some anglers spend a lifetime attempting to catch a billfish and here this angler aboard a charter boat caught both species on one outing.

There are still plenty of tuna around but I am sure the dorado will soon disappear.

Sharks were not as numerous as they have been recently, perhaps because the sea was a lot cleaner last week.

Fish were still chomped as to be expected at this time of year, but it is nice to be able to boat whole fish for a change.

Other game fish that were targeted last week included the popular snoek, or spotted mackerel.

Backline areas along Durban North beaches proved to be popular especially at the weekend.

A couple of big queenfish have also been caught by anglers targeting snoek but there is one species which has remained elusive for some time now – the prodigal son! It has been a long time since I have heard of a prodigal being caught.

The swell reading was up to 3 metres at times, but the bottom anglers found fishing conditions favourable at times out deep.

There were no fresh north-easterly or southerly winds to batter anglers, but there was the usual strong current in some areas, but much sought after red fish and rockcod were on the bite in some areas.

Most anglers are able to only fish the weekend or public holidays, but there are always the lucky ones who fish during the week.

Last week I was able to speak to a couple of these boat skippers and asked them what could the reason be for the barracouta arriving in local waters during December, as they used to do in the good ‘ol days.

The guys said the common reasoning was that the worldwide Covid-19 lockdown and pandemic has had a great effect on foreign fishing boats cleaning up in Mozambique waters.

The pressure on fishing stocks has eased because these craft have not been as active as usual, so the couta have been allowed to migrate southwards as they used to in the past.

On a sad note, I visit La Mercy fishing spots early every morning and one basically meets the same people.

Friday morning was no exception. Just about every morning I meet one person walking with his dog near the La Mercy hotel, and on Friday morning, he was walking in the same area with his son and the family dog.

I greeted them and drove slowly by, and was shocked later to discover that both he and his son, including the dog, had drowned in the surf.

So sad, and condolences to the family.