This year’s dorado run has anglers jumping to be part of the action

Last week one angler told me that anglers fishing off-shore in the Salmon Bay area just had to open their hatches and dorado would jump inside!

The dorado are being caught far out and close in-shore.

Some anglers also call them the chicken of the sea, and they are beautiful to see swimming in the ocean.

Other fish species being sought at present are yellowfin tuna, barracouta, wahoo and of course, billfish and the spotted mackerel or Natal snoek.

There have been a few bus tuna caught, some weighing well over 35kgs.

A fish of this size will given an angler a real workout, especially from a surf-ski.

In years past, many ski boat anglers would refrain from catching the yellowfin tuna because this was before sushi was popular – the few fish which were caught were smoked and Mr Mozzie was the guy to go to when having tuna smoked.

Even during fishing competitions, the tuna ranked low down in the points.

Some nice big couta have been caught recently and Zinkwazi has been a hot spot.

***

Oh mahi-mahi!

At 6 years old a Ballito angler has landed a fish most men only dream about.

Daniel Rundle recently enjoyed his fourth time out to sea on a jet ski with his dad, Ernest – despite the hesitant reaction of mother, Denise.

Needing very little assistance from his dad, Daniel successfully landed this 11.5kg dorado caught off Salmon Bay after a 40 minute fight.

Ernest said sharing the experience with his son was phenomenal.

When not at sea, Daniel takes his fishing rod to the living room couch to practice while watching his favourite fishing shows.

***

But as soon as the couta begin feeding and a few fish are hooked and boated, the sharks arrive and some of these monsters are submarine-size.

There is nothing worse than hooking a couta weighing 15 or 20kgs and having it chopped, only to reel in the head.

I believe that live bait was a bit scarce last week but any fresh dead bait properly rigged will entice the couta as well.

There was a time when anglers only used dead baits for barracouta.

There were a number of craft fishing the La Mercy area for couta and a couple of really nice fish were caught.

Early morning surf anglers continue to catch shad which are still numerous but a word of caution:

When cleaning the fish and preparing for consumptions, check carefully for worms in the flesh.

Shad normally live in cooler water and there were a couple of occasions that I caught shad this month only to find that the flesh was riddled with worms, probably because the water temperatures were too high for this species.

Shad continue to feed just before first light and seem to disappear just after daylight, and most are undersized.

Anglers targeting stumpies have had mixed results with many being on the small side.

But there have been a couple weighing between 3 and 5kgs caught.

The larger fish have mainly been caught on mixed grill baits of fillets and chokka or catfish leg.

Anglers who caught told me that they were targeting salmon in the discoloured water during the early morning and early evening periods.

Anglers should not be put off if the surf is rough because these fish enjoy rough conditions.

However most catches in the surf have been of inedible varieties.

Anglers fishing the sandy beaches during the day will most likely be picked up by one of the summer varieties such as the sandies, skates and even sharks.

Anglers should continue to persevere though, because there will always be the chance of landing decent pompano which should begin to move into local waters.