#FishEagle: Anglers change tactics in dirty waters

Dirty water made it a tough week for rock and surf anglers looking for edible fish – worsened by this not being the best time of year to find edible fish on the bite.

A few decent fish have however been caught up north at Richards Bay where nicely sized kob have been reeled in.

Mtunzini has also produced some lovely catches of smallfish pompano when waters have been clear and accompanied by small surf.

Snoek have also come on the bite up north by anglers catching on spoon.

The larger summer flatfish have recently been getting reeled-in at Zululand, with some monster-sized ones escaping the hook.

Anglers fishing the local coastline for larger skates and sandies have also done well, and some big fish have been landed and returned to the water unharmed.

The majority of locally caught skates have been the smaller, brown variety but there have been a couple of diamond and thorntail skates as well.

Some early morning anglers fishing for small shad with light tackle have had their baits picked up by a large skate or sand shark, and I have seen a few eyes standing out on stalks when anglers realise they have suddenly hooked a monster more powerful than they are.

The dirty water does not seem to bother these fish too much, and has served to entice grey sharks to come into in-shore waters.

Most of these fish have been on the bite during the late afternoons and early evening but a few have been caught during the early morning hours as well.

Anglers fishing in the bay continue to catch decent sized grunter and, in fact, there have been a variety of fish caught recently.

The usual cracker shrimp or prawn baits have been productive but fillet baits and glassies have worked just as well at times.

This light tackle form of angling can be really enjoyable and every now and then an angler hooks into a large fish that he has no chance of landing, or even setting eyes on.

It is however a pity that the bay is still polluted, now more than it has ever been before.

Ski boat anglers fishing along the South Coast reefs have been reeling in some nice game fish recently and catches have included sailfish, barracuda, wahoo, dorado and some tuna and bonito.

Unfortunately dirty waters have plagued these anglers, too, causing them to change tactics and fish the bottom reefs with good results.

The bottom anglers fishing down south have caught a few big cracker, a couple of outsize spotted and yellow-belly rockcod, as well as a few geelbek and daga salmon.

Weekend anglers fishing the backline along Durban North beaches managed to land a few snoek but I believe small sharks were a bit of a problem, especially for anglers using fillet baits.

I heard that the most productive area was the backline just south of Umgeni Mouth where waters were a lot cleaner.

It has been a while since anglers were able to launch on both days on a weekend, and hopefully this is the start of a good period although more rain has being predicted.