#FishEagle: Summer season impresses

North easterly winds last week Monday saw beaches covered with thousands of beached bluebottles.

The wind shifted on Tuesday and began pushing from a south west direction, leaving fishing conditions in a poor state.

However, come first light on Wednesday fishermen were able to enjoy some really good conditions which lasted right through to Saturday afternoon.

There were plenty of snoek caught again along the backline from Durban through to La Mercy and also off the Tongaat River mouth.

Anglers fishing the backline enjoyed the action thoroughly, reeling in some sizeable catches.

Some nice bags of snoek were recorded as well, but I believe that a lot of fish were hooked, only to be lost.

This week the in-shore water was a lot cleaner and after a couple of days of cold water, the temperature had increased by Wednesday morning.

Game fish anglers are spoilt for choice at present as there are a number of different game fish species being caught.

Anglers targeting barracouta found an abundance of live bait available and much of this was converted into couta.

Most of the popular close reefs produced fish but many anglers fishing at Durban opted to go around the corner at Bluff where a number of really nice-sized couta had been caught.

Most anglers still cannot believe just how good this summer season has been so far.

Shoals of bonito can be seen almost everywhere and those fishing deeper waters with live bait are hooking into some big yellowfin tuna as well, plus the odd big dorado still. It seems there is still plenty for all at present and even the bottom anglers have been kept happy, catching some quality fish.

Several big cracker have been caught so far this season, plus a number of captain fine and spotted rockcod and the inevitable big soldiers and slinger.

Anglers fishing on the bottom down south have caught a couple of big Scotsman and Englishman as well.

Those fishing the deeper reefs have returned with geelbek salmon and some really nice trawl soldiers.

A couple of big shad were caught again this past week but the majority of shad being caught were small green or china shad.

Undersized fish do not seem to bother anglers these days and in some instances, bag limits are being ignored as well.

I checked a few of the productive shad angling spots from last year and saw that most are now badly sanded up and it are going to take some heavy seas to correct.

As we slowly move through autumn, the weather should become almost perfect with calm seas and beautiful surf angling conditions.

This is the time pompano move in-shore and the lucky anglers pull some really decent sized and beautiful edible fish.

A few small pompano have already been caught and last week one angler landed a bus of a pompano.

The fish looked as if it was caught from an upper South Coast beach.

Anglers should remember that these fish enjoy calm surf conditions and prefer baits such as crayfish, prawn, mussels and even sealice. An all-nylon trace is also preferred.

Local spots for pompano are Salt Rock beaches, Salmon Bay and just north of Westbrook.

A few big stumpnose have been caught recently and they are showing a preference for rough surf.

These beautiful eating and hard fighting fish tend to also prefer to feed during the hours of darkness, but many have been caught at early morning and late afternoon.

There should be plenty for the holiday rock and surf anglers this week and hopefully the weather will be perfect as well.