#FishEagle: Easter fishing beckons

It was not the greatest week for favourable fishing conditions but the off-shore game fish anglers managed to boat some nice fish.

There were a lot of snoek around again, mainly off Umdloti and in some areas further north.

Fishing for couta was again the popular choice, with many of these fish caught being around the shoal size.

There were a few crocodile-sized fish between the lots.

Unfortunately anglers had to put up with dirty water in some areas as the rivers flooded, which seems to be becoming a regular occurrence.

Long range weather reports for the Easter weekend are very favourable with light winds predicted, though there may be a bit of rain.

The Easter weekend is normally one of the best weekends of the year weather-wise.

I always look forward to 4 days of fishing over this weekend.

No doubt the off-shore anglers will be out in force looking for the plentiful game fish that have been on the bite.

The ski boat guys will be looking for barracouta which have been plentiful.

Fish have been feeding on live bait as well as fresh, dead bait being trolled slowly.

Sharks have again been a bit of a problem. But this is par for the course at this time of the year, with the big Zambezi sharks taking their toll of hooked fish.

Anglers have been fishing from as far as Zinkwazi in the north to around Bluff in the south and have scored well.

Some will want to target the billfish over the weekend and this year a number have been caught.

A few black and striped marlin have been caught and released, but sailfish are what everyone wants.

They have been caught out deep as well as on the closer reefs.

Recently, one kayak angler had the fight of his life when he hooked into a large marlin and he only returned late that night.

Yellowfin tuna plus bonito are also plentiful and a few really decent queenfish have been caught as well.

The queenfish have been caught by those targeting snoek along the backline and I hear that some have had some great sport with springer there too.

Once game fish go off the bite, there is always bottom fishing to look forward to where some really nice fish have also been caught recently.

Shad have been caught by the rock and surf anglers before first light and during late afternoons, and though most have been on the small side there have been a few at 4 to 7kgs.

It seems as if the shad are being caught virtually all year around these days.

Weekend tides will be favourable to target pompano and although it may still be a bit early, a couple of nice specimens have been caught already.

At the time, anglers may be able to catch a nice stumpie which shows a liking to the same baits used for pompano.

The tides will also favour those who enjoy fishing among the stones.

Not much news has come from rock anglers lately, but who knows, there could be some surprises.

Let us hope that no extraordinary lockdown rules will be imposed this weekend to disrupt anglers and tight lines to all.