#FishEagle: Mambas, sharks and sards, what next?

Just as Easter holidaymakers returned home, a front moved up the coast on Tuesday bringing with it heavy rain that churned up the sea.

A large backline has not helped either, but the rough water could help to begin breaking up the sand banks that have formed at most beaches over summer.

Surf anglers at Glenashley last Thursday were surprised to see a big black mamba swimming in the surf!

Snake catcher Jason Arnold was called and the mamba, measuring 2.3m, was caught and removed from the beach.

The snake was likely washed down a storm water pipe that led out directly onto that beach in the heavy downpour.

Fishing has been a bit quiet there and the guys have just managed a few s wave garrick plus a few small pompano one morning towards the end of the week.

The north bank of the Umgeni Mouth has been producing quite a few small salmon and anglers could do worse than persevere at the local river mouth areas.

This time of the year one may come across a shoal and end up with a nice bag of tasty fish.

I used to fish Westbrook Beach regularly after work and return home almost on every outing with 2 or 3 small salmon caught just after last light. From the Umgeni Mouth through to uShaka Beach, anglers have been knocking the small shad just before and just after first light.

Some guys have been fishing at night with similar results but the fish are small, mostly undersized.

This does not seem to bother anglers these days and bag limits seem to be something of the past as well.

Most of the popular local surf angling beaches are badly sanded with fishing only possible at high tide.

This will soon change when the southerly winds begin to blow.

These winds tend to scour out the sand that has been deposited during the summer by the north easterlies.

There were a number of off-shore anglers at game fishing grounds during the week, most between Beach Bums and the Sea Belle Hotel.

I heard that couta were plentiful off Umdloti Mouth, but sharks remain a problem and one is lucky to land a hooked fish.

The area just north of the Umdloti Mouth has also been productive.

Most of the couta are small but there have been 1 or 2 crocodile sized fish caught.

Apparently they have shown a preference for decent sardine and mackerel baits when live bait has been scarce, but I believe that the red eye sardines are now becoming more numerous especially during the early morning.

Game fishing grounds off Ballito and Salt Rock have been productive but the larger couta seem to be up near Zinkwazi.

Even in these areas sharks have been a problem.

It seems as if anglers have to pull a couple of fish then move to try and avoid losing fish.

It is something one has to put up with when fishing the in-shore game fish reefs.

Those fishing a little deeper off Ballito have had a few decent catches of couta near the bottom while at anchor.

Some nice catches were recorded from the bottom reefs with a variety of big rockcod, the usual reds plus some nice salmon.

Anglers using trap sticks with live baits have had their arms stretched by big tuna that have attacked the baits, plus there has been the occasional wahoo and nice sized sailie.

Last but not least, the word from anglers in East London is that sardine shoals are beginning to build.

This may mean another phenomenal sardine season this year.