#FishEagle: Crocodile-sized couta and a real croc

The game fish reefs at Stud Rock and La Mercy, just north of the Seabelle Hotel, were popular areas last week with barracouta on the bite.

Popular fishing grounds off Umdloti Mouth remained deserted because of the shark problem.

I saw a couple of video clips during the week showing anglers losing nice sized couta to big sharks in other areas as well.

The clips showed fish almost close enough to be gaffed when sharks leisurely swam up and casually took what they wanted, leaving only the heads.

News from along the coast is that anglers have seen shoals of baitfish and some anglers took some time in stocking up in case of future shortages.

Also on the edges of the baitfish, anglers with trap sticks hooked into some decent fish in the form of dorado, snoek, couta and tuna.

There were a few crocodile-sized couta caught and anglers fishing the South Coast game fish areas enjoyed some hectic fishing, catching couta, snoek, tuna and even wahoo.

South Coast anglers also had their problems with sharks, losing many hooked fish.

Because of excellent sea and weather conditions, deep sea anglers had some excellent bottom fishing on the deep reefs.

So far this summer, some quality fish have been caught on the bottom and now with baitfish becoming more plentiful, catches should remain good. Some nice, much sought after red fish and various species of rockcod have been caught.

A couple of really big yellowbelly rockcod were boated by charter anglers, too.

Sharks have also been active on some of the deep sea reefs, causing skippers to move around a bit to try and save tackle.

Kayak anglers fishing the backline areas have also found that there are shoals of baitfish in-shore plus when trying to catch snoek while using fresh fillets.

The small shad have been nailing every bait put out into the water.

Anglers have caught a few nice snoek while big springer have also proved to be a problem, especially in Durban.

Springer are a spectacular fish to catch, but are better released because the amount of bones make the flesh almost inedible.

Surf anglers continue to catch small shad at night and at first light.

The small surf conditions has also meant that small sharks have moved in-shore to feed and when this happens, anglers targeting edible fish may as well pack up and head for home.

Shad remain very small and very few fish are making the legal limit size.

But the word is that there is little else on the bite at present.

Surf angling conditions were perfect for targeting pompano that enjoy calm surf.

But there were not many anglers at the popular pompano spots but it is early days yet.

Meanwhile, another black mamba was rescued from drowning in the surf last week and a crocodile that was spotted sun tanning on a sandbank at the Tongaat River Mouth.

Crocodiles have been spotted before at this river mouth and anglers who frequent this area are warned to be on the lookout.