#FishEagle: Eyes remain glued on sards

While it may still be early in the year for sardines, eyes remain glued on Eastern Cape waters in anticipation of what kind of sardine run could be expected along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline this year.

It was recently reported that massive shoals of sardines were gathering in Cape waters and last week pilot shoals of sardines were seen heading northward.

Ocean temperatures are still too high here, and historically, the first signs of sardines are reported around mid-June.

But already we have had early signs of winter cold fronts moving up the coast so, there is a chance of cooling off in the near future.

Heavy surf is doing a good job at removing sand which has built up during summer months, and this is will favour those who fish from beaches during winter months.

At present, there is not too much happening except for small shad caught during early mornings, including the odd stumpie at darker hours.

Most rock and surf anglers target edible fish species but at this time of the year these could be a little scarce.

However there are quite a few inedible species around to keep anglers happy.

Small skates have been on the bite along some of the sandy beaches plus a few decent sized sharks which feed during the late afternoons.

The summer game fishing season continues, despite angling being somewhat marred by the ground swell which moved in-shore during the latter part of the week.

At the beginning of the week the area between Stud Rock and the Seabelle Hotel at La Mercy was popular again, and a few really nice barracouta were on the bite.

Most anglers are using live baits of which there is not shortage at the moment and they are being well rewarded with decent sized fish.

A number of the couta were hooked near the bottom and this means that a fair-sized sinker needs to be used.

Anglers fishing the South Coast game fish continue to record decent catches, including a few crocodile-sized fish weighing around 36kg and more.

At the moment, game fish seem to be hooked in the early mornings.

When fishing quietens down, anglers move out into deeper waters where geelbek and daga salmon are now becoming more numerous.

Anglers using trap sticks with live baits have also caught big yellowfin tuna plus the odd big dorado which are probably the last of their species in local waters.

Big musselcracker plus a variety of large rockcod, soldiers, a few Scotsmen and slinger have also made up catches.

The abundance of live bait has certainly made life easier for the off-shore anglers but unfortunately, as always, the taxman lies in wait for his share of the prize.

Anglers have lost big hooked bottom fish to these monsters, plus expensive fishing tackle.

In some areas, the bottom anglers have found small salmon massing on the reefs and have soon had decent catches of fish in their hatches caught in a short time.