The windy season has arrived and rough seas could be the order of the day.

Anglers awoke to rough surf and sea conditions created by the fresh to strong southerly wind at the weekend, causing speculation that the much sought after wild “Makowe” mushrooms should make an appearance soon – the time shad normally arrive in local waters as well.

News last Tuesday morning was of a few big shad weighing in the region of 3 to 4kg being caught at Margate pier and surrounding areas, but they then disappeared and fishing went quiet, except for the rocky gullies.

Some popular shad spots produced good catches but anglers had to work hard.

The problem is there is too much food in the water so the shad are not moving inshore to feed. This should change in the near future and the shad anglers are reminded that fresh bait is available at the tackle outlets, so if one is looking for red eye sardines or mackerel, quickly stock up while stocks are available.

Late last week there were reports of big yellowfin tuna chopping into pockets of baitfish just inside the shark nets on the upper South Coast.

The fish were said to be sardines. South Coast anglers thought the sardine run was over were again left surprised.

On Friday morning sardines were netted in the Durban area, proving the sardine run was not yet over and then netters were busy again on Saturday morning.

“Bronzies” or copper bream have been plentiful and in some areas everyone that put a prawn into the water was rewarded with a nice fish. It was said it was impossible not to return home with a couple of good sized copper bream feeding along almost the entire coastline.

This winter season was another exceptional year for the copper bream anglers, and some outsized blacktail and stumpies were also caught in the rough water conditions keeping rock anglers happy.

Anglers fishing at Glenashley during mid-week had ringside seats when a dead young humpback whale washed up on the beach – not a nice sight but something that does not occur every day.

There was no news of any garrick being caught locally but perhaps the rough surf kept the fish away – or the anglers are keeping quiet when they catch garrick.

Anglers braving cold nights contine to catch salmon in some areas, plus the odd big stumpnose.

A local angler said he had been catching some nice grunter at night, mainly on sea lice bait, but he would not reveal where. I think he has been fishing near a local river mouth.

A few sharks are now being caught just after dark but the local anglers tend to move away when they come on the bite.

Offshore anglers have found launch conditions a little tricky last week because of the adverse sea conditions, but those that did launch were rewarded with some big yellowfin tunny in the 30 to 40kg range, leaving anglers with aching muscles.

There has been a bit of snoek around but they seem to appear in one area and then somewhere else the next day, so snoek catches are a bit of a hit and miss at present.

Sealice

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