#FishEagle: Anglers ignore shad ban

Typical annual weather conditions greeted anglers last week with a couple of cold early mornings, followed by warmer, windy days.

Despite last week’s thunderstorms, fishing conditions remained good during first light periods. Come the weekend, strong winds saw people packing up and leaving however.

Although shad season has now closed, once they came on the bite anglers soon became greedy. Many also chose to ignore the bans imposed at some popular beaches.

Anglers fishing at Blue Lagoon caught some good-sized grunter, and they are now being caught at several Durban beaches. These fish are heading north to spawn.

Now is the time for anglers to start planning trips up north to places like Mapelane or St Lucia to fish for grunter, kob and salmon over the next two months.

Deep sea anglers have done well at Mapelane, mostly with big Stumpies.

It has been a productive time for brusher, and many of the sought after, hard-fighting fish have been caught so far.

They are moving north from Westbrook towards rocky Ballito and Salt Rock.

Salmon has been popular, especially around river mouths where plenty of shoal kob have also been caught.

Nighttime remains the best time for salmon, but do not risk your safety.

Some boats have recorded decent hauls of rock cod, reds and some musselcracker. Dorado have been caught at Cape Vidal too.

Plenty of bait remains to be found on the reefs with great expectation of a productive summer game fish run this year.

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