#FishEagle: Revisiting the 2022 angling scene

It has been a year filled with some really unusual events.

Barracouta arrived in numbers in December, setting the scene for big fish hauls unlike in the past.

As usual, popular angling spots such as Cape Vidal were busy, and anglers were rewarded with gamefish catches such as sailfish, big tuna, crocodile-sized barracouta, huge dorados and a few nice wahoos.

It wasn’t long before they began to arrive closer to home, Zinkwazi becoming a popular launch site during this time.

But when gamefish began feeding on the inshore reefs it became difficult to land anything, and retrieving heads became the order of the day.

Offshore anglers are very weather dependent, and these days they must use any good weather windows available.

Long weekends such as Easter have long been favourite times because this usually offers the best weather along our coastline.

The unusual heavy rainfall in April caused much damage and pollution. The flooding continued for some time and resulted in limited time at sea.

The sardines came late, but after a promising start, adverse weather and sea conditions saw to it that the run would be one of mainly speculation.

Fortunately for boat anglers there were plenty of shoals of baitfish moving up the coast, and there was no shortage of red eye sardines, maasbanker and mackerel.

Rock and surf anglers also enjoyed great fishing at the beginning of the year with the arrival of summer flatfish. Some really big rays were caught and among the rays were a number of big stumpies that came on the bite.

Usuals like summer mullet, wave garrick and moonies kept anglers happy but after the rains some locations became almost unreachable owing to damaged roads and bridges.

With the arrival of winter, copper and bronze bream appeared in great numbers. Most rocky areas fished well. It was a case of anglers wondering how many bronzies they could catch each day.

Winter also proved excellent for nighttime fishing, owing to salmon and kob suddenly arriving en masse. Some really big stumpies were also feeding in the dark.

The year also had its difficulties, including heavy poaching of blue shad, thieves plaguing anglers at La Mercy and Westbrook and the long-term beach closures due to raw sewage. Still, true anglers are always ready to cast again.

Wishing you great fishing in the new year.

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