#FishEagle: Challenging times for anglers

With typical summer weather heating things up on the coast, conditions have been challenging since last week’s north-easterly winds arrived.

While conditions were almost perfect for offshore anglers with even seas playing ball, dirty water remained a problem in some areas, irking anglers who did not have time to cast their lines earlier in the week owing to unpredictable surf.

As expected, there was little news from game fish anglers, but the odd dorado and tuna out in the deep were reported by guys who spent time at sea.

Finding a clean spot to fish at in-shore was difficult, exacerbated by shark activity.

Waters should, however, begin to clear up now owing to the recent lack of rainfall. That being said, it is well-known among anglers that north-easterly winds tend to churn up dirt on the bottom reefs and also bring colder waters to shore.

Bottom reef anglers also spent limited time at sea last week. Skippers had to travel far out to sea to find clean waters off Durban, and although there were some sizeable bottom fish, fishing proved hard work in the rough waters.

Some big soldiers were boated along with the odd dorado, but rock cod seemed scarce. A few geelbek salmon were found out deep.

Offshore anglers near the backline point managed to catch a few nice sized shad and, the upper South Coast is producing a few, too. But fish are definitely becoming smaller.

Anglers are advised to switch to fishing for the summer flat fish from now on, or fish rocky outcrops where a few big blacktail have recently been caught.

Anglers are opting to fish the bay owing to the adverse weather conditions and rough seas.

Last week a number of smallish kingfish were caught again plus some big grunter. Other species on the bite in the bay include springer and some big mullet. Snapper salmon have come on the bite at times in the discoloured water.

The only problem I have of keeping fish caught in the bay is the ever present pollution.

There are a number of anglers who fish the beachfront area at night and they have recorded some excellent catches at times. Catches included a number of skates, as well as a number of small edibles such as snapper salmon, the odd stumpie and a few decent grunter.

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