While recent rains served to cool things down for anglers, windy conditions at the weekend coupled with rain did dampen hopes for a productive weekend of fishing.

Don’t get your hopes up for the coming week either.

A moderate north-easterly wind on Saturday made for uncomfortable fishing, worsened by a strong south-westerly wind during the early morning hours of Sunday, bringing with it much rain.

Fishing on the North Coast last week had been excellent though, with summer flat fish on the bite once again. Several rays also put up a good fight.

This year has been one of the better ones for summer fishing so far, and the sandies and big rays can be found along the entire coastline.

Big honeycomb and diamond rays seem to be plentiful along with brown skates.

A number of big sharks have provided some sport too, and I believe that plenty of small salmon have been caught at Mtunzini. One angler mentioned he had caught salmon throw for throw.

Locally, just south of Ballito and off Zimbali, our coastline has provided some big flatties, with wave garrick plentiful in the shorebreak and plenty of small pompano on the bite.

The favoured bait has been prawn.

There are a number of moonies to be found as well, plus some nice-sized blacktail.

All of these fish have been caught in the shorebreak with light tackle and I won’t be surprised to hear that juvenile stumpnose have also come on the bite.

Durban fishing has been quiet last week with just a few grey sharks being caught along the beachfront. Some small salmon were also caught, mainly snapper.

The Bay still produces some nice-sized grunter and a few big springer.

Most fish are caught at night along the sandbanks and I believe every now and then an angler hooks into a sizeable shark, so anglers are wary when fishing sandbanks.

More game fish came on the bite as waters cleared.

Anglers found dorado among the ships and couta were back on the move around Umdloti. The couta were in the 10 to 25kg range, pretty good for this time of the year.

Out in the deeper waters, sailfish were seen chasing bonito again, with a couple of sizeable dorado also caught off Ballito. Further out large tuna are feeding, so it would appear as though the game fish season is back on track.

Water temperatures should remain around 25 degrees Celsius throughout the week.

Some big snoek were caught last week, and while it is often difficult to catch these fish, one should look north of Ballito where they appear to be feeding.

Bottom fishing was also quiet last week, with charter skippers mentioning only a few decent fish being caught. These were mainly geelbek salmon and the odd big yellowtail.

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