#FishEagle: Fluctuating weather not good for angling

On Monday last week the weather remained calm the entire day but temperatures soared with very high humidity levels.

Some areas recorded temperatures of up to 44 degrees and temperatures in the high thirties were common along the entire coastline.

I checked the barometer during the morning and had not seen such low readings in a long while.

During the early hours of Tuesday morning a south-westerly wind arrived bringing relief from the intense heat.

For the rest of the week weather conditions fluctuated which were not ideal for angling.

The water temperature remained between 26 and 27 degrees and at times there was a swell of around two meters.

Word from the North Coast all the way down south was of “iffy weather” plus dirty water in some areas and fishing being unpredictable.

We are now moving into autumn so temperatures should cool down in the not too distant future.

There seems to be plenty of small kingfish to be found up and down the coast at present and anglers have caught a number of them in the surf.

Quite a few have been caught on the far South Coast, in Durban and from local beaches, along with nice stumpies, but surf anglers have complained about hoards of peckers stripping baits in the surf.

I have found this to be normal when fishing in the surf at this time of the year so I used to switch to using live crab and chokka baits, hoping to catch a pompano that should be due now.

Other edible catches recorded by local anglers have been the small fish found operating in the shore break, including moonies, wave garrick, small Cape stumpnose and even a few mullets.

The summer flatfish were a bit quiet last week but there are plenty of small sharks being caught along the coastline, mainly small grey sharks.

Some hammerheads were also caught, although they seem to prefer the deeper waters. The odd skate continues to be caught but the flatties seem to be more in abundance further north.

Surf anglers should now begin to change tactics and target the pompano and stumpies that should come on the bite in the extra warm water.

Although it is not safe to fish during the night, I believe guys targeting grunter just north of the Umgeni River mouth have been doing quite well, landing a few “bus” grunter when using sea lice or shell bait.

Offshore anglers have reported that shoals of bonito can be found over a wide area. Some guys have been catching these bonnies mainly for bait, but when bled properly and smoked, they make excellent snacks over a couple of beers.

Game fish anglers tell of plenty sharks in the game fish grounds taking live baits intended for the couta, and any couta hooked is likely to be eaten.

I believe anglers have yet to see the best of this year’s game fish season.

When the weather settles in the next month or so the guys will find much cleaner and settled sea conditions and it should be around then that big couta begin to make an appearance.

Last week a number of dorado were caught again with a few among the ships.

Out in the cleaner, deeper water the big tuna are still lurking, plus a couple of big couta were caught in certain areas.

The surf ski guys have been busy searching for the snoek that have been plentiful at times feeding on the many shoals of sprats operating close inshore.

Find the sprats and you’ll find the snoek.

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