#FishEagle: Shad run tapers off

It now seems that this year’s sardine run is finally over with only small pockets of sardines passing the lower South Coast beaches, but out of reach of netters.

There is always the chance of a surprise appearance somewhere but the disappearance of the sardines will allow fishing to return to normal.

After a fantastic beginning to this year’s shad run, they seem to have gone quiet along the entire coastline.

Just a few days ago anglers were “caning” the shad from the Margate pier but then anglers suddenly battled to record good catches.

The upper North Coast was also quiet but this could have been because of the dirty, foaming water evident in the area.

A few shad were caught but it was no fireworks and catches were from just a couple of the recognised angling spots.

But all is not lost as historically the best months for catching shad in local waters are October and November when the season closes.

One of the reasons for the scarcity of the shad could be the large numbers of garrick moving up the coast this year. They feed on the shad, therefore it makes sense to find an area almost devoid of shad when garrick are present.

This year’s garrick run has been phenomenal so far and they have been caught over a wide area along the coast.

Most have been caught on live bait such as mullet, karranteen and even small blacktail, but anglers using spoons or plugs have been successful as well despite garrick preferring live bait.

The best times to catch garrick is when they feed during the low water periods but I have seen many garrick caught on a shad trace equipped with a bung as well.

The surf was rough due to windy conditions at times last week and in the rough water some really nice-sized stumpies were caught by those fishing in the dark.

Stumpies can be caught on a variety of baits that include sardine fillet, mussels, rock bait, squid and my favourite, ghost crab. I have found through experience that a live crab cast out will quickly attract a pull if the stumpies are around.

There have been a few nice kob or salmon caught as well at night and the river mouth areas seem to be producing the most salmon at present, They have varied from the odd daga salmon to shoal kob and the inevitable snapper salmon.

Guys casting among the rocks have caught a few fish recently but nothing to really brag about. Catches included a few copper bream, stone bream, one or two lantern bream, blacktail and karranteen.

With spring approaching rock angling should improve but the windy season is on it’s way as well and this could cause disruption.

Offshore anglers have had to struggle with the elements last week and there were times that the surf was too unpredictable to allow launching.

The inshore guys caught a few snoek in the Umgeni area along with several garrick that were feeding all along the coast. There seems to be plenty of live bait available, so the offshore anglers could be in for some excellent angling along the backline for a while to come.

On the bottom reefs, rock cod, reds, the odd cracker, plus lantern bream and moff grunter inshore continue to keep anglers happy.

Sea conditions have not always been ideal for anglers to fish the deeper reefs but a number of nice geelbek salmon were caught. At around 30 fathoms anglers could find half kob at present.

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