The south-westerly wind that arrived last Tuesday evening brought with it stormy weather, big seas, and huge surf conditions.

Fishing conditions on Wednesday were regarded as impossible, and although weather conditions improved on Thursday morning, three-metre swells remained.

Anglers had to contend with some windy conditions at the weekend.

Shad anglers were back on the beaches in force on Friday morning for the start of the open season and some good catches were recorded in certain areas as the fish head back to the Cape.

Normally, the shad caught at this time of the year will be the “return shad”, so named because they are notably thinner after having dropped their roes.

Several fish have been caught on spoon and bait during the early morning periods, but the late afternoon periods have not seen a lot of shad caught because of shark activity at present.

Some big sand sharks, a few big rays and many hammerheads are keeping a growing number of anglers interested in fishing the local beaches.

I believe mixed grill baits of chokka and fresh fillets are producing the most pulls and these baits will also be ideal for edibles such as salmon or kob, plus stumpies that are much sought after.

No wire trace is needed when targeting summer flatfish but at present, there are plenty of sharks feeding as well, so it is recommended that some wire is used to prevent lines being bitten off.

Anglers fishing for shad at first light have been hooking into the big flat fish. The best time to fish is two hours before and after high tide.

Edible fish were not as plentiful last week but several copper bream were caught in the rocky gullies, with prawn being the most successful bait.

Other species such as stone bream and blacktail can also be found among the rocks and holiday anglers can have some great fun by using the drop shot method of fishing in the gullies. This method usually results in some surprise catches such as stumpies and pompano, plus rock cod at times.

Local tackle shops will gladly help holidaymakers with tackle and the method to use when fishing with drop shot lures.

The summer game fish season has begun with some nice couta weighing 15kg caught, and although it seems to be a little early for the couta, the water temperature has measured 24 degrees in some areas. There are plenty of blue bottles in the water.

Anglers have caught some dorado but this species does not seem to be as numerous as they were at this time last year. This could change overnight though.

The hot, humid weather is ideal for summer game fish but strong southerly winds moving up the coast created rough seas that spoiled the fishing.

Those fishing the bottom reefs continue to record some decent catches and the guys fishing deep have managed to catch some geelbek salmon and red fish species such as soldiers, a few dageraad and various species of big rock cod.

Closer inshore the daga salmon continue to be on the bite plus a few half–kob on some of the reefs. Trap sticks are producing dorado, so it’s all looking good at present.

Surf ski anglers fishing inshore managed some garrick last week and apparently there was some snoek caught as well in the Umdloti and La Mercy areas. Although there is still baitfish on the inshore reefs, sharks are now beginning to be a bit of a problem, especially now that small hammerheads have arrived in numbers and are being caught along the entire coastline.

The sizeable swell last week did hamper the surf ski anglers as well, but at the weekend the swell had moderated enabling launching again.

The anglers mentioned the thousands of blue bottles in the water and said they were ultra-careful when retrieving their lines.

Just a bit of a heads–up to the anglers down on holiday. Be careful when fishing at night, try not to fish alone and not in any remote areas. It is not safe.

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