#FishEagle: Fishing enthusiasts grapple with changing conditions

The moderate to fresh southerly wind that arrived on Wednesday certainly brought some relief, although only briefly, from the hot and humid weather experienced recently.

Thursday was perfect for the beach and time spent fishing but there was a sudden substantial drop in the sea water temperature.

The sudden influx of cold water usually results in the fish going off the bite and fishing going “dead” even though the conditions may be near perfect.

There were also reports of patches of red coloured water between Westbrook and Tugela mouth that resulted in speculation of a red tide contaminating the sea.

The water has been tested but at the time of writing this column, no results have been released.

Moderate to fresh north-easterly winds kept the offshore anglers shorebound and there was limited fishing time at sea.

A nice marlin and two sailfish were caught off Durban, plus a few decent barracouta and snoek were found feeding on shoals of sprats resulting in several being boated by surf ski anglers.

There were some dorado as well but many anglers opted to spend their limited time fishing the bottom reefs where some decent fish have been caught recently.

The bottom fish proved to be on the bite and the anglers cashed in but towards the end of the week the drop in the water temperature resulted in a drop off in catches.

Rock and surf anglers also had limited fishing time because of the windy conditions and rough surf, but there were times that anglers managed to wet their lines – although for some it took a substantial amount of effort to get to the beach.

It was another week of sand sharks on the bite and anglers fishing most of the popular venues all managed to land a sandie or two.

Every bait cast into the water had a pull from a sand shark or a skate and the guys who were fishing light had the fight of their lives trying to subdue these fish. The areas stretching from Ballito to Umdloti all produced fish but unfortunately there were few edibles to be found.

Closer to Durban, the summer flatfish were also on the bite, while a few edible fish were caught as well by surf anglers.

There were shoals of sprats moving just off the backline and it was these pockets of baitfish that brought the edible fish inshore.

Included in catches were one or two kingfish, a number of stumpies, a couple of salmon and grunter but it was a toss up whether an inedible flatfish or one of the edible species would take a fresh bait first.

Glenashley was one of the venues that fished reasonably well along with north of the Umgeni mouth, which was busy as usual.

Last week it was reported that competition anglers “caned” the diamond rays and I believe that on Sunday there were a lot of fish weighed in.

Apparently the diamonds were thick and the anglers went on a “shot for shot” and the fishing was really hectic.

Diamonds normally turn on during March, so it seems as if they have arrived early.

Big summer fish are being caught from other northern areas as well and there were reports of a sand shark weighing 93 kilos caught in the Richards Bay area. It takes a tough angler with strong tackle to land a fish of that size.

All fishing was called of last Saturday because of fresh south-westerly winds that brought some rain during the night but the weather and sea conditions were good on Sunday morning.

I took a drive to various fishing spots and a number of anglers were fishing from the beach but I did not sea any rods bending.

Talking to anglers leaving the beaches I gathered there were a couple of sandies and rays caught, but there was not any real fireworks and reports indicated no edible fish were caught.

The surf conditions were looking quite good and apparently the water had warmed a little.

I also talked with a couple of surf ski anglers who had just beached and they had caught a few nice sized snoek feeding on sprats just off the backline.

They told me that snoek were operating off the Umgeni mouth and near the north pier. The pockets of sprats now moving slowly up the coast should bring the fish on the bite and this week’s weather report is of more north-easterly winds, so it could be a case of watching the conditions closely and using any good fishing windows.

Sealice

Follow The North Coast Courier on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube for breaking news

WhatsApp Broadcast Service: https://chat.whatsapp.com/BdGZsGJEAf04AXZ2yLWi8T