#FishEagle: Competition heats up as anglers chase record-breaking couta catches in Durban Ski Boat Club competition

A north-easterly wind arrived late on Sunday morning and became moderate by midday, just in time for the end of the Durban Ski Boat Club’s festival competition.

Overall, fishing conditions were good and offshore anglers recorded some good catches of barracouta during the week with areas such as Stud Rock and off the Bluff producing the goods.

One angler fishing for snoek in the Stud Rock area caught a couta weighing 20kg. The heaviest couta weighed in during the Umdloti competition reached 18kg, so there were great expectations for the competition anglers during the weekend.

At the end of the first day the heaviest fish weighed in at 21,33kg, with the second heaviest couta tipping the scales at 19,5kg. This meant anglers had to fish hard on the Sunday to beat these two catches.

An angler named Coenie Vermaak came to the fore with a couta of 24,26kg, but was overtaken by Joshua Holdstock with a 25,96kg.catch.

The first prize was a fully equipped ski boat with 100hp four-stroke motors.

A variety of game fish were recorded last week, including dorado, GT kingfish, snoek, yellowfin tuna and plenty bonito.

In some areas murky water was close inshore and sharks again took their toll of fish, although the shark menace seemed to be easing a bit.

A sailfish was caught off Durban and anglers said the water was ideal for billfish, especially marlin.

Water temperature a little cooler but that did little to slow the fishing.

Bottom fishing remains productive with the usual species of rockcod and red fish making up most catch bags, but some salmon were caught in some areas.

The closer reefs seem to be producing some action but a north-easterly was predicted for the first half of the week and fishing the bottom reefs are no joke when the wind is pumping.

Local rock and surf anglers found things a bit slow last week but the guys that persevered managed a few fish at Tongaat and Sheffield.

Small salmon, a few copper bream and the odd stumpie emerged but it is normal for fishing to be quiet at this time of the year just before the arrival of the winter species.

Shad catches are slowly increasing down at the South Coast but there have not been any fireworks as yet.

It seems as though the shad shoals are late this year. Normally during the end of April garrick are on the move but as yet there has been no news.

The water is still a bit warm but the north-easterly winds will help to cool things down.

Many inedible fish were caught last week, including skates and various shark species. This may have been the end of the run of inedibles as the water temperature drops.

The winds this week may chop up the surf and rock and surf anglers will struggle down south.

Fishing in the bay has also slowed a bit but anglers are still catching grunter, although they are smaller, and there have been a lot of snapper salmon and small kingfish on the bite.

Sunday’s north-easterly is forecast to blow until Wednesday when another south-westerly is forecast, so anglers will be hard pressed to wet their lines during the first half of the week.

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