Fishing and beach conditions were perfect last week with a low swell reading and small surf.

Weekend anglers had to endure some wind from the south plus wet weather, so it was the guys who fished during the week who scored the most.

There were reports of a lot of bird activity in lower South Coast waters but it seems as if they are feeding on the many shoals of baitfish moving northwards.

On Friday there was a report of a pocket of baitfish moving into the Qora area on the Wild Coast and this shoal was accompanied by gannets, which could mean these fish were an early pilot shoal of sardines.

The fishing continues to improve down the far south and there is a lot of activity.

Shad seem to be increasing in numbers at last and with the water temperature hovering around 21 and 22 degrees, brusher have also been on the bite with a number of decent sized fish being caught.

Salmon or kob are also hooked in numbers, mostly in the dark.

Fishing along the upper South Coast beaches has also improved and edible fish such as pompano, stumpies, grunter and bronze bream have all featured in catches.

Our area has been quiet for a while but the improved fishing along the South Coast is an excellent pointer of what is to come for local angling spots.

There is still no news of any garrick having been caught but this could change any time now as the sea water temperature slowly drops.

Salmon or kob continue to be caught by local anglers, with most of the salmon being landed in the dark along with the odd big stumpie.

Other edible species include one or two good-sized pompano and a few copper bream, lantern bream and blacktail coming out in the rocky gullies.

It has been amazing just how many salmon have been caught in recent months and there is no sign of it slowing down.

At Blue Lagoon some decent shad and grunter were caught but one has to be really desperate to go and fish among the crowd in this area, especially when the shad begin to pull.

The Umgeni mouth north bank is the place to be, though access is difficult, but big grunter are caught here and salmon like to feed there as well.

The game fish season continues with big couta more prevalent at present with Stud Rock continuing to be a popular area to catch them.

A few snoek were caught in at Umdloti. This year seems to be exceptional for snoek as plenty of fish have also been caught off Durban.

The odd dorado was caught off Durban last week but it is the end of the season for this species and they will disappear soon.

A few big tuna were caught recently but this year’s tuna run has been disappointing after recent years’ excellent tuna catches.

Bottom anglers continued with excellent catches on deep sea reefs with the usual red fish family, rockcod, plus a few salmon on some reefs and geelbek in the dark remaining active.

This week’s fishing conditions look pretty good with light winds forecast, so it should be all systems go for some decent fish to be caught.

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