After the big South Westerly buster that moved up the coast at the weekend, anglers had a bumpy sea to contend with at the start of last week. Fortunately the strong winds forecast for the week did not arrive, allowing anglers some prime fishing time. But unfortunately for the weekend anglers, another South Westerly buster arrived on Sunday morning and all water activities were “blown-out” for the day.

Local surf anglers fishing at night have found daga salmon on the bite but they have had to be patient. These days anglers only fish in a group at night. There have also been a few big stumpies caught by guys targeting the salmon and a couple of six kilo stumpies have rewarded the most persevering anglers. Apparently the salmon have mostly been in the 20 kilo range which are good-sized fish.

Surf anglers have managed a few shad in the early mornings, with the shad just feeding for a very short time before disappearing. This is probably because of the presence of garrick (mostly caught on live bait). Garrick is a much sought-after species and Salt Rock is a popular fishing spot throughout the garrick season.

The guys that prefer to fish the rocky gullies continue to pull a few big blacktail and copper bream that are slowly becoming more numerous. This form of angling is not easy and can be costly in lost tackle unless one is experienced and knows the gullies. La Mercy is beginning to produce some fish along with most of the rocky areas in Ballito, Salt Rock and Tinley Manor.

Unfortunately the copper bream are not yet as plentiful as in recent seasons but that could change soon and the huge blacktail that have suddenly appeared in local waters are something to look forward to. There have been some karranteen as well and the stone bream that have been scarce seem to be re-appearing in the gullies.

The upper South Coast anglers had some big seas to contend with last week and this resulted in few fish being caught. There were shad and copper bream feeding at times but there were days that the fishing was completely dead. Upper South Coast anglers have experienced a pretty lean winter but their lower South Coast counterparts have fared a lot better even with rough seas. Last week the fishing was pretty good with a wide variety of edible fish being caught, including garrick, salmon, shad, huge blacktail , copper bream and even the odd brusher. Inedible fish have been caught as well with sharks being the majority plus the odd ray.

Offshore anglers are having a pretty good winter bottom fishing season so far and a number of big daga salmon are being caught. There are some big soldiers on the reefs plus the inevitable rockcod. Fishing at night seems to be the way to go and this is when most of the dagas have been caught. Sharks are still a problem in some areas and big fish continue to be lost to these monsters as well as expensive tackle.The backline guys are still finding snoek in certain areas and the garrick are providing sport as well but unfortunately conditions may change this week.

This past week hundreds of dead mackerel were floating in the Illovo lagoon, obviously dumped by someone. This is a great waste. They could have been donated to UShaka Marine World to feed the fish in the aquarium. There has been a lot of netting recently and the market must now be flooded with fresh mackerel. At least the fish were dumped in the water at Illovo and will probably provide food for fish in that area!

Sealice