Gannets, whales and dolphins all got in on the action during another fantastic week of the sardine run.

The South Coast enjoyed sizeable nets for most of the week, with yet more shoals reported at Mdumbi in the Eastern Cape – indicating the run will continue for a few weeks. There were so many sardines around that a shoal was even reportedly observed swimming south!

Netting has become slightly less intense as the market has saturated, but many thousands of fish were still hauled in and quickly sold.

Surf angling has proved equally fruitful, with shad being caught in great numbers at first light, including some real outsized specimens. Sardine bait was most common, but many were caught on spoon as well.

Some big garrick were also caught with relative ease and another epic garrick season seems to be unfolding. Anglers fishing the upper South Coast surf found grunter, salmon and some small kingfish, while some sizeable rockcod, blacktail and karranteen were found among the rocks.

Offshore anglers enjoyed excellent weather and sea conditions last week and found some fish on the bite as well. The amount of life in the water at present has resulted in anglers catching some late-season bomber barracouta, while yellowfin tuna and snoek have also been around.

Looking back, this year’s game fish season has been an excellent one with a number of outsized couta, wahoo and dorado being caught. There appears to have been more billfish than normal this year and backline anglers have begun the winter season well with good garrick catches.

The bottom reefs continue to produce numerous notable fish, including half-kob over a wide area, plus the usual red fish and rockcod. Daga salmon are also reportedly increasing in numbers, while anglers fishing the deeper reefs scored with geelbek salmon.

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