#FishEagle: Shads, sharks and surprises among sardines on the South Coast

The sardine run has set the stage for some monster angling battles over the past few weeks.

Anglers have hooked big GT kingfish, barracouta and black musselcracker from the surf, the latter two usually caught offshore. Some massive sharks have also left anglers “wide-eyed” after destroying their tackle!

The fantastic fishing has been prompted by the best sardine run in years, which, unbelievably, was still ongoing on the South Coast last week. Small nets were hauled in at Kelso, Port Shepstone and St Michael’s throughout the week.

Shad have remained on the bite along the South Coast, while fewer have appeared locally before first light. The main surprise this year has been the scarcity of small green China shad and anglers are hopeful that the bigger blue shad will start arriving in numbers soon.

Brusher have been spotted here and there in local waters, but have been more consistent on the upper South Coast. Garrick, meanwhile, have been plentiful along the entire coastline. The availability of live bait like blacktail, karranteen and pinkies has been a big help.

Local anglers fishing the rocky outcrops and gullies have found things mostly quiet recently, though it’s believed a big brusher was hooked, and lost, after a hard battle at La Mercy. Copper bream were unfortunately more scarce than usual this winter, so blacktail, karranteen and the odd stone and lantern bream made up the bulk of catches.

The Tugela Mouth area still seems to be fishing well, with Garrick, salmon and shad all being hooked. One wonders whether these big shad remain in the area, as they have occasionally been reported well out of season.

Although Tugela Mouth can produce good returns, anglers should factor in the travel distance – the area can also go cold at times, which is frustrating after a long drive.

Offshore anglers continue to enjoy decent fishing over the bottom reefs, with the usual redfish and rockcod species, along with daga salmon and half-kob making appearances.

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