Beautiful weather on Thursday and Friday delivered excellent billfish returns at the third offshore angling competition in Sodwana Bay in as many weeks.

The SADSAA Heavy Tackle Billfish Nationals, which began on Tuesday after Monday’s launch was cancelled, welcomed some of the country’s top anglers. Most teams had to wait until Thursday to register points, but 18 billfish were hooked and released over the final two days, including black, blue and striped marlin.

Team North West took the overall win, followed by hosts SADSAA in second place.

Meanwhile, signs that the local billfish season is kicking off are growing. A marlin was landed off Durban on Friday and another was hooked off the South Coast over the weekend.

Locally, offshore anglers continued targeting bottom reefs last week with good results. Several excellent catches were reported, including the usual variety of red fish species, along with large spotted ‘cat-faced’ captain fine and yellowbelly rockcod. The odd big musselcracker, daga salmon, yellowtail and amberjack were also landed during a productive few days of bottom fishing.

Kayak anglers found a few sizeable snoek and kingfish, while the first reports of couta are beginning to filter in. There were also multiple rockcod caught at bait spots and some anglers targeting GT kingfish at Stud Rock found daga salmon taking their lures instead.

Shore fishing remained quiet overall last week. Grey sharks returned as conditions improved, frustrating surf anglers. A few wave garrick (three-spot pompano) and juvenile stumpnose (yellowfin bream) were caught, but action remains limited.

Rock and gully fishing was mixed, though some decent stumpies, copper and lantern bream were hooked at Tinley Manor and Salt Rock.

With wind expected throughout most of this week, fishing conditions are unlikely to be favourable.

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