Tuna are back … and so is our scribe!

THE tuna have arrived and great sport is being had by all offshore anglers targeting these fish. With plenty of flying fish around, these tuna are eating basically anything you throw at them, with poppers, stickbaits and vertical jigs providing some hectic action.

The fish being caught at the moment are ranging from smaller fish of round 5kg on the lures to fish of over 30kg being taken on poppers and chum baits.

The sharks seem to be giving the fishermen a bit of a chance recently, with some boats coming back with some really good catches.

A new tactic of chumming with anchovies, instead of cutting up sardines, is currently being experimented with and the results have been great.

The thought behind it is that there is no blood from the cut up pieces going into the water to attract sharks, hence anglers are getting more fish out.

Kakaap (green jobfish) have also made an appearance on Protea Reef. These fish are arguably one of the tastiest fish of the ocean.

Boats fishing in the Ramsgate area have reported some decent catches of geelbek and also the first yellowtail for the season.

Rock and surf angling has produced a fair share of fish, predominantly garrick and kob at the Sandspit at Port Shepstone.

It’s the time of year when garrick spawn; they become active but also very vulnerable.

Unfortunately, some anglers have reverted to the illegal method of jigging these fish, which is a very unsporting manner of catching garrick.

We recently did a trip to Port St Johns to target the garrick in the river and experienced three days of unbelievable fishing. Some 14 garrick were boated in three days with probably just as many lost – and all fish were returned alive.

Of the 14 fish returned, three were under 10kg with the others ranging from 12kg to 15kg. These are exceptional fish for a river and they were all in pristine condition.

Good catches of bronze bream and brusher are also being made at most of the popular spots with the swimming pool at Shelly Beach producing some really good-sized fish.

A meeting was to be held on Wednesday evening (last night) regarding the current situation of the ramp at the Shelly Beach Ski-boat base and full details of that meeting will be provided in next week’s edition.

Until then tight lines and keep on fishing.

Port Edward

With the bad weather experienced over the last two weeks, not too many fishermen have been out, resulting in no real news to report.

More favourable conditions have led to some good bream fishing and those braving the wind are getting bronze bream along the coast.

Garrick seem to be away, and part of the problem could be that there is no one actually targeting them mainly with live baits.

Normally, at this time of the year, catches of garrick are often heard of and mullet becomes the next preferred live bait to shad, which is out of season till December and cannot be used.

It’s time to get down to the lagoons with a cast net and live bait bucket and to fetch some to launch from points accompanied with a slide trace attached.

Evening fishing off the beaches has resulted in a number of blue rays being landed and hopefully in all cases fully returned to the sea.

Female skates often give birth to their young on the beach once landed and these will survive if they are also carefully returned to the water.

Tide Table

High tides

October

24 06.08 18.14

25 06.43 18.50

26 07.28 19.42

27 08.47 21.29

28 11.10 23.43

29 12.28 – –

30 00.48 13.12