Hooked on Fishing: Sardine false alarm – again
Offshore angling has been very productive.
THERE was huge excitement along the coast on Tuesday morning with reports of alleged sardine activity between Port Shepstone and Ramsgate.
Seine netting boats, laden with crates, were seen rushing up and down the coast. Even the Durban netters rushed down, trying to capitalise on the situation.
However it was soon established that the shoals spotted were shoals of bait fish, made up of red-eye sardines, mackerel and some Natal sardines.
On Wednesday morning these fish had moved up into the Hibberdene area, with no confirmed reports of any netting having taken place.
Offshore fishing has been very productive with some good catches of geelbek, amberjack and tropical yellowtail being boated.
While the live-baits have probably been proving the best method, a lot of fish have been caught on the vertical jig, especially the yellowtail and amberjack.
These fish put up a fierce fight and will put most anglers’ tackle and skill to the limit. Please remember that there is a bag limit of two geelbek per person for recreational anglers.
The tuna fishing is surprisingly very quiet for this time of the year. Maybe it is that anglers are becoming so despondent with the abundance of sharks in the area that they are concentrating their efforts and time targeting other species.
The shark activity on Protea Banks at the moment is absolutely prolific and without the sardines passing through and pulling those sharks with them it does not look like the situation is going to improve.
Rock and surf angling has been rather patchy with the odd shad still being caught. Orange Rocks has probably been the most consistent spot along the coast.
Apparently two large raggies were hooked and lost off Orange Rocks this week and with the cold water that is currently moving along our coast, spots like Shirley Avenue, Splash Rock at Port Edward and Lee Rocks in Margate should produce a couple of pulls at night.
Bronze bream are still being caught at most of the popular spots, with cracker shrimp again proving to be the pudding.
Mark Bennett, Tackle Box
Port Edward
Shad are still plentiful and some fishermen query why suddenly now and again they go off the bite for a while. The reason is that gamefish and sharks move in and feed on the shad and proof is that a number of hammerhead sharks have been landed over the last few days with the odd garrick also on the big fish list. Reports of other fish species, namely bream, have not come in as it would seem that all fishermen are targeting shad.
Terry Nel, Tackle Net
