Shad on the bite …and who will be King of the Sea?

THE sixth annual Quattro King of the Sea is almost upon us.

Kayaks, jet-skis and ski-boats fish against each other to take top honours in this prestigious and fun competition.

Being held at the magical Pumula Beach Hotel this weekend, this event attracts top anglers as well as their families for a fun-filled event.

Seafood braais, live music, wine tasting and more await the fishermen and their families.

Taking place over two days, the event tests anglers’ skills, allowing for the targeting of only four species, namely couta, yellow fin tuna, wahoo and snoek.

Great prizes are up for grabs – and lots of them at that.

A crayfish competition takes place as well for the divers to determine the ‘King of the Bugs’.

Entries are still open and you can get the entry form by emailing brendan@gofishmagazine.co.za.

It seems as if the weather has played the part over the past week or so with better-sized shad being caught off Glenmore, plus a few bigger shad and kob in the Palm Beach area.

A nice-sized kob was lost last week. Jordan Theron was fishing for crayfish but hooked the kob which eventually cut him off.

Some really big shad have been caught off the Transkei so hopefully these shoals will move up the coast.

Some shad have also popped up off Manaba but mostly small size. Unfortunately, it seems most of the undersized ones are being kept.

At Glenmore, shad over 40cm were caught, as well as good-sized kob at Palm Beach.

Very few fish were caught during the NCAU comp last weekend. There were mainly rats and mice on the reef and a few decent fish on the points.

The guys are still catching bonnies and yellow fin kingies on light tackle.

Using an 11ft rod, light braid, a decent coffee grinder and small bullet/iron candy spoon you can cast great distances and this proves very effective at deep water points.

Regan Hutson witnessed a shoal of yellow fin tuna (10 to 15kg) hammering a shoal of shad about 50m from the rocks at Orange Rocks.

He also reckons the illegal long liners are still around – whether it’s Durban or Richards Bay he’s not sure – with one hooking a yellow fin tuna, which was then taken by a huge black marlin and became hooked.

“It weighed 900lbs with its head and tail being cut off and gutted. In my mind this marlin would easily have been 650kg plus,” said Regan.

“I’ve never seen one that size. It’s sad to see it die. Must have been ancient, maybe a 100 years old,” he said.

Meanwhile, in other news, Aslam Shaik bagged a fair-size brusher of 4.5kg last Saturday.

The water temperature was at around 23 degrees last week, which is way too warm for any hint of those elusive sardines, but, with the arrival of some north-easterly winds in the last few days, it dropped about two degrees.

Opportunity exists for the fishermen who put the time and effort in on the deep points with live shad.

More kingies are likely to be hooked towards the end of the month, with the shoals moving down from the north.

Hopefully the sards will appear for a bumper season.