Shad, garrick in abundance
Fishing has been good, and there's a chance of another sardine run.
THIS past week has once again seen some great fishing.
Seas have been brilliant and the weather awesome, with no huge swells as predicted.
Lots of garrick have been landed all along the coast, all these being on live bait on deep water points and beaches.
A few black-tip kingies have made an appearance as well.
Shad have been everywhere, with sizes varying.
It seems the bigger ones are being caught in the early morning, at popular spots like Margate pier, Uvongo pier and The Block in Port Shepstone.
Please make sure you stick to your quota and size limit. The authorities are clamping down on offenders, which is a good thing.
Some huge sharks have been reported to have been hooked, mainly up north among the elusive sardines.
Regan Hutson hooked an absolute giant of a blackfin while fishing for garrick at Orange Rocks, but went home with an empty reel!
Locally, the ‘spearos’ have been doing extremely well, with huge shoals of garrick being seen.
Freddie ‘Twinkle Toes’ Buys and Dirkie Nagel were able to get right in among them, both shooting some fantastic fish.
Freddie got lucky, getting two garrick with one shot.
There are reports of sardines being netted up north, with many nets hauled in during the weekend.
Unfortunately they seem to have bypassed the South Coast.
A possible explanation is that our water temperature isn’t quite right.
However, most of these sards are still small, which indicates that it’s likely only the beginning.
In addition, there seems to be a lot of activity in Transkei waters, and also in Port Edward on Monday this week.
Hopefully the coast will experience another run this winter.
In other news, a giant dusky shark was landed at Mazeppa Bay (angler unknown) which weighed in at 324kg. Impressive!
The shark was safely released.
Terry Nel reports from Port Edward that the waterfront has been buzzing with fishermen all week – and that shad have been on everyone’s menu.
“Many shad have been caught and the usual loss of the ability to count one’s fish has come with adrenalin poisoning there,” he said.
Some shad slid out as live baits are producing garrick. Sardines seem to have disappeared but as past history tells, could appear at any time should the conditions be right.
Don’t forget to pop in at your nearest tackle shop for a chat and some advice.
Tight lines.
To receive news links via BBM, add us using the pin 2BABF7D1.
The South Coast Herald is also on Facebook and Twitter – why not join us there?
