[VIDEO] Seaside anglers’ dorado luck comes in on Spring high tide

By Holly Konig

Dorado, an exclusively deep-sea fish, have recently left local anglers scratching their heads after several have been caught off the shore in recent weeks.

The beach catches are an unlikely occurrence and questions have arisen about why the deep sea fish are being found so close to the coastline.

Local fisherman, Sam David said his ‘stars were aligned’ as he managed to land a 7kg dorado on Pipeline beach on Sunday morning, 15 January.

WATCH the video of Sam landing his prize catch here:

“I was amazed that I caught a dorado, especially from the shore,” said the avid angler. He credits the tides that day for his luck. “It was a full Spring high that morning, there were no sandbanks so a lot of deep, open water,” said Sam. He suggests this was the reason the deep sea fish ventured in close enough to catch.

Dorado can be found in most oceans around the world. Sport fishermen seek them due to their beauty, size, food quality and healthy population. The dorado has a compressed body and a single, long-based dorsal fin extending from the head almost to the tail. The Spanish name dorado is given to the fish because of its golden colour. Out of the water, it often changes colour, fading through several hues before finally turning to a muted yellow-grey upon death.

Jetski Fishing South Africa’s Mick Clarke said that the dorado catches off the shore can’t be put down to any specific reason, but he’s very pleased with the catches.

“Dorado like warm, clean, blue water and that’s what we’ve been having lately,” said Mick. He agrees with Sam David’s full Spring high tide theory. Contributing reasons may be the large amount of bait fish that have been out at the backline, drawing the deep-sea fish closer in.

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