Another week has passed and little has changed on the fishing side but as spring approaches, there is a hint of a change in the weather.
Right at the beginning of the week there was a bit of a thunderstorm that did not turn out to be much but I would think that before long, there will be people at the roadside holding up ‘makhowe’ mushrooms for sale. Unfortunately the first half of the week consisted of light to moderate southerly winds but on Thursday this changed when we had a light to moderate north easterly wind throughout the day. On Friday a light north easterly wind was with us the entire day, creating beautiful warm weather, but on Friday night a fresh south westerly wind pushed through and by Saturday morning there was a big swell running and a big strong surf which continued throughout the weekend. At least there was a bit of rain on Saturday night hinting that spring is not too far away.
The beginning of the week was unusually quiet with no fishing news at all so on Wednesday morning I decided to visit a few of the popular fishing venues to see for myself what was happening. I had heard there was a big crowd fishing at the Umgeni mouth but I decided to stay away and the first venue that I visited was the popular Virginia beach.
There were just a handful of anglers with a couple fishing off the pier and the rest just sitting on the beach but the fishing was quiet and I was told that nothing had been caught for a while. I called in at Glenashley but the beach was deserted and so was the wreck at La Lucia. At Umhlanga Rocks I saw a few anglers on the beach but again nothing was happening.
I met a few of the long time regular anglers on Thursday and over a couple of beers we discussed the surf angling as it was at present. Most of the anglers had been fishing on a regular basis and although some of them could boast catching several decent sized shad, all agreed that the fishing in general had been poor. At the time of talking there was a moderate north easterly wind blowing and everyone agreed that this wind was what was needed and the next morning could produce some excellent results. Most of these guys were on the beach early the next morning but found that nothing had changed, the fishing was just about dead with only plenty of peckers destroying any bait cast out.
On Thursday afternoon I was sent a photograph of a very decent sized garrick of l5kg said to have been speared off Westbrook beach. For a while now people have been asking what has happened to the garrick this year? Well I was told that local divers had speared a few decent garrick and had seen plenty more estimated to weigh between 10 and 20kg. This information reveals that the fish are in local waters but are not moving inshore and there must be a reason for this.
I have said for some while now that many of the local angling spots are badly sanded up and this has occurred because we have had some really tough times with the north easterly winds over the past few years. It is well known that this wind brings the sand that is deposited in the surf zone.
Normally during the winter period we get the storm surf conditions created by the cold fronts moving up the coast and this strong surf normally scours out the beaches but this year this has not happened. The past weekend’s storm surf has been more or less the first time that this could happen.
On Sunday there was a moderate to fresh north easterly wind that was pushing the swell down so once everything calms down, we may be able to see a change along the beaches but I believe that the windy period has now begun and this means plenty more fresh north easterly winds.
On watching the sea for a period of time on Sunday morning, I believe that it will be a few days before anglers will be able to cast their lines again. Even the inshore game fish anglers may have to wait until the sea settles a bit. Who knows, things may change over the next few days.
Sealice
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