The game fish season is in full swing and there have been a few nice catches recorded from selected areas.
Locally dorado and tuna are still making up the bulk of the edible fish catches but up North, couta have been caught and there has been some billfish action.
Down south a few big couta have been boated as well as a few wahoo and a couple of really decent kingfish.
Anglers have lost a few nice fish to big sharks but this is normal for this time of year.
It must be said that local game fish grounds have not really been that productive and recent seasons have showed that couta tend to arrive later in the summer season.
There are two big offshore angling competitions held in just a few weeks time.
The first will be the Umhlanga Festival competition followed just a couple of weeks later by the Durban Ski Boat club’s big annual open competition.
There are some excellent prizes to be had from these competitions, including a fully-equipped ski boat.
The problem with these competitions is there can be lengthy holdups before being able to launch.
Most of the recognised game fish reefs will be crowded with craft and tempers can become frayed.
Fishing during these competitions can be hard work and anglers sometimes have to remain at sea in weather that they would normally run away from.
During the Umhlanga competition, the early morning launch is always well worth watching and can provide some excellent entertainment and there is also always plenty for the public to do during the day.
Although the dorado caught offshore recently have mostly been on the small side, there have been a couple of fish weighing 10kg plus.
Apparently there is still plenty of live bait to be found and I believe that small shad can be found almost everywhere.
During the week I had a look at most of the local inshore game fish angling spots and most were deserted and off Umdloti I saw one ski boat one morning.
This can only mean that not too much is happening on these reefs and those anglers launching, are preferring the deeper reefs to fish.
It is not surprising because it is in the deeper water where most of the dorado have been caught and there is also the opportunity of catching a couple of nice “hamba khya” bottom fish.
The rock and surf angling was quiet last week even though there were days that the early morning fishing conditions were perfect.
I called in at Glenashley beach during last week because I had heard that a few big summer flatfish had been landed and all I saw was one lone angler with his bait in the water.
He said he had been fishing regularly and found that one had to be really patient.
He had been mostly fishing for the smaller fish but had managed a couple of good days when he caught a few decent mullet and recently a few small pompano, but he said the pompano had moved away and fishing was basically dead.
There was hardly any surf at all that morning and the angler said he had been fishing the area for many years but had never had any luck when the surf was so small.
I asked whether he had seen any activity along backline but the angler said everything was quiet.
Local anglers could do worse than arrive at the beach, dig a ghost crab, and cast it out live in the hope of hooking a nice pompano or stumpie.
I met a couple of anglers that had been fishing the drop shot method at Sheffield recently and they reported that they had had some really excellent sport catching a variety of small fish among the stones.
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