Looking back at the past week there weren’t many opportunities for anglers to wet a line, and unsurprisingly very few ventured out to try their luck.
Heavy rains and sea conditions created strong surf conditions with a reading of ten foot waves off the coast of Tongaat and Ballito.
Southerly winds unfortunately persisted for much of the working week, also resulting in the closure of all beaches under the jurisdiction of eThekwini Metro.
The Sharks Board reported much of their equipment had been damaged by logs and other debris which had washed out to sea.
Both Friday and Saturday proved windy too, with fresh to strong winds impacting on most fishing venues.
But as always, there were a few local anglers who braved the adverse conditions and most chose the rocky outcrops to target copper bream.
Most recorded a few catches with the odd brusher and a few stumpies coming out as they favour rough sea conditions.
The usual La Mercy rocky outcrops, one or two of Ballito’s gullies and the Salt Rock fishing spots were the main areas chosen.
Only experienced rocky outcrop anglers were out fishing last week.
Some were pensioners, who said they had to be careful not to lose irreplaceable fishing tackle while gunning copper bream which were biting quite freely.
There were a couple of big shad caught, but the garrick were scarce and just the odd shark was hooked and landed before being returned to the water.
It would be a good idea to target kob or salmon this week, as there are daga and shoal salmon feeding at night and areas near the river mouths would be recommended..
There will also be a chance of landing a nice grunter as well as these fish move north to spawn.
Offshore anglers were mainly kept off the water last week but the odd surf ski anglers targeted garrick in the Umgeni area.
A few garrick were caught in the difficult fishing conditions and again there were one or two nice queenfish hooked and landed.
Live bait still seems to be plentiful, mainly mackerel and mossies, but now and then big pinkies come on the bite which is a favourite food for garrick.
Some anglers were bothered by small grey sharks when fishing for bait but this is expected when the water is murky.
Durban bay produced some decent fish again last week with big grunter making up most catch bags, as well as some snapper and the odd small kingfish.
Big bull mullet are beginning to make an appearance, so this shows that the water is slowly warming up and the southerly winds do help to increase temperatures.
Fishing conditions should be much improved this week and no doubt anglers will be back on the beach.
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