With last week’s disruptive winds subsiding over the weekend, anglers were allowed quality time to wet their lines.
Offshore anglers working the bottom reefs scored half-kob, decent sized soldiers, rockcod and slingers.
At times they complained of patches of cold water and on Saturday morning the water temperature recorded in Durban was 20 degrees.
It was reported that garrick were again going “dilly” around the Umgeni and Durban basin areas. An armada of fishing craft assembled in the Umgani area to cash in.
It is just amazing how many fish this year’s garrick run has produced. It seems as if they are shoaling just like the shad, which have been a bit scarce this year.
The surf ski and some ski boat anglers have had some really hectic garrick fishing recently, which seem to be eating almost anything cast into the water.
Rock and surf anglers targeted copper bream in the rocky outcrops and gullies. Copper bream continued to provide excellent sport, as did the usual stone bream among the bronzies.
Copper bream are widely spread along the entire coastline with the odd brusher and rockcod being caught as well.
Anglers continue to target the stumpies as well and a number of sizeable catches are being recorded. One local angler fishing the Salt Rock area for stumpies hooked and landed a magnificent daga salmon weighing 30kg. Smaller salmon plus the odd grunter are still being caught.
Small inedible fish such as grey sharks, sand sharks and rays are becoming more numerous at present. Many of the rays being caught are small diamonds, and their larger cousins should arrive along the local coastline really soon.
Fishing along the local sandy beaches continues to be a bit of a “hit or miss” at present and anglers should perhaps look to the north to improve their catches.
The Tugela area is producing plenty salmon at the moment but further north in the St Lucia area the annual grunter run is about to begin.
A weekend spent at St Lucia can be really satisfying, but those looking for the big summer flatfish could begin to consider Mtunzini and Amatikulu where there are an up tick of activity.
The billfish season is out of the blocks at Sodwana Bay, but unfortunately anglers fishing the SADSAA light tackle billfish competition were chased home early by last Monday’s big south-westerly winds. Some sailfish were caught however, raising expectations of good catches in upcoming competitions.
Offshore anglers fishing the St Lucia and Cape Vidal areas continue to catch game fish at times, even in really bad sea and weather conditions.
With the water temperature hovering around 21 degrees at present, this week’s southerly winds could assist in upping it.
Dorado should begin to arrive in local waters at any time now.
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