Great news for anglers

THE recent weather has placed a massive grin on edible fisherman’s faces, after the calm seas and very little wind provided some serious catches all along the Zululand shoreline.

Rock and surf

Kosi Bay has been buzzing with schools of Spotted pompano, stumpies and Bone fish.

Unfortunately though, the Grey grunter are haunting night time fisherman, as the small pests rob the bait from the bigger fish.

The northern part of the Richards Bay shoreline has been home to a large number of small flat fish such as Brown skates and Honeycomb rays, with the southern part producing nice sized Diamond rays and the odd big Zambezi shark.

The suggested bait to use, if one can get your hands on it, is mackerel or red eye head wrapped with cutlets.

Ski boat

Anglers who have been fishing off ski boats from Sodwana Bay through to Cape Vidal have been manning bent rods, tight lines and screeching reels because of the great catches being recorded,

The fish that have been landed are couta, Dorado, tuna, Wahoo and Kingfish, with Sailfish being found in the deeper waters.

With the crystal clear water of late in these areas, using fluorocarbon is absolutely crucial.

Just note that live bait requires a thinner fluorocarbon to avoid line detection.

Great news for anglers in the Zinkwazi region, is that couta in the 18-25kg mark have been reported taking live baits over the wrecks and pinnacles.

Freshwater

The majority of trout rivers are full and flowing strong and fast.

Therefore, the use of heavy tungsten beaded nymphs will get the flies down to where the fish are holding.

Owing to water clarity, some suggest flies reaping success are zaks, biot baetis and black patterns with hot orange tungsten beads.

For the still water venues use a floating or neutral density fly line with nymph patterns.

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