ROCK & SURF Angling - Durban

Shore anglers are having an un-seasonal torrid time as far as sea conditions are concerned. Despite good weather, high seas have during the course of last week hampered angler’s efforts to put some time in on beaches and points. However this week end looks promising with light easterly winds and low swell predicted. This together with spring tides should give anglers a good chance to get the much needed time in on the beaches.

Obviously there is not much to report on and not many results have been received except for anglers getting some good snoek fishing in on Durban’s piers and at Umgeni mouth. Shad have also been far and few between and it looks as though these are have also taking a break just to add to anglers frustrations. However not all is doom and gloom as we are now entering Autumn which is normally a very productive time as the summer fish are still around and anglers can start expecting the first of the winter fish to start arriving on our coast.

ROCK & SURF Angling - South Coast

The middle of April there is normally the first shoals of garrick which seem to arrive out of nowhere on the South Coast and hang around for a week or two then suddenly disappear. Places which traditionally produce these pilot shoals include Greenpoint, Umkomaas and the Illovo stretch. Don’t forget to stock up on your Strike Pro Poppers, surface lures are a great way to catch garrick.

Some interesting catches have taken place down there in the Port Edward area according to Tacklenet’s Terry Nel. Once more the young anglers have featured. Firstly, 4yr. old Dradon Korving hooked and landed a fine 2,7kg snoek here and again Jaco van Vuuren had a strong tussle when he eventually landed a 41kg hammerhead shark off Splash Rock.

A lot of small shad are biting and 'dropshot' fishermen are having great fun in the bay at Silver Beach in Port Edward. Some natal wrasse have also fallen victim to the all so popular sport. Terry enjoyed catching a small 'pick handle' on a Strike Pro Arc Minnow while trolling off his 'ducky' at the Umtamvuna River.

With all the public holidays, again the permit problem has reared its ugly head and fishermen have been been stranded during holidays not being able to fish legally. Easter Saturday when the Post Office was open, there were people queing onto the pavement trying to get their permits. The KZN offices open from 9-12am weekdays down there, so try and get your permits at your local Post Office before you go on holiday.

Anglers are governed by weather and tides and there is always the question ‘What is the weather going to do?’ Well those anglers and Ski Boaters that have access to the internet can go onto two very good weather sites to give them a rough idea on wind, swell and general weather conditions. www.windguru.com and www.bouyweather.com are two excellent sites and of late have been very accurate in their predictions as far as forecasted conditions are concerned.

SKI BOAT'S & FISHING SKI'S

Ski boats and fishing skis have still been on a couta high as these fish seem to be well entrenched on both North and South Coasts. These fish have also moved into the Port Edward and Transkei areas. Another fish that has made a rather late appearance is dorado.

Normally these fish disappear from the coastal areas in mid February but they are now being caught from Boats and Fishing Ski’s close inshore. When the clear Mozambique current pushes close inshore as it has done on a few occasions during the last month, dorado, amongst other game fish have come with it. These fish have been caught as far down as Hibberdene. Most couta are still shoal size but a few bigger ones have started coming out. A good specimen of 18 kg was landed by Darryl Brokensha on the South Coast last week end.

News from the Mapelane Bill Fish Challenge is that on the first day a short bill spearfish was tagged and released and a black marlin was lost at the boat. A great yellow fin tunny of 79.9kg’s was landed by Philip Marx and a couta of 15.6kg’s was landed by Piet Celliers. On day two no marlin were landed but Philip’s brother Frankie landed a yellow fin tunny of 79.8kg’s and Alex Mc Mullen boated a tunny of 77.6kg’s after a plus three hour battle. The third day not much happened because of bad weather and the fishing was called off early. On day four the weather improved considerably and some great catches were recorded. Two blue marlin were boated, one of 281.04kg’s landed by Willem van der Berg and one of 127.8kg’s by Andrew Prew. There were nine marlin hook up’s altogether, three were tagged and released and a spear bill spearfish was also tagged and released. Four yellow tunny were boated, these great fighting fish weighed from 57kg’s to 78kg’s, four dorado as well as a small couta were landed. We will keep you posted as this competition continues.

The Durban Ski –Boat Club are having a fishing festival on the 26 & 27 April 2009. First prize for the biggest couta is a completely rigged 565 Sea Cat with trailer and 2 x 70HP Yamaha’s, the value is about R310, 000.00. There are R200, 000.00 worth of other prizes to be won and pre-entry is R200.00.
Next month 19th and 20th April the Winkle fishing ski club and Eric’s canoes host the Annual Fishing Ski Team event run from the Winkle Lifesaving club. For further information phone Karel 083 679 0818 or Jaco 082 782 9114.

FRESH WATER Angling
Bass Anglers, the 11th Inanda Bass Classic takes place at the Inanda Dam on the 26-27 April. Entries are limited to 300 boats and it is strongly recommended to register early. The past 2 years have seen entries turned away because of the popularity of this tournament.
Entry forms for all of these competitions are available at The Kingfisher, 53 Hunter St., Durban, of phone the sales guys on 031 368 3903.

For the latest KZN fishing news presented by O.J., tune into East Coast Radio at 5.40am Monday - Friday.