Fishing Report - 08 March 2008

North Coast Angling - Cape Vidal area is producing a variety of edible fish, mostly kingfish.
ROCK & SURF Angling - North Coast
ROCK & SURF Angling - South Coast & Ski boats
FRESH WATER Angling
Lots of Competitions coming up.

Anglers have recently had lots of reasons to be frustrated as weather patterns for this time of the year have been adverse to say the least. Shore based anglers have hardly had time to target their favourite flatfish species as sea conditions change by the day. The good news is that several good size pompano have been caught along the Doonside beaches during the day. The Twini ledge and Isipingo have produced quite a few nice bronze bream, the odd shad has also been caught. As far as flatfish is concerned there is very little to report on except for the odd brown skate coming out.

ROCK & SURF Angling - North Coast
Further north the Cape Vidal area is producing a variety of edible fish, mostly kingfish. The only place that has lately produced steady catches is Durban Bay where anglers are still catching some good grunter

ROCK & SURF Angling - South Coast & Ski boats
News from Port Edward is that the week came to an exciting end when young Jaco van Vuuren hooked and landed a 23kg couta at Splash Rock on Saturday morning. He was using bonito fillet on a slide. Other news coming in is that bronze bream are being found at most popular gullies and even some shad are being taken in the early mornings. Estuary fishermen are also finding rock salmon, 'pick handle barracuda' and kingfish.

This is the time of the year when there are very good competitions being held.
The Pennington Couta Classic is on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd March 2008 and first prize is the Explorer 465 Ski – Boat on a trailer with 60hp Yamaha .There are thousands of Rands worth of prizes: average weight, top lady, top junior, heaviest bag, smallest couta ,etc. Entrance is R350.00 before 29th February2008.

The Hibberdene Ski – Boat Couta Classic is over the Easter weekend – 22nd & 23 March 2008. Main prize is A Kosi Cat 16 centre console with 2 x 40hp Yamaha motors on a trailer and a Lowrance GPS / Fish finder. Many more prizes to be won. Pre Entry is R300.00 before the 8th March and Paddle Skis are welcome. Phone Mike on 082 373 1753 or Brett on 083 493 3667 for more info.

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. For more info on this very well run competition visit their Website: www.durbanskiboatclub.co.za.

FRESH WATER Angling 
A little fresh water news, especially you guys that are fishing the 11th Annual Antalis Tiger fishing Tournament at Jozini Dam on the 7th & 8th March. Ryan reports that surface temp of the water is sitting at about 28 to 30 degrees and visibility is excellent over most of the dam. The river section is relatively clean with visibility of about 2m over the rest or the Dam, sitting in 3-4m of water should allow you to see the bottom. The fishing itself has been steady, but a little frustrating at times. There are so many little tigers that seem to like nothing more than cleaning bait off your hooks, no matter how well you tie it on! Big fish are still around, but less frequent than the last couple months.

They did land a 4kg beauty on the 19th, and lost a monster of about 5kg a couple days earlier. The big ones haven’t gone any where, the challenge is just to find where they’re holding, probably in deeper water to escape the February heat. Try the deep drop off near the pump station, remember fish go into shallower water in the late afternoon and early morning. The tigers are now taking spinners and other lures with a lot more aggression than the previous few months.

Barbel are also starting to feed with more enthusiasm, some have been taking lures and flies, with a good amount falling to the bait. This is a good time to try for those monsters of 20kg or more, a good area to try for these is in the deep bays along the mountains. The bream are also on the bite; Ryan has seen many large ones following tiger fish spinners and one or two good ones have been caught. They should greedily take small NO.1 spinners fished on light tackle. With such clean water it is important not to use a trace for bream. This may, however result in the loss of a few spinners to little tigers so bring plenty spare ones.

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.

The 5th New Hanover Farm Dams Bass Competition is to be held on Saturday the 8th March 2008. The cost is R70.00 per angler and R50.00 per junior (13 and under). There are twelve well stocked dams to choose from and a variety of accommodation available in the area. For more info give Jurgen a call on 082 785 8166.

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.

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