ROCK & SURF Angling
Rock and Surf fishing locally has not been up to what anglers can expect at this time of the year. Sea conditions lately have been almost ideal but despite this very few fish have actually been reported.

Shad are keeping most anglers happy as these fish seem to have stayed in our local waters. Most are well undersize but anglers are basically fishing for sport with light Fly rods and Drop Shot tackle. Some fish of size have been reported in the Umkomaas area as well as at Winkle High Rocks.

The summer flatfish which traditionally brings in shoals of big sand sharks has not materialized at all. Anglers targeting these fish have been disappointed as not even the smaller ones have made a showing. However there have been quite a few nice size brown skates around but one can not substitute a big sand shark with a 15 or 29 kg brown skate. Zululand, with Mapelane in particular has produced some wonderful fish.

Big raggies have been caught at this venue and one of almost 190 kg was landed by an unknown angler last week. Big sand sharks and honeycombe rays have also been taken at this venue. Anglers fishing along the Amatikulu stretch have recently been treated with some good angling as diamond rays have come on the bite here.

The ESA boys were fishing on Sunday and Monday in the Zululand area and landed a number of diamonds rays, brown skates and honeycomb rays.

Angling for the week end looks rather bleak as there is a cyclone looming up the Mozambique Channel and the weather man predicts rain together with big surf.

SKI BOAT'S & FISHING SKI'S Angling
Ski Boats and Fishing Ski’s have had a wonderful season as far as game fish goes. Both North and South Coasts are now producing some very good catches of mainly couta and snoek.

Aliwal Shoal is producing the best catches in years with ski boats and spear fishermen both getting their quotas in quick time. Other fish to come out has been some big wahoo and kingfish and it is good to see that some sizable tunny also coming out now.

Gavin Davies caught a fine tunny of 15 kg off a fishing ski at Scottburgh. Another good fish to come off a Ski was a 22 kg kingfish caught by Kim Icemonger in the Warner Beach area.

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.

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 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.

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.

FRESH WATER  Angling
This fresh water report kindly supplied by Bill Simson from UHTFC. The rivers, particularly the Umzimkulu, have been in spate since the beginning of February, with only two or three days when they have been fishable. The anglers who were able to fish on those few days were rewarded with good catches.

Water temperatures are very high in the still waters and the trout are not eager to take a fly. Early mornings and late evenings are the best times to fish. There have been several fish of over 1kg caught.

Results of the Midmar Two Man Challenge supplied by Tim Steyn. 1st in boat no 48 was Glydd Dell with 15.535 points, 2nd was Kenneth Ground in boat no 57 with 15.170 points and third was Gavin Richardson on boat 10 with 13.93 points. A total of 82 anglers took part in this challenge.

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