Believe it or not but they are still netting sardines in Durban! Durban’s biggest sardine run continues to surprise veteran anglers.
This year’s shad run continues to be a bumper and is the best in several years from deep south in the Transkeiall the way up to Cape Vidal.
From the boats the kob and geelbek have been around but not extremely consistent, I think once the sardines move past these fish will hold onto the structured reefs and wrecks and be easier to target.

FISHING REPORT 14TH AUGUST 2010

Angling
Believe it or not but they are still netting sardines in Durban! Durban’s biggest sardine run continues to surprise veteran anglers. On Tuesday there were plenty diamond skates caught and some bigger blackfin and grey sharks rolling in the shallow shores of Addington beach. This was of course was after some netting had occurred. Netting has mostly been happening at sun coast area or Ushaka / addington.

This year’s shad run continues to be a bumper and is the best in several years from deep south in the Transkei all the way up to Cape Vidal.

Getting into the thick of the fishing report,  port Edward has been pretty quiet besides the shad. A yellowfin tuna of 13kgs and a kob of 17kgs were both landed off Splash rock over the last 5 days using live shad. These 2 fish were 2 of very few caught amongst many anglers so don’t get the wrong impression of fireworks.
 
The Sandspit has been throwing a few nice size kob on live bait and artificial but once again, few fish amongst many anglers. It is the time of the year when the bronze bream and brusher start to show there faces, I haven’t heard too much about the brusher but the bronze bream have been caught all the way up to the bluff.

The garrick on the mid to lower south coast have gone relatively quiet but there are some still being caught by those willing to go to the effort of getting live bait. Foster road is till the name on the tip of most tongues.

In Durban it’s been all about the shad, sardines and the diamonds that have been following the netters. Blue Lagoon has been full with shad when the banks are right but Ushaka has been abundant with shad almost every evening. The deeper points have started to produce some snoek for the light tackle spinning anglers. The snoek will start to heat up and get better and better over the next 4 months…. Spinning reel, light braid, 10-12ft rod and bullet spoons will put you into the action for this form of fishing.

Zinkwazi and the Tugela are having been the hot spots for garrick recently with the occasional kob being caught.

The couta are pretty much gone for the season although the occasional fish has been reported, we can only look at targeting these fish again around December. Ahlowal Shoal has been extremely quiet ever since the sardines moved past and took the game fish with them. Some tunny have been caught but nothing like the wonderful summer months that were experienced there. Up the north coast there has been a fair amount of snoek, most fish being the better sized ones around the 4-7kg range.

Paddle skis
The paddle skis have been doing most of the damage with the snoek.
Mpalane just hosted a snoek competition but they seemed to be scarce as there weren’t great catches recorded.

Well that’s all I can report at this point, bad weather playing a big role in few fish recently. Looking at the websites at the moment this weekend looks very nice to wet a line and get into the action so I suggest sharpening up those hooks and changing that old line because gaps of good weather must be taken full advantage of in the next 4 months of windy-terrible weather. Tight lines and happy fishing…

Action packed ESA fishing shows on TV
Don’t forget to watch the action packed ESA fishing shows on TV. These shows feature both saltwater and freshwater fishing and are aired on Super sport 1. The ESA Saltwater show will be broadcasted weekly on Thursdays between 19h30 and   20h 30 and the ESA Freshwater show will air weekly on Tuesdays between 19h00 and 19h30. 

ESA Saltwater: 12.08.2010: Lloyd and Ray are back and continue on their mission to catch a denizen of the deep. In DSSA we check out the latest light tackle action. In OSSA we check out local deep sea action. 

ESA Saltwater: 19.08.2010: Hook up with Lloyd and Ray with edible action in Mazeppa Bay, while in DSSA they get stuck into some light tackle angling. In OSSA Craig targets snoek but learns that beneath the surface there is more than meets the eye.

ESA Saltwater: 26.08.2010: In LBSA we take a look at the beginning of our journey chasing the sardine run, while the DSSA team looks at the fun in light tackle angling while in OSSA the team target an array of different species. Join Xplorer Fly Fishing and Bells whiskey for their second Scaly open weekend.