Summer has finally set in along the coast and with it has come all the fish one would expect.
The North coast area has over the past week produced some fine angling as reports from here suggest that a few very big sand sharks as well as a very big raggie have been landed.
Ski Boat and Fishing ski’s have finally settled into the start of the game fish season as there are reports from both north and south coasts that snoek, couta and dorado are being caught.

Summer has finally set in along the coast and with it has come all the fish one would expect. For shore anglers most or almost all rivers have come down and left a ginger beer coloured water which most fish thrive in. The Zululand beaches are now working particularly well with anglers getting stuck into some very big summer fish, some huge sand sharks have been reported from this area.As expected the first of the annual diamond skates have been caught along these beaches. These fish stay on this stretch well into March next year and anglers who pursue these big fish can look forward to some good angling.

The North coast area has over the past week produced some fine angling as reports from here suggest that a few very big sand sharks as well as a very big raggie have been landed.

Closer to home, fishing has picked up as well with a lot of sand shark and skate activity taking place at well known points. In the Umhlanga area, Lloyd Pereira from The Kingfisher hooked and released a nice grey of about 10kg’s as well as a great duckbill of 45kg’s. These fish required some interesting angling techniques to land in the very rocky area. Lloyd was fishing with his Daiwa Saltist 40 and Poseidon HMG rod and a chokka bait. In the upper South coast, shad unfortunately have gone off the boil a little as reports suggest that only a few of these fish are being caught during the morning sessions.

Traditional places like Winkle High Rocks which regularly produces good catches of shad have had almost no reports catches. The holiday season has begun with some very favourable fishing in the Port Edward area according to Terry Nel from Tacklenet. Shad and sport fishermen have had a treat, some good sized hammerhead sharks around the 20kg mark have been landed and shad have been on the bite at most of the popular spots.

To those who are still to come on holiday please make sure that you have a current permit to fish because it is nigh impossible to obtain these after Post Office hours. Any Post Office is able to supply these permits, so get them before you come down. On many occasions the Post Offices down here have run out of forms and frustration swings the holiday mood. Anglers fishing in Durban Harbor have caught numerous big grunter recently and quite a few fish in the 5 kg to 6 kg have also been accounted for over the past few weeks.

Ski Boat and Fishing ski’s
Ski Boat and Fishing ski’s have finally settled into the start of the game fish season as there are reports from both north and south coasts that snoek, couta and dorado are being caught. The Umdloti and Westbrook areas have had some good catches from both Ski boats and Fishing Ski’s. On the South Coast things are much the same with fair catches of dorado and couta being made. The Aliwal shoal is still a steady performer when conditions are favorable with a variety of game fish being reported.

Mike Laubscher Report

Mike Laubscher sent in the report about his fishing last Sunday. We launched at 04h00 for a short trip as my guests had to be back by 08h00, this was perfect as it was in the major time for today’s fishing. The SW wind was blowing hard and the sea was very choppy. Water surface temp was averaging at 24 deg. C. I decided to set a spread of 4 lines only due to the wind and we stayed shallow because time was limited. By 04h30 we had a double dorado hook up, and by 05h30 we had another two and after that things went quiet for a while. I lost count but think that we have already hooked well over 40 dorado this season. I went a little deeper than planned which paid of with a yellow fin tuna of over 10Kg which gave a long run and a hard fight, making this No. 234 for the year.

I was pleased with this fish because the yellow fin tuna have been a little scarce the past few weeks. On our way back in we hooked into a kawakawa of 3-4Kg and then just before lines up we hooked into another. The second one ran like crazy and I though we were onto a very large fish as he took well over 200m of line and the fight was really hard. About 20m from the boat there was a huge splash and the line went quiet and we pulled in the head of a kawakawa which was taken by a shark. It was not a big kawakawa an I estimate the size at 3-4Kg just the same as the other one we got, but this fish sure gave an ultra hard fight, perhaps it was the shark that was onto him right from the start, because it fought like a 15Kg fish. An interesting point to note, that all our fish were caught when we were going directly into the chop which made for a banging wet morning, which was worth it with some good fish caught.

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 20h30, and the ESA Freshwater show will air weekly on Tuesdays between 19h00 and 19h30.