Just when we thought the sardine run was over for another year they again unexpectedly showed up in force along the Durban beachfront. Netter, anglers and the general public relished in this unusual phenomenon at this time of the year.
The annual garrick run is proving to be very successful as these fish are now being caught almost along the entire coast.
Night fishing along the Umkomaas north bank are has produced some good results as far as kob are concerned.

Angling
Just when we thought the sardine run was over for another year they again unexpectedly showed up in force along the Durban beachfront. Netter, anglers and the general public relished in this unusual phenomenon at this time of the year. Never the less it is good for us in KZN and obviously fishing also gets better when these fish are around. With only a few weeks left until the annual shad ban comes into effect anglers are out in full force targeting probably the most sought after fish. Fishing in general is still good as the changing of the seasons starts bringing in the first of the summer fish and the winter fish are still around.

The annual garrick run is proving to be very successful as these fish are now being caught almost along the entire coast. Favourable reports are coming in from the North coast with anglers experiencing good fun with these fish at Seoula and Barracouts Rocks. The Tongaat Long Beach stretch has also produced some good fish and at night a few average size kob have been accounted for.

Further north the Tugella and Amatikulu stretches have had equally good results. Shad have also entrenched themselves on our coastline and anglers targeting these fish have not had much of a problem getting their quotas. The Umgeni north bank area worked well during the night sessions where a variety of fish are being caught. Both edible and non edible fish were feeding and quite a few nice big kob were reported. Some fair size shad and grunter made for enjoyable angling. On the south coast shad are also feeding very well and anglers are able to get their quotas in fairly quick time.

Night fishing along the Umkomaas north bank are has produced some good results as far as kob are concerned. Anglers putting in the time are being rewarded with some good size fish. Further down the coast the Port Shepstone area has produced steady results over the past few weeks far as shad, garrick and kob are concerned. The Port Shepstone area in particular has produces numerous numbers of good kob at night by anglers fishing with Rapalla type lures.

Anglers venturing into the Transkei have had some exceptional angling as reports coming from the Port St Johns and Hole In The Wall areas suggest that angling for edible and in edible fish has now reached a peak. Some good size sharks have been landed at both these venues over the past two weeks. Garrick have also given anglers something to smile about as some very big fish have been landed at Poenskop and at the Lighthouse.

On Sunday morning Mike from Nikao left the Marina at about 06h00 to make their way to the deep where he had located some warm water areas from the surface temperature charts hoping for some yellowfin tuna. When they first got out to sea there was a stiff NE wind blowing and the swells were large and the water surface temperature was 21deg.C. Mike decided to carry on based on the forecast which indicated that the swells would die down in the morning and the wind would let up a little.

Sure enough as they got out deeper the water temperature started increasing and at 130m it was on 22deg.C and by the time they got to the area indicated by the charts it was on 22.5deg.C in 450m of water when Mike set a spread of lures to troll. Mike noticed a lot of bird activity further out and headed towards them and upon approaching them they found the temperature was over 23deg.C, they also saw a huge blue whale out in this deep water and the depth was around 700m. Mike was sure they would find tuna with all the bird activity but he could not keep their lures in the water as the birds were constantly picking them up and after they had 8 or 9 Albatrosses and Petrels tangled up in the lines having to always stop bring them to the boat attend to them carefully and release them they decided to leave the area and made their way North with a long troll till they got to 65m where Mike started doing some bottom fishing.

By this time the swells and wind had subsided as forecasted and they made a long drift over reefs and pinnacles and the day turned out quite pleasant. On the drift they caught a lot of rockod and soldier bream and the highlight was an area which produced some nice copper bream. Mike also saw a loggerhead turtle out here which is a sure sign that summer was on the way.

One of the ladies also said she saw the tail of a large fish when she heard it jump. On the drift they got accompanied by an increasing amount of Petrels which fascinated the ladies on the boat with their comical antics and Mike showed them how to feed them by hand and they had a great time feeding them watching them squabble and run on the water, eventually the birds became so forward that one could not put your hands over the side and it even became unsafe to take a pee for fear it would get nipped.The ladies reminded us about the Nemo movie where the birds were always saying “mine, mine, mine” and I think with their greedy behaviour it was correct.

Ski Boats
Ski Boats have now changed their focus from game fish to mostly bottom fishing. Good catches of daga salmon and geekbek salmon are being reported from both North and South coasts. Bottom fishing in general has also picked up with nice reports of fish comming out.

Fishing Ski’s
Fishing Ski’s are now basically targeting snoek as the couta season seems to have ended. Some good size fish have been reported from the Tinley and Westbrook areas.

Action packed ESA fishing shows on TV
Catch the ESA team doing battle on ESA Saltwater at 7:30pm on Thursday and don’t miss the fresh water show at 7:00pm every Tuesday on Super sport 1 (unless mentioned otherwise – check your DSTV guide for details).

16.09.2010
This week we visit a familiar ESA face, Abel, in Mossel Bay for LBSA. In DSSA we take a look at fishing off Durban south pier for kingies. Join Craig off Durban catching some fair size geelbek in OSSA.

23.09.2010
We head down the South Coast of KZN for some LBSA action with Dean. We catch up with Abel once again in Mossel bay for some DSSA action.
Join Craig in the Durban harbour for another dose of OSSA action.

30.09.2010
We head back to Mossel Bay to meet up with Abel for some more LBSA action. Ray takes us to his favourite north coast spot for DSSA, while in OSSA we take a look at fishing off the KZN North Coast.