Fishing Report 26 June 2010

Sardines have made a welcome return to the KZN coast with some being netted in the Bazley area during the course of last week.
Apart from the Sardines, shad have moved in along the coast and are feeding well at most known spots.
The Albert Falls Bass Tournament is 30 years old this year.  It was started by the South Africa Art Lure Association in 1980 and taken over by the South African Bass Angling Association as their main fund-raising event.

Angling
Sardines have made a welcome return to the KZN coast with some being netted in the Bazley area during the course of last week. Although not many were netted they have certainly lifted angler’s hopes of a good run this year. Unfortunately as it so often happens these fish have done their famous disappearing act and seem to have been swept off the face of the earth but anglers need not despair as there are still huge shoals moving up from the Transkei and there are also some scattered shoals on the middle south coast.

Apart from the Sardines, shad have moved in along the coast and are feeding well at most known spots. Anglers fishing the Durban and Umgeni area have had some very good days where shad have been biting well during both early mornings and late afternoons. Here anglers have also been getting some nice grunter, small kob and the odd big stumpie at night. On the south coast places like Toti, Warner Beach, Winkle and the Umkomaas beach stretch have produced some very good numbers of shad during the course of last week.

Spearfishermen operating In the Isipingo area reported some big shoals of garrick moving along the backline and were successful in landing a few big specimens. Anglers targeting garrick have got stuck into some good fish almost all along the middle south coast particularly in areas that shad have had a big presence. Fishing off the high rocks along the Park Rynie and Scottburgh areas have also picked up. These areas fish particularly well during the sardine run and it is not uncommon for many big couta to be landed at these places.

Some big yellow fin tunny were caught here with Trevor Osborne landing a very good specimen of 19 kg. Anglers fishing with spoons and plugs during the early morning sessions could now pick up some very good game fish.  With strong early morning off-shore winds the Kite anglers have also come out in force particularly at the Umkomaas car park. These anglers have had some measure of success lately with the odd above average size sharks being landed.

Further down the coast the Port Shepstone area is still fishing very well with a lot of shad being reported as well as garrick and kob.  Terry Nel from Tacklenet in Port Edward informs us that  garrick have arrived and a number of these popular game fish have been taken over the week and Splash Rock is the place where fishermen are descending on to try their skill at catching these fish.

Shad are plentiful and many are being slid back as live baits for garrick. Even though this is great sport, the much more exciting method of catching garrick is plug and spoon yet none are trying it. A good reason for this other than the hard work side casting all the time, is that it is frowned on by the live bait crew as it can cross their lines. Another good fish landed here was a sea pike of 7kg. We have heard from the guys fishing from ski boats that a few killer whales were sighted off Port Edward, this uncommon sighting was witness about the 40 fathoms mark.

Transkei
The Transkei is fishing extremely well as far as shad goes with anglers getting their quotas very quickly. The Port St Johns area at this time gets very active and many anglers flock to this spot to catch mainly garrick and big kob. Garrick have been a bit scarce but at night some good action has been had as far as the kob go. The river here is also fishing very well with some good grunter in the 4 kg mark being landed. Fishing at the Hole In The Wall has also produced some good angling as reports from here suggest that the garrick have been feeding well.

Ski Boats
Ski Boats are now getting some good bottom fish as well as game fish.
General bottom fishing has picked up with the first geelbek and daga salmon being reported. Couta, although slowing down a bit are still being caught on both north and south coasts. The Aliwal shoal has over the past few months really produced some great angling as wahoo in particular have given anglers some great fun. Couta and yellow fin tunny are also still coming out but shark activity has also increased and a lot of fish are now being eaten by sharks.

Fishing ski's
Fishing ski's now seem to be targeting snoek as numerous fish are coming out along the Umgeni area as well as good catches being reported from the Westbrook and Umdloti areas. With sardine activity on the south coast anglers can soon expect some good couta fishing particularly in the traditional Scottburgh and Park Rynie areas where game fish seem to congregate at this time of the year.

Ski Boats
Ski Boats are now getting some good bottom fish as well as game fish.
General bottom fishing has picked up with the first geekbek and daga salmon being reported. Couta, although slowing down a bit are still being caught on both north and south coasts. The Aliwal shoal has over the past few months really produced some great angling as  wahoo in particular have given anglers some great fun. Couta and yellow fin tunny are also still coming out but shark activity has also increased and a lot of fish are now being eaten by sharks.

The Albert Falls Bass Tournament

The Albert Falls Bass Tournament is 30 years old this year.  It was started by the South Africa Art Lure Association in 1980 and taken over by the South African Bass Angling Association as their main fund-raising event.  They use the funds generated by this tournament for International tests.  They have 3 teams that participate in tests against Zimbabwe and 1 team that participates in a Zone 6 event.

The teams are our Protea team, this team receives National colours and competes against Zimbabwe as well as in the Zone 6 event, our President’s Team, and this team receives federation colours and our Junior Protea Anglers who also receive National colours.  The funds raised go a long way to reducing the individual angler’s costs towards these events as they receive no Government funding.

The Albert Falls Tournament relies on the generosity of Sponsors to make this tournament a success.  They offer prizes for the top 3 Junior Anglers, the top 3 Lady Anglers, the top 3 two man Teams and the top 15 Anglers.  Our main prize for the heaviest bass is a fully rigged boat.  Each entrant receives a complimentary t-shirt, a commerative AFBT badge that depicts the year as well as a “goodie” bag with products.

 This year we are proud to have confirmed that a Hybrid boat with a Mercury outboard motor is up for grabs.  The Hybrid is a locally manufactured bass boat. All other prizes are donated. The tournament entries are limited to either 200 or 250 boats depending on the level of the dam. This is monitored carefully and a decision is taken the month before whether to close the entries at 200.   On each boat there are 2 anglers.  The combined total of their daily weights go towards the team prizes but their individual weights are recorded for the individual prizes.

 The weigh site is open all day and is fully computerised.  Fish are weighed and the computers read the weight from the scales and record the weights against the angler’s entry number.  Each team is given a number and the anglers on that team are given a suffix of either A or B next to their number.  This way they keep track of who weighs what so there is no mix up at Prize-giving.  The Prize-Giving is held on the last day of the tournament approximately 4 hours after the last fish is weighed.  This time gap allows for the anglers to rest after a day’s fishing.  The tournament is fished over 2 days with registration taking place the day before.  At the registration hall there are tackle shops, boat insurance companies, Electronic fishing equipment displays as well as a few boats on display for those anglers looking to upgrade or purchase a new rig.