KZN FISHING REPORT - 26 January 2008

There have been some ideal angling days last week but unfortunately most of the good seas were experienced during the week. Anglers waiting to fish on the week end had to put up with heavy seas although the weather was very good.

ROCK & SURF - South Coast
Most anglers fished for shad and places like Toti, Illovo and Umkomaas produced limited numbers of fish. Sea weed was present at most venues and this made for heavy angling.

ROCK & SURF - North Coast
During the week anglers fishing in the Tinley area landed some big sand sharks and smaller skates. The most productive spot was the Tugella North bank area where anglers caught a few edible fish. Shoal size kob and grunter kept anglers busy at this venue and a few medium size lobotes were also landed. Besides these reports there is not much else happening although the forecast for this week end looks favorable for rock and surf angling.
Fishing at Mapelane recently, three great fish were landed. A sandy of 25.66kg’s, by Leon Gengan on a moonfish fillet, with a Daiwa Saltist 50 reel filled with .55 Kingfisher Giant Abrasion line. A raggie of 209.03 kg’s by Craig Blackmore, Craig landed this fish with his Poseidon 4 Magnum rod, Daiwa Saltist 50HK reel filled with .50 Kingfisher Giant Abrasion line and a mackerel – chokka bait, well done Craig that is a great fish, I bet your Dad wished he could landed a fish like that. Another raggie of 166.77kg’s was landed by Mathew Furniss with a mackerel – chokka bait. These really good fish were landed on Tuesday; we understand very little came out over the week end up there. Have just been informed by Charlie, that his son Craig has landed another raggie of 188.36kg’s sliding a whole bonny.

KZNCAU RESULTS
The KZNCAU fished it’s 1st round of their postal completion last week end and most clubs were looking forward to going to the Zululand beaches to get stuck into some diamond skate action. Although a few were caught the sea conditions did not lend itself to this type of angling and clubs then made decisions to move to the Transkei in search of sharks. Those clubs that elected to go to Transkei found some good fish and the top weights came from this area. Top spot went to Hibiscus with 306, 8 wt pts and were closely followed by the mighty Benders with 305, 9 wt pts. 3rd were Thekwini who fished Zululand on 227,7 wt pts, 4th Leviathan 163,8 wt pts and 5th Umzimkulu on 134,4 wt pts. Some very good fish were landed during this round. D Ramsaran fishing as a reserve for Kingfisher landed a 44.4kg kingfish; Pete van Govenden also from Kingfisher landed a kingie of 43.4 kg’s, Joss Laurens from Leviathans a sandy of 23.8 kg’s and Vishan Sing a labotes of 10.9kg’s. Thanks to Dave Nisbet for supplying the info, always nice to report back on the compo’s.

JOZINI DAM
News from Jozini Dam is that the water temperature is about 29 degrees and the water is clear. The weather has been great for fishing, although by 8:00 am, it is already uncomfortably hot. By this time most of the fish activity has died anyway. The fishing then picks up again at around 15:00. The dam is fishing extremely well of late. Finding the clear water is the key. A lot of boats have persisted in fishing the dirty water with indifferent results. The odd fish can be caught, but is mostly a waste of time. Clear water, close to the dirty water line is very productive, especially if fishing lures, spinners or flies. Gold, White, Black, Fire tiger and Pink are good colour choices in these conditions. The Shayamoya Team have done unbelievably well in the last month or two with bait. Very big fish seem scarce, but tigers of between 3 and 4.5kg have been regular catches. Sardine, chicken livers and live bait are still most people’s favourites.

The other day Ryan spoke with a couple guys who stopped over at Shayamoya Game Lodge on their way back from Kosi Bay. They caught a handful of tigers on left over chokka and small king mackerel fillets! Ryan has caught them on polony, biltong and boerewors! There can be no doubt that tigerfish will take just about any meat bait offered to them. Just remember that Jozini’s barbels like bits of “funny” meat even more! The productive spots, as always, are near good structure and drop offs. The problem most people have fishing Jozini is caused by the sheer size of the dam, and abundance of good structure. Patience is then needed as tigers seldom keep to a particular area for very long. They are restless and highly mobile. Sooner or later a hungry shoal should pass by. Fish appearing at your spot and only having a few nibbles before moving off normally means that they are not holding to that area. This is a good time to move.

Illegal gill nets are becoming a bit of a problem on Jozini. We urge all anglers using the dam to please be aware of them. Most of the nets are cleverly set below the reach of cutting propellers, however many are snagged when retrieving a bait or lure. Early in the morning, especially during a full moon the nets can often be found with live fish in them. If possible the live fish should be cut free. A few weeks ago about 60 good size bream were rescued from a single net. Interestingly, very few tigerfish seem to get killed in the nets. It could be possible that they are biting their way out. The bream and barbel however are not usually so lucky. We urge all anglers using the dam to report all nets and any persons seen laying nets to, the relevant authorities as soon as possible. The Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife office can be reached on: (034) 4351012. 083 959 5421. Pulling out the nets is encouraged although this may not always be possible due to their large size. A lot is being done to solve this problem, and there has been a drastic drop in the amount of nets in the last month or so. Thanks Ryan Tippett for this very informative report, always great to receive feedback from up there. You can contact Ryan at Shayamoya Game Lodge on 034 435 1110.

ESA
The Extreme Sports Angling guys are at it again on SS1, Tuesday at 7pm (Bass) Thursdays at 7.30pm (Saltwater). This angling show is on DSTV’S Super Sports channel with reruns during the week; check your T V Guide for more details.

SKI BOATS
Ski Boats on the other hand are off to a great start as far as game fish are concerned. Traditional places like Umdloti and the Number One ground off Durban have produced numerous couta and dorado of late. Sharks have also jumped in for a free meal and reports from Umdloti suggest that many couta were ‘donated’ last week. The South Coast is also producing some good fish, particularly on the Aliwal Shoal and the Protea Banks. Couta, kingfish, tunny, wahoo and the odd sailfish are being boated.

FISHING SKIS
Fishing Ski’s are also off to another good start to the season with good numbers of Couta being caught on both north and south coasts. The Umdloti area has for the past week or so been the main attraction with many anglers crowding this popular venue. On the south coast the same can be said for Scottburgh. After a relatively poor season last year it certainly looks as this venue has lived up to it’s reputation at start of the season. Already numerous amounts of Couta have been landed here and if the weather holds it will certainly be the place to fish this week end.

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