Well done to the Natal team for winning the B national’s!
A few trophy “prodigal sons” were landed; one particularly good fish of 28kgs was landed.
Apparently Dave Oldachre braved the big sea last weekend with his ski and managed to land a lovely stripe marlin of roughly two meters.
The water has been too cold for the yellowtail on the Port Edward wreck but apparently the

Angling
Well done to the Natal team for winning the B national’s! The results will be at the end of the report but I’ll sum up the fishing over the 3 days.

Last week Wednesday the grounds were the middle South Coast and produced a lot of fish. A few trophy “prodigal sons” were landed; one particularly good fish of 28kgs was landed. In general it was a mix bag of fish caught with some honeycombs, sandy’s, lots of browns and quit a few bone fish.

Thursday the boys fished the Balito area and struggled for bites. One fish worth mentioning was a couta of 7kgs, which is a lovely fish to catch from the shore.

Friday the venue went back down South to the lower South Coast and the boys got some good fish again, repeating Wednesday’s events and catches.

Otherwise the giant sea’s we’ve been having has prevented most anglers from fishing, so some of the news I have isn’t fresh, but I’ll give it to you anyway…

Apparently Dave Oldachre braved the big sea last weekend with his ski and managed to land a lovely stripe marlin of roughly two meters. Dave was pulling a dead mackerel for a couta, fortune favours the brave!

The water has been too cold for the yellowtail on the Port Edward wreck but apparently the “bottom” anglers have been getting some lovely reds and other nice bottom species off the boat…but very few anglers have launched with the big sea running. I haven’t heard any news from the upper south coast so not much can be reported there!

In the Durban area there are still some small snoek in the vetches / limestone area, it’s also one of the few places where paddle ski anglers have been able to fish. In fact half the ski’s catches have been half snoek and half couta the same size as snoek.Whoever has braved the launches or travelled north from Durban Ski Boat Club has generally been rewarded with couta.

Tuesday morning the sea was big but the water was superb! The two Mikes and Dave from The Kingfisher ran to Umdloti and managed to boat 3 shoal sized couta, losing another three to the ever present tax man (shark)! Apparently there were some spearfisherman off the bluff and they shot ten fish between the two of them. The fish are here, have been here for a while… just these terrible conditions have been holding us back.

On Tuesday night my fishing withdrawals forced me to do something I’ve been threatening to do for a while, fish for walla walla. They weren’t wild but it was awesome fun and in the process we built up our couta bait stocks. I was just using a light spinning outfit (Daiwa Megaforce 802ms, Daiwa Crossfire 2500) with 20lb braid, a little number two hook, Tooth Proof wire and a glow stick with sardine as bait. What it made me realise is that there is fishing everywhere in our city and surrounding areas if you are willing to put in the effort, no matter what the sea conditions! Some of my work colleagues at The Kingfisher have been catching mullet in the harbour and others fishing artificial for kingy’s, pick handles ect…

I don’t know anyone who has fished locally from the shore in the last week because of the size of the sea… so when you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all!
Mtinzini area doesn’t fish well in the bigger seas and so I haven’t heard of anything! Far north I hear that Cape Vidal has been having a bumper run. That place can be very hot and cold but I have heard that the shoal couta have been there in abundance along with plenty dorado and yellowfin tuna!

Looking ahead at the weather forecast on “windguru.com”, the sea is still going to be up, and surprise surprise, north easterly winds for yet another week! However, Saturday and Sunday morning defiantly look fishy! If you want to fish from the shore for bigger in edibles then a deep water point would be pretty much your only option. As for the boats, an early morning launch would be recommended for those willing to brave the slightly bigger sea, the couta are here and we shouldn’t let this short period of fish pass us by! Same goes for the paddle ski’s, but with a little more emphasis on the “braving the bigger sea”! No engines can sometimes make big surf launches interesting to say the least!