Lloyd is away on a fishing trip to Santa Maria, he will be back next week but here goes with the fishing report.
A lot of anglers have recently taken to fresh water angling with bass being the target specie.
Mike Laubscher sent in a report about his fishing trip to Jozini and Inanda Dam.
Anglers fishing for natal snoek have had some really good fun.

Angling
Lloyd is away on a fishing trip to Santa Maria, he will be back next week but here goes with the fishing report. Shore anglers have not been treated kindly this summer season as many of the expected fish that frequent the KZN coastline, namely big sand sharks have simply not appeared although a few smaller specimens have been landed. Anglers targeting shad have had a reasonable start to the season with quite a few specimens being landed at most known shad spots. With autumn on our doorstep anglers can start looking forward to the garrick run and hopefully a sardine run will materialize this year.

Anglers fishing for natal snoek have had some really good fun. These fish have now stayed in the Durban area for some time now and most anglers are rigged up with the right equipment and relevant spoons to effectively target these fish. The average size of the snoek has not been too big but seems to be hovering around the 1kg to 2kg mark. Terry Nel from Port Edward reports that after the heavy seas experienced along the coast, fishing is beginning to pick up again. Several hound sharks have been landed off deep water points here and some news of shad have also come in. Let’s hope that the conditions continue to improve as the holidays approach next week.

A lot of anglers have recently taken to fresh water angling with bass being the target specie. The most productive dams have been Inanda and Albert Falls where steady catches have been made. Another alternative is tiger fishing and these fish can be found at Jozini Dam which is only a four hour drive from Durban. They are not hard to catch and if you have bass equipment you are in the game. Fishing for these fish is a lot like shad angling; they are predators and will readily take small spinners and believe it or not sardine fillets. The only difference is that tigers are not good eating as they have hundreds of small bones. A trip like this can be made into a family outing as most of the dam lies within a game reserve.

Mike Laubscher sent in this report about his fishing trip to Jozini and Inanda Dam. “After some trailer problems we eventually got to the Pongola Nature Reserve and set up camp. I love this place and it is like a little piece of heaven, but boy o boy was it hot as hell with temperatures reaching 49deg. C. You cannot cool down, everything melts and the heat from the ground is slowly cooking you and there was no wind to speak of making it virtually unbearable. Even at 23h00 at night when it cooled down to about 39 deg. C it was still unbearable and I simply could not bear being inside my tent and rather opted to sleep under the stars with only some insect repellent protecting me.

We would launch every morning at about 04h00 when it was still dark to try get in on the early morning action and stayed on the water till after dark, the water was hot averaging 29 deg. C. It was really nice to be on Jozini again after chasing off-shore Game fish for the past few months and I enjoyed the change. The fishing was tough and the fish scarce, and the only action that we found was in heavily weeded and grassed areas where the fish were taking cover, there was mostly smaller fish around and we each averaged around 6 fish in the morning and afternoon sessions which was about 24 fish per day, most were small and we got a few in the 1- 2Kg range, we also lost a lot of fish on the jump which is always a problem on the smaller fish as they have no weight behind them for the hooks to set properly. We had many fish following our lures and not committing. Because the fish were so small we had opted for light tackle and were fishing with 6’ 6” ML (4- 8lb) rods and small 1500 size reels spooled with 8lb line.

As I never fish bait or live bait for tigers and only use lures we had chosen my method of fishing weightless soft plastics as this is virtually snag free and was what we needed for the thick cover. In the early mornings and late afternoons the fish wanted an ultra fast jerking retrieve using minnows and during the day a more subtle steady retrieve using small paddle tails. On Day 4 we got found a large group of barbel (Cat Fish) in a feeding frenzy with some very large tigers around them and we got stripped and broken off by some big tigers and barbel until we had no more rigged rods left, by the time we re-rigged it was all over leaving us excited and frustrated. Late in the afternoon on the 3rd day after a heavy SW wind blew we had each got a hit from big fish which all came off in the structure and then eventually we had a really big fish on and with me shouting instructions we successfully landed and released a 4.5Kg (10lb) tiger fish on the light tackle. This is a trophy fish for Jozini, and what made it even sweeter was that we landed it on such light tackle and using lures, his fish is also now the official record for my clients breaking the previous record of 4.2Kg.

We fished for 2 days at Inanda Dam, and this is the first time in almost a year that I have fished here with a client and almost forgot how much I enjoy my bass fishing. It was nice to be back in surroundings that are so familiar after a long period of absence, but the conditions were far from ideal with it being extremely hot and the water surface temperatures at 29.8 deg. C and I could see on my sonar that this warm water was is the 1st 4 meters before it started cooling and telling us that we would have to fish deep and slow.

On both mornings we first tried some top water and were each rewarded with a fish and then it would go quiet and we went looking for some deep off-shore structure. On the first day we eventually managed 11 fish all small with only 3 being keepers. We tried jigs but the bass would simply pick them up and move them around, with 7 inch finesse worms fished on long drop shot rigs with circle hooks producing most of our fish. After fishing the inlet side of the dam on day one, we tried the lower section on day 2 and the water here was cleaner and averaged around 29 deg. C, after our 2 top water fish we tried drop shot which was not as successful as the day before and eventually we had success fishing spinner baits off the grass landing 9 fish for the day of which again only 3 were keepers. I also tried a lipless crank which was taken by a bass smaller than the lure before I lost the lure to a tree. So not the best fishing, but we did get some fish which were fun even though small.” Thanks Mike for the report.

The Douglas Thompson trophy is fished for by following three Clubs,
Kingfishers Angling club, Natal Estates Angling Club and Umhlali Angling Club. Guests, family and friends are all invited and they fish for the Odds and Sods side. This year’s annual event took place on March 2011 at Peace Cottage, Umhlanga Rocks. The weather was kind to us this year but the fish were scares. Before going to the price winners a few “BIG” thank yous. Natal Estates Angling club for the use of the club house at Peace Cottage, and the supplying of the braai facilities. The sponsors: The Kingfisher, Goscor, Chase Tackle Shop, Orca bags, Hook Line and Sinker Tackle Shop, and Mr Price stores.

Now on to the results:
Douglas Thompson trophy 1st. Natal Estates (23.6 pts) 2nd. Kingfishers (3.3 pts) 3rd Umhlali (0)
Douglas Thompson Potty (for best Angler) Des Thrink (Natal Estates) (2x brown skates and 2 x lesser = 11.7pts) Well done and congratulations to the winners.

Sponsored prices (To all Teams and Odds and Sods) Best Angler: (heaviest weight) 1st Des Thring of Natal Estates (11.7kg, 2nd Allister Kristy (Odds and Sods) (7kg’s) 3rd Collin Pitman (Natal Estates) (7kg’s) 4th Peter Lewin (Natal Estates) (3.8kg), 5th Juan Pretorius (Kingfishers) (3.3kg), 6th Clark Edinborough (Natal Estates) (1.1kg)

Largest fish: Kriesen of the Odds and Sods (brown skate 8kg)
Best Junior: Che Nanoo of the Odds and Sods (1kg),
Smallest fish: Foxy Nanoo of the Odds and Sods (.5kg)/
A few nice fish were caught and a few nice fish were lost, a few blobs,(Me for one) that’s angling, thanks to all for coming and hope to see you and more next year. Thanks to Peter Van Goeverden for the feedback.