Angling along both North and South coasts has taken somewhat of a knock as fish seem to have gone off the bite a little.
In less than a week the shad season opens and that should get all and sundry back on the beaches but as tradition has it these fish are very scarce during the December and January periods.
Garrick have also been caught over the last week and as we say goodbye to the large amount of bait fish at sea this time of the year, the game fish should come in to feed and so the season begins.

FISHING REPORT 27TH NOVEMBER  2010

Angling
Angling along both North and South coasts has taken somewhat of a knock as fish seem to have gone off the bite a little. Reports suggest that the annual garrick run has almost come to an end as summer approaches. As quickly as they arrived they seemed to have disappeared as well, but as warmer water pushes in and hopefully the weather starts settling soon the much awaited flatfish season can kick off in earnest.

In less than a week the shad season opens and that should get all and sundry back on the beaches but as tradition has it these fish are very scarce during the December and January periods. Those anglers that are ‘scratching’ for bronze bream and the bigger brusher are getting fair returns. Those willing to put in endless hours in adverse conditions have been well rewarded at places like Trafalgar in the South and along the Twini and Isipingo ledges closer to Durban.

Terry Nel
Terry Nel from Port Edward informs us that shad have been in the area and anticipations are that they stay as the season approaches. Once the season opens at the end of the month, the amount of bait and activity in the water should keep them here so get ready all you guys that fish only for shad and make sure that your tackle is operational or you might stand in line to have repairs and the like done. Last year some really nice shad were taken at the start of season.

Garrick have also been caught over the last week and as we say goodbye to the large amount of bait fish at sea this time of the year, the game fish should come in to feed and so the season begins. Some small kob have been on the bite and the place to try for them is the open estuaries more in the evenings.

One thing regarding this is to be careful about vehicle safety as normally access to the river mouths force you to park in remote areas. On the subject of river mouths, fishermen are having a bumper time catching kingfish on lures a little upstream from the beaches. One angler caught and released 27 of these fish in a river right here all in one day. Another well known angler has also had a large catch record and a remarkable fish amongst these was an oxeyed tarpon of the 2kg mark.

Further north the Cape Vidal area has produced some very good results lately with a variety of game fish coming out. Some good size couta have been caught recently by Ski as well as Ski boat anglers. Other fish to come out at this venue include dorado, smaller tunny and the odd wahoo. Further north Ski Boaters venturing out at Sodwana targeting marlin are now experiencing one of the better starts to a billfish season. Many marlin mostly black and striped marlin have been accounted for during the past few weeks. Along with marlin a good number of sailfish have also been caught.

Transkei
Anglers going to the Transkei can now expect to get stuck into some good shark angling. Favourable reports have come from traditional places like Hole In The Wall, Brazen Head, and the Port St Johns areas. Mostly fair size hammerhead and grey sharks make up most of the catches but the odd big zambezi shark has also been hooked. In the Mazeppa Bay area, a lot of big raggies have been hooked and landed; Lloyd Pereira from The Kingfisher landed and released a good one of 153kg’s last week. There were also a few large bronze whalers and black fin sharks hooked over the past week. On the edible side, some nice size garrick were landed on plugs as well as kob up to 8kg’s on drop shot.

Ski Boats
Ski Boats are still concentrating on bottom fishing and the daga and geelbek salmon are the main target specie but marauding sharks make for some interesting fishing. General bottom fishing as far as ‘Reds’ and rock cod are concerned is also a bit on the slow side but should start picking up. As far as game fish are concerned these are quite a few good size snoek on both north and south coasts but these fish seem to be targeted more by the Fishing Ski’s than ski boats. Good news is that some couta have already been caught and seen in the Aliwal Shoal and Scottburgh areas. Although a bit early it certainly has got the Fishing Ski and Ski Boat fraternity taking notice.

Mike Laubscher, fresh water
On the fresh water side, Mike Laubscher reports that, he spent the weekend camping at Lake Jozini and hunting tiger fish, during the days the wind blew although it was mostly calm early morning, the evenings were simply stunning and windless and the clouds cleared giving them starry nights under the full moon, during the day it was overcast. The water was hot at 27 deg. C and was badly stained from the recent rains, this made for some difficult tiger fishing. It was also extremely hot during the day with temperatures exceeding 37 deg. C.

Mike found that very close to the weed beds there was still some semi clear water and so they targeted these areas using top water lures and light 10lb tackle and over the 2 days they managed to land around 20 tiger fish all in the 1- 2Kg range. They had some excitement when they hooked into a bus sized tiger that ran into the weed bed and by the time they got the boat there he had come off. The 2 days were completely different with day one fishing better in the morning and day 2 fishing better in the afternoon, Mike also took a long trip down to the gorge and the waves caused by the wind over the main dam area was like going deep sea. There was a crocodile swimming by the slipway when they arrived, and they also saw some baby crocs along one of the banks, Mike did not see the herd of Elephants but were treated by some Buffalo, Rhino and Giraffe.Action packed ESA fishing shows on TV
Don’t forget to watch the action packed ESA fishing shows on TV. These shows feature both saltwater and freshwater fishing and are aired on Super sport 1. The ESA Saltwater show will be broadcasted weekly on Thursdays between 19h30 and 20h30, and the ESA Freshwater show will air weekly on Tuesdays between 19h00 and 19h30.