With summer finally settling in things are looking much brighter for anglers. Warm seas and hot and humid days make for good angling. Most big rivers have come down with the summer rains, causing some off coloured water which brings in the big flatfish. Locally angling has picked up quite well with good reports

With summer finally settling in things are looking much brighter for anglers. Warm seas and hot and humid days make for good angling. Most big rivers have come down with the summer rains, causing some off coloured water which brings in the big flatfish. Locally angling has picked up quite well with good reports of big sand sharks and skates being caught off most of the deep water points. As far as edible fish go there are some good fish around in the form of kingfish, grunter, pompano, small kob and off course the new shad season has also begun but these fish are normally hard to find during December.
On the South Coast places like Umkomaas, Green Point, Scottburgh and the Umdoni areas produce some very big fish from now on. In the Port Edward area, Terry Nel from Tacklenet reports that over the past few days the sea conditions have been good and apart from the large amount of seaweed at some of the beaches, fishing has been a pleasure for many holidaymakers and a few good fish have been caught.
Shad are on the bite again and some good sized bronze bream are being found in the gullies mostly during low tides. Fishermen casting spoon from points here have been hooking into deep water game fish which include bonito and yellow fin tuna, we have also been informed that a couple of monster couta have been landed. Braid and far casting rods and reels are making it possible to achieve long distance casts especially when artificial baits are being used and as this finesse fishing becomes more popular, alarming results can be expected. Boat anglers here have been rewarded with exciting catches including large cuta and yellow fin tuna and with the high fish activity along the coast some excellent fishing can be expected.
The North Coast is also having its fair share of these big fish with reports of a few very big sand sharks coming from the Tinley and Tongaat Long Beach. However, further north the Zululand areas are now in their prime as far as angling for big fish are concerned. Reports of the annual diamond skates are positive as anglers fishing in the Amatikulu and Mtinzini areas report the first of what hopefully will be a very good season as far as these big fish are concerned.
Fishing in the Transkei should also start picking up as far as shark angling is concerned. Reports from Mezappa Bay and Hole in The Wall areas suggest that a few nice size raggies have come out recently and that some average size grey and hammerhead sharks have also been caught. Ski Boats have started catching some good numbers of dorado mainly off the deep reefs off Durban but quite a few have recently been caught on the shallower reefs off the North and South coasts. The Cape Vidal area is also fishing well with reports of dorado, wahoo, sailfish, small tunny and the odd couta being boated. Fishing on the Aliwal Shoal has picked up dramatically over the past few weeks with catches of couta, dorado, wahoo and tunny being reported.