Our fantastic summer continues as great reports come in from shore and boat anglers
From the shore the skates have been all over the place, plenty reports of brown skates, honeycombs, blue skates and even some more rear species for our coastline such as thorn tail rays, duckbills and ribbon tail rays. There have been some sandsharks around but it’s only going to heat up over the next 2 months.
You’ll notice as we go from December to January to now February the days of consecutive north easterly wind extend which makes for more favourable inedible fishing. Our fishing summer starts properly now!

Angling
Our fantastic summer continues as great reports come in from shore and boat anglers… It’s lovely to see after all the pessimism from previous bad seasons! Tiny shoal snoek and couta continue to grace our coastline in large numbers, decent size couta since November and plenty juvenile yellowfin tuna. The illegal yet productive fad’s have still been producing plenty dorado. The one glitch in the season is the ever present tax man, I don’t think is the shark population growing as much as it is the sharks growing wiser and associating boats with food. This is why we use the term “tax man”, just us paying our taxes due to the sea.

From the shore the skates have been all over the place, plenty reports of brown skates, honeycombs, blue skates and even some more rear species for our coastline such as thorn tail rays, duckbills and ribbon tail rays. There have been some sandsharks around but it’s only going to heat up over the next 2 months.

You’ll notice as we go from December to January to now February the days of consecutive north easterly wind extend which makes for more favourable inedible fishing. Our fishing summer starts properly now!
Starting from the south, Dean Pretorious tells me Port Edward is dead dead dead, which is unusual considering the conditions we have been having. Sunil tells me Scottborough has been throwing some fish as he managed to land a lovely ribbontail ray of about 45kgs. In fact most of the points along that area under the right conditions have been producing fish.

You’ll notice my lack of mention of edible fish, I just haven’t heard of any at all…not to say there have been none but I haven’t heard of any reports. In the Durban and north coast area there has been some great action. Umhlanga light house has had one of the better seasons in the recent past, producing plenty variety of flat fish as well as some grey sharks in between. Warren Anthony has been fishing there religiously and he’s caught some lovely fish. I fished Umdloti on Tuesday night with Joss Laurens and my old man. Joss landed a nice brown skate of about 15kgs and I beached a sandshark between 50-60kgs. Both of us were using Daiwa saltist 40’s. I think if you can get to deep water anywhere along our north coast under the favourable conditions you’ll get fish.

Up north to the”banks” area, (namely Amatikulu, Mtinzini and Port Durnford) It still hasn’t turned on yet! There are some fish around but the “diamond smashes” haven’t started yet. With the amount of easterly we getting now my guess is next spring tides will produce some fish. In the harbour there have been some large grunter as usual but fish seem to be few and far between. Trevor (an artificial specialist) foul hooked a zambezi in the tail on the weekend. A relatively small one between 50-70kgs, but interesting none the less.
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Like I mentioned, the boats have been enjoying a great season. Once again it seems the north coast is enjoying a better season then the south. It’s the time of the year when the boys get there tackle tested on the Port Edward wreck by the yellowtail, but I haven’t heard any reports. The shoal has been relatively quiet but is still producing some fish. Durban itself has been producing some yellowfin off number 1 (good luck with the sharks though) and the small snoek have been popping up in big numbers in the Ushaka basin and Umgeni, Peace Cottage stretch. In typical snoek fashion, one day one the next day dead! Umdloti is still producing couta and yellow fin in the right conditions…but like in most cases I think its one of the places where you actually hear about fish, there are many lock lipped anglers catching fish along the usual hot spots. I haven’t heard any recent reports from Richards Bay but I’m sure its still producing marlin. Steve Andrews has been skippering Pulsator charters and they have had a phenomenal season!

Looking at the weather forecast for the weekend it doesn’t look too appetizing, however often it can be wrong and it’s hard to see this north easterly continue to blow for another week. It’s supposed to be strong north easterly winds with a biggish sea... The deeper points could well produce some fish if you are able to hold a bait. On the bright side of things it will be sunny and hot. Have a great weekend and for those dedicated anglers that fish this weekend, tight lines!!


The Durban Ski –Boat Club Fishing Festival

The Durban Ski –Boat Club are having a fishing festival on the 23rd & 24th April 2011. First prize for the biggest couta is a completely rigged 565 Sea Cat with trailer and 2 x 70HP Yamaha’s, the value is about R400, 000.00. There are R450, 000.00 worth of other prizes to be won as well as a huge jackpot lucky draw of R20, 000.00 cash. Pre-entry is R300.00. For more info on this very well run competition visit their Website: www.durbanskiboatclub.co.za.

New Hanover Schools Bass Compo.

Rory da Silva has sent in this info about the New Hanover Schools Bass Compo. “This is the 8th year the comp has been running and last year we saw a record turnout of 840 anglers of all ages. This is one of the best if not the best comps of this kind around. (Organized and run as only people with a passion and commitment for their school can do) Date:    Saturday 12th March 2011 Venue:  Dalton/New Hanover area .The competitors will have 15 stocked dams to choose from with a prize for biggest fish being allocated to a senior and junior per dam. Registration:   5.30am at Torwoodlea Dam, lines up at 16h00. Pre entries receive a free Tee shirt (before 28 Feb 2011) Pre Registration:  www.newhanover.co.za or fax 086 694 6748, or contact, Jurgen Oellerman on 0827858166 or Cliff Torlage 0828807088. Cost:   Seniors is R100/angler and R60/junior