ROCK & SURF - South Coast
Isipingo, Toti’ Winkle and the Umkomaas areas are really living up to expectations during the early morning sessions. Strong South Westerly winds and high seas during the course of last week made for some uncomfortable angling but anglers fishing in sheltered bays found some shad and smaller rock fish. On the lower South Coast with the Trafalgar and Port Edward areas in particular, some good size bronze bream have recently been caught throughout the day. News from Port Edward’s Terry Nel, is that over the past days, bad weather conditions have hampered fishing and catches of shad have been very patchy and no reports of any game fish have come in. Bronze bream have been on the bite and some fair sized fish have been taken even though they are only been targeted by few fishermen. A number of lesser sand sharks have been caught by beach anglers and a dusky sand shark was also landed at ' Lucky Dip'. A surprising number of visitors to the coast had set their sights on catching large sharks and were asking for mackerel and traces to 'slide' these baits, when asked a few vital questions, the tackle that they want to use limits them to shad and smaller fish. Guess that the ESA guys make it look to easy on TV.

The weather prediction for the week end looks favorable with lower swells and light to moderate Easterly winds which should get the flatfish back on the bite.
Sand sharks and skates are giving anglers some great fun as these fish can range from the 5 kg mark right up to the 50 kg mark, especially the sand sharks. Make sure that your tackle is in tip top shape as these fish could take you to the cleaners. Your reel have a good drag system with lots of power, reels like the Daiwa Saltiga and Saltist do the job very well. Big deep water points on the South Coast such as Green Point, Scottburgh and the Park Rynie area have recently yielded some very big sandys.

ROCK & SURF - North Coast
On the North Coast the Tinley and Tongaat Long Beach area have also produced some very good results with these fish. Still on the North Coast, the Tugella area has recently fished very well on both edible and inedible fish. Those anglers targeting big fish have had good results with big diamond skates and zambezi sharks recently. The edible fish range has been just as good with anglers here catching some nice size lobotes, grunter, and smaller kob. The same can be said for the St Lucia and Mapelane areas where anglers have also had some good results.

SKI BOATS
Ski boats can also look forward to some good angling this week end as there are now a variety of game fish around. Dorado are still plentiful on the deeper reefs off Durban but boats who can find some clean inshore water should also be able to get stuck into these fish. Snoek are being caught in good numbers off the La Mercy area but the majority of these fish are still very small. The occasional couta has also been landed off the Umdloti area. Boats fishing the Aliwal Shoal recently have found the going a bit tough as fish there have suddenly gong off the bite. As soon as the current changes to the North East and the clean blue water pushes in things could change dramatically.

E.S.A.
The Extreme Sports Angling guys are at it again on Tuesday at 7pm (Bass) Thursdays at 7.30pm (Saltwater). This angling show is on DSTV’S Super Sports channel with reruns during the week, check your T V Guide for more details

For the latest KZN fishing news presented by O.J., tune into East Coast Radio at 5.40am Monday - Friday.