With warmer weather steadily settling in, anglers should start seeing off the tail end of the winter fish and the start of the annual summer fish.
Areas like Green Point, Illovo and Toti have had some good catches of garrick being reported as well as favourable reports coming from spear fishermen in the Isipingo area where large shoals of garrick and snoek have been seen.
Terry Nel reports that in the Port Edward area a lot of action has taken place in our estuaries and kingfish up to the 5kg mark, rock salmon over 2kgs and sea pike of 4kg have all been caught and released in our waters here

Angling
With warmer weather steadily settling in, anglers should start seeing off the tail end of the winter fish and the start of the annual summer fish. There has been some good rainfall along the coast recently and a few rivers have already started flowing and discolouring the sea in the surrounding areas.

This is good news for anglers that are out targeting some early season flatfish as there are already reports filtering in that some skates and the odd average size sand shark had already been accounted for. Some good news for the south coast is that there has been a surprising amount of garrick being reported. Those anglers that chance their arm at fishing with a live shad have had some good results but live mullet have also produces results and is a much better option.

Areas like Green Point, Illovo and Toti have had some good catches of garrick being reported as well as favourable reports coming from spear fishermen in the Isipingo area where large shoals of garrick and snoek have been seen. With the shad ban in place there is not as much activity on the beaches as usual but those anglers that are fishing for brusher in particular have had some good results in the Twini and Doonside areas in the south and along the La Mercy stretch in the north.

Fishing in the Durban Bay itself has for some time now produced some excellent angling as far as grunter is concerned. Some really big specimens in the 5 kg range have been reported and many average size fish are also being taken. There are also reports of the odd Natal snoek being caught.

Garrick angling along the North and Zululand coasts is still in full swing and some good results have come from the Tugella North bank, Amatikulu and the Richards Bay Piers. The odd big kob is still being accounted for by anglers targeting garrick. Locally fishing has been a bit slow due to the adverse weather we have been experiencing lately and not many favourable reports have come to light.

Terry Nel reports that in the Port Edward area a lot of action has taken place in our estuaries and kingfish up to the 5kg mark, rock salmon over 2kgs and sea pike of 4kg have all been caught and released in our waters here. Most fish have fallen victim to dropshot and poppers. (This must have been Dean Pretorius, he popped into The Kingfisher a few days ago and purchased an unbelievable outfit for this type of fishing, a Team Daiwa TDX 6’10” light spinning rod and a Team Daiwa Sol 2500 spinning reel, Dean and his son must have had a lot of fun catching those fish.

On the rock and surf side, not much apart from small reef fish have been caught and the sea has been clean and calm most of the week. The defence force nationals are taking place here this week and we hope that 88 anglers fishing for 5 days can produce some good weights from the area. We wish them the best. Further south, fishing in the Transkei is still good but the garrick and kob seem to have disappeared for the season and most anglers have now turned their attentions to bigger fish such as sharks and flat fish which at this time of the year can give anglers endless fun. Ski Boats Fishing Ski’s
Ski Boats are now mostly 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. Anglers taking a chance and venturing up to Cape Vidal can expect some good angling if the conditions permit. Some early season couta have been landed along with dorado and smaller tunny.

Crayfish Season
Don’t forget that the crayfish season closed on the 31st of October and permits will have to be renewed again next year when the season opens again. We will remind you closer to the time.