Fishing Report 9 August 2010 | Fishing tackle, reels, rods, equipment, gear online fishing shop

The sardine run is in full swing with more and more of these fish now starting to show up on the south coast.
Besides Durban having one of the better seasons the traditional south coast venues have eventually started producing some good hauls.
Anglers who brave the cold weather and fish at night have recently started getting some nice size kob particularly along the Umgababa and Umkomaas stretches.

Angling
The sardine run is in full swing with more and more of these fish now starting to show up on the south coast. Besides Durban having one of the better seasons the traditional south coast venues have eventually started producing some good hauls.

Isipingo in particular had no less than 15 nets come out there. Many big shoals are still congregating along the Umkomaas to Toti stretches and by the looks of things there should be some exciting times along the KZN coast. The one thing that is missing from this run is the lack of traditional game fish and sharks that are normally associated with the run.

Anglers are getting their fair share of mostly garrick and the odd kingfish and kob but those anglers that target the big bronze whalers and other shark species and diamond skates have been greatly disappointed. These fish have just simply not shown up or are going to eventually come to the beaches. There have been sporadic catches of geelbek salmon when sardines have been holding in a particular area. A good few nice size fish were caught at Isipingo and at Reunion beaches during the early evening sessions.

Shad angling on the other hand has been prolific and the general size of the shad that are coming out now seem to be a bit bigger and in some cases some monster fish up to the 4 kg mark have been landed. All known spots are starting to resemble a 'bamboo forest' as crowds were to known to be resembled with in days gone by. Garrick have also come out in numbers particularly along the St Winifreds and Illovo stretches with Winkle high rocks also producing a fair amount of fish.

Anglers who brave the cold weather and fish at night have recently started getting some nice size kob particularly along the Umgababa and Umkomaas stretches. This particular area also came alive with yellowtail kingfish during the course of last week and some in the 5kg range were landed. Garrick, kob and shad have also been caught in fair numbers along the Port Shepstone stretch.

Terry Nel from Port Edward reports that the shad are still full up there in the Port Edward area and seem to be a little larger this week and more of legal size. Garrick are also back and Splash Rock is the main spot where fishermen are trying for this game fish. A nice bronze bream was caught at "Lucky Dip" weighing in at 2, 5 kg by Des Davis a keen angler from Port Edward.

River estuary angling has produced a number of large perch mostly taken on sardine bait. Anglers fishing along the North coast areas should soon start getting into some garrick as shad have started moving into the well known Northern beaches. Places to watch now will undoubtedly be the Umgeni North Bank, La Mercy and Tongaat Long Beach stretches.

Transkei
Anglers venturing to the Transkei now can expect some excellent fishing as reports coming from this area suggest that there are lots of shad, garrick and kob around. Bigger sharks have also given anglers some excellent angling particularly in and around the Hole In The Wall and Port St Johns areas. Most of the bigger rivers down there are also producing some good fish. Mainly big grunter are being caught but smaller garrick and kob have also been landed.

Ski Boats
Ski Boats are also in on the action with some good bottom fishing being reported. Kob and Geekbek have started feeding but general bottom fishing has also been good with some fair size Red fish and Rock cod being caught. The game fish season has stared tapering off but those anglers who pursue these fish are still getting the odd couta in the Zinkwazi area but it is now the snoek that have returned in good numbers along the North Coast. The Tinley, Westbrook and Umdloti areas have been steadily producing good numbers of fair size fish. Lloyd Pereira from The Kingfisher / ESA land a beauty of 9kg’s fishing in this area from his Stealth paddle ski on Monday morning. Further south the Aliwal Shoal and Protea banks are producing some good catches of yellow fin tunny.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 20h 30 and the ESA Freshwater show will air weekly on Tuesdays between 19h00 and 19h30.

ESA Saltwater: 05.08.2010: Tonight Lloyd and Ray target edibles off the rugged coast of the Transkei. Check out the DSSA team as they explore fishing off South pier while they look at fishing for garrick in OSSA.

ESA Saltwater: 12.08.2010: Lloyd and Ray are back and continue on their mission to catch a denizen of the deep. In DSSA we check out the latest light tackle action. In OSSA we check out local deep sea action.

ESA Saltwater: 19.08.2010: Hook up with Lloyd and Ray with edible action in Mazeppa Bay, while in DSSA they get stuck into some light tackle angling. In OSSA Craig targets snoek but learns that beneath the surface there is more than meets the eye.

ESA Saltwater: 26.08.2010: In LBSA we take a look at the beginning of our journey chasing the sardine run, while the DSSA team looks at the fun in light tackle angling while in OSSA the team target an array of different species.