February 24

Weekend anglers lost out again because of adverse weather with the moderate southerly wind and rain on Saturday then the strong easterly wind that blew on Sunday. It was just for a short while on both days that anglers were able to wet a line.

The action from recent days has come from offshore anglers that are having a good game fish season as the photo of Tim Coetzee shows with his beautiful dorado of 19 kg caught off Umdloti. Unfortunately for the paddle ski anglers, the popular reef at Stud Rock is again not working so these guys have to travel to other areas where fish are on the bite.

A while back, divers did a survey on this reef and found that although there was a lot of tackle and fabric on the reef, things looked fine and they said that the reef was very much alive. Something must be causing the game fish to bypass the area and congregate on the reefs a little south where some decent catches have been made so far this season. It’s a pity because in the past, some really big fish have been caught on the Stud.

Umdloti and just north of the mouth are the areas that are still working quite well but there were times last week that the water turned green and the fish went off the bite. It was not all doom and gloom when the water changed colour because the anglers fishing just off the backline caught a couple of big kingfish. There were also a few snoek operating north of the Umdloti mouth. The snoek are eating sprats and anglers are frustrated finding that the fish won’t eat anything else but this is part of fishing for snoek.

Decent sized couta are also being caught further north and closer to Durban, but anglers have had to be on the water early. Live baits and lures seem to be doing the job but I heard that a couple of decent couta were caught on dead baits, although bites were not as fast as with the live fish. Couta have also been caught on a couple of the deeper reefs and these fish have tended to be larger than those caught inshore.

When the fishing has been slow inshore, some anglers have opted to move into deeper waters with good results. Bonito have also been seen working in several areas off Durban and northwards and this will mean that there will be billfish lurking in the blue water.

There was a tragic accident recently when an angler fishing from the rocks in the Umdloti area fell into the water when trying to retrieve a fish that he had hooked, and was washed out to sea and drowned. This type of accident should not happen and I have said before in past columns that rock and surf anglers should take time to read the water before proceeding to cast a bait.

Reading the water means to check the surf and in the case of anglers wanting to fish from the rocks, watch where the waves are breaking and how much water is washing over the area where you want to fish. Figure out where one is going to land a decent fish and the best place is an area of shallow water or even try to manipulate the fish so that it can be landed from the beach. It is not a good idea to bend down and try to retrieve a fish in a deep water area from the rocks and anglers should never take their eyes off the water.

When fishing from the beach, choose a nice bank from which to fish and never stand or fish from the hollow between banks where the water rushes quickly up the beach. When landing a big fish, use the surf and when the fish is ready to be landed, always try and beach your catch just on the side of the bank from where you are fishing. I have seen many nice fish lost by anglers when the guys have tried to land the catch in the hollow between the banks. It is also easy to be washed into the sea by the strong wash between these banks.

By all accounts, fishing from the surf was a bit slow last week and although a couple of fish were caught, some anglers returned home empty handed. For me, the surf was not quite right for surf angling, maybe this week, things will be a lot better. It is still pompano that anglers are targeting and the guys tell me that a couple of big fish were lost during the week but anglers must continue to try.

- Sealice