Big snoek biting off Durban
North
The ski-boat front has been relatively quiet of late on the north coast, as has the rock and surf angling. Apart from the couta and Natal snoek at Maphelane and surrounding areas, there has been very little reported. Most of the action has started from Tugela and downward with a few garrick making an appearance on backline and are becoming more abundant by the week. Snoek have also been relatively active along the coast all the way from Maphelane down to Umdoni Point.
Central
Blue Lagoon and Virginia have been hot-spots with larger fish up to 8kg not uncommon. Most of the larger snoek have either been landed on red-eye fillet trace or spoon, which should be retrieved with various speeds throughout the session in order to locate the fish at certain depths. Not only have the snoek been on the bite off Durban, but the bottom fishing has turned on and has been producing some lovely fish including some large musselcracker, geelbek and some quality daga. The slinger have been particularly large and a 3kg fish has been common in the deeper water. In the colder water, often indicated by the turning up of the scales on a slinger, anglers will find themselves hooking into far more fish-tail barbel than in the warmer waters. These fish are excellent eating and can be kept for the table. If it is other fish that you are after, move off to another reef when the barbel are on the bite, as they will not move off and often swim in shoals of 50 strong.
South
Many boats here have been netting sardines and getting in on the action of the gamefish with the sards. Garrick, tuna, kingfish and snoek have all been caught regularly and have been plentiful throughout this year's sardine run. As usual, bottom fishing along the south coast has been excellent and the sardines have supercharged the catches. Geelbek, yellowtail, musselcracker, daga and many others have been plentiful and making excellent sizes.
(File Photo: Gallo Images)
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