Amberjack and geelbek off Durban

North

For the offshore anglers on the upper KZN north coast, fishing has been relatively productive with a few species such as yellowfin tuna and Natal snoek providing action. Other species such as couta have been slow and only a few boats managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat and surprised us by boating a few decent couta of 23kg and 28kg respectively. The ever so plentiful yellowfin tuna have been caught on poppers around the bait balls and also on live bait in some cases. Umdloti has seen some good action as well, with some decent couta being reported off the boats as well as skis. Yellowfin tuna have been scarce in this area, but the odd one to find itself on the other end of an anglers line has been fairly large and in most cases has been close to 20kg. Live bait again being the weapon of choice for these fish. Live mackerel on a couta trace has accounted for the majority of couta catches. Bottom fishing has been good to most anglers over the last week.

Central

Amberjack, musselcracker, geelbek and even copper steenbras have been taken off Durban over the last week. These have all been caught on deeper wrecks on live baits or large dead baits such as mackerel or sand soldier flappers. A reminder of the tackle that should be used for these fish: If your hooks and other terminal tackle is not up to scratch many fish will be lost. Make sure that good quality line such as Shogun or Kingfisher leader line us used to ensure optimum strength. Closer in, the Natal snoek have been on and off around the Blue Lagoon area and with the water conditions changing heavily from last week, the fish have been unable to settle.

South

Amberjack have begun to show face at the Pumula area of late and have been seen in large numbers by various anglers. These fish are extremely strong fighters and should not be attempted on light tackle. These fish have been caught mainly in 100m of water on jig and on live bait. Further down at Hibberdene couta up to 29kg have been landed, as well as good numbers of Cape yellowtail.

Big fishing competition for physically challenged anglers at Durban Naval Base on 1 August 2015 - Call 031 701 7444 for more details.

(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)

Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa

Facebook - ECRSportswave