Blacktail biting at Ballito
As far as Sodwana Bay up north and as far as the lower Transkei stretches, anglers have been met with wall-high shore break, massive running swells and strong surge currents. Considering these conditions, the vast majority of anglers settled for nothing more than light tackle off ledges and in the gullies, targeting smaller edibles on prawn baits.
This seemed to be the more productive approach and many anglers fishing in the Kosi Bay area did relatively well with species such as wave garrick, stumpies, stone bream and small pompano. Further south at St Lucia, very few anglers took to the water and even fewer fish were seen. The odd bonefish and stumpnose were seen around the shallows north of the launch site during the week, and for most of the weekend.
Richards Bay fished much the same and produced the odd grey shark over the weekend as well as the various edibles. The harbour was on form in the strong westerly winds and saw dozens of good edibles coming out, for boaters as well as from the side. Grunter in the 2kg range were common, as well as stumpnose and perch. All of these were landed on cracker.
The area from upper Salt Rock to lower Ballito was amongst the more popular of spots and saw many anglers as well as many fish. The best approach in a rough sea and howling southwest is sometimes to downscale completely and to scratch in the gullies, instead of fishing in the rough seas where the sanded up waters can have a negative impact on the fishing. Fish do not like sand in their gills and nor do they enjoy low visibility conditions which render them easy targets for predators. In the gullies, the list of predators is substantially lower and visibility is much higher due to the lack of sand. A small prawn bait in the gullies will produce a variety of species from blacktail to stumpnose, rockcod and even shad at times. Ballito and Salt Rock produced a good number of fish including a very nice Blacktail of 2.4kg in the Sheffield area, which was landed on a Daiwa Laguna 4000, Laguna 11' rod, 33lb Gatorbraid and a Mustad Chinu 1/0.
Umhlanga was much the same and saw anglers scratching for smaller fish at the Lighthouse. A variety of edibles were taken here, as well as a few grey sharks and the odd lesser sand shark.
Blue Lagoon saw some huge seas and was unfishable for the majority of the week. When the sea did start to settle, the fish did come back onto the bite in the cleaner water and anglers saw a few shad, stumpies and even a pompano or two.
Durban beaches have been another spot for anglers to congregate in these strong southwest winds, as the Bluff and interior of Durban acts as a shield and helps calm the seas in the basin. The fishing does, however, suffer a bit in the southwest and edibles are the bulk of the catch. Grey sharks can also be caught and this was the case during the week when anglers found themselves catching a fair amount of grunter, stumpnose, pompano and a handful of grey sharks.
The Bluff fished very well and had anglers stocking up on bait daily. Prawn and chokka mix baits produced many an edible and anglers willing to put up with the conditions were rewarded greatly. In the beginning of the week a few anglers had good success with the blacktip kingies on live bait, but the prolonged westerly combined with the dwindling live bait availability meant that this would soon come to an end.
Toti had another small shad run but anglers soon left and set off to find calmer waters to fish.
Umkomaas was a washing machine and saw few fish apart from a few brown skates and snapper salmon.
Scottburgh has had some lovely clean water moving though thanks to the westerly, but unfortunately suffered from rough seas. Grey sharks, pompano, grunter and smaller edibles were the only fish around for the majority of the week.
For the rest of the coast down to the Transkei, most beaches were batted, cold, miserable and had big seas. Well done to the anglers who did fish and catch. Clean water made good garrick hunting grounds and far south the anglers managed a good number of these larger specimen between 10-18kg on live shad. Plugs did well in calmer seas in more protected areas. A fair amount of brusher were also landed on crab baits or crayfish baits in the gullies.
Reminder - Imperial Nissan Zululand Couta Classic at Mtunzini on 25 and 26 April 2015.
For more details on this KZN north coast deep sea fishing competition you can contact Hylton on 078 854 9358 or Rod on 083 587 3990.
May will see Pumula on the KZN south coast hosting the annual Quattro King of the Sea fishing contest.
Contact [email protected] to enter the Pumula event scheduled for 23 and 24 May.
The 2015 Inanda Bass Classic will be held at Inanda Dam over the first long weekend in May 2015.
Friday 1 May 2015 will be the show day where our sponsors will display and sell some of their goodies.
Entry forms are available at www.inandabassclassic.co.za or from Ken Ainslie who can be contacted on 031 205 3777.
Durban Ski Boat Club is hosting its flagship fishing competition this coming weekend - Two boats to be won and around 400 boats entered.
(File Photo: Gallo Images)
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa