Couta biting off the Bluff

With the Durban Ski Boat Festival approaching, anglers have been concerned about the lack of consistent couta action along the KZN coast.

Last week and weekend, anglers all the way up from Sodwana to the lower stretches of Durban managed to get good numbers of couta on the boat in a more steady manner. 

This has come as a huge confidence boost as many anglers had started to doubt their skills.

North - In the Sodwana, Maphelane, Cape Vidal and St Lucia areas, many couta have been caught on most baits such as sardine, mackerel, shad or even sand mackerel. The odd shoal size couta has been taken on Kingfisher Rattlers in the shallows at sunrise. In the deep, anglers have been successful with larger tuna around the 60kg mark, and a fair amount of marlin on konas. Some very nice Natal snoek have been taken in the shallows on small Strike Pro Magic Minnows and other fast moving baits such as Clark Spoons. Snoek of 6-7kg have not been uncommon and have been present on most days throughout last week and over the weekend.

Central - Closer to Durban, snoek have not been as abundant as in the last week weeks, but anglers' reports suggest that the few that have been landed have been big. One lucky angler boated a lovely snoek of 8.5kg. The Umhlanga Barge is still the spot to be for fishing skis and boats alike, targeting tuna on live baits. The tuna have been large and a fish of 30kg has not been uncommon. Dorado have slowed down substantially over the last week, but have still been boated by anglers traveling into the deep. A few decent couta have been caught on the Bluff side on live baits such as maasbanker and shad. Bottom fishing has been extremely good over the last week, with anglers catching excellent rock cod, general redfish and also some good fish in the shallows on light tackle. Smaller hooks are preferred in these depths as well as lighter hook snootings, due to the light penetration being much better between 5-20m.  Mustad Tarpon 2/0 hooks are light gauge and have more than enough strength behind them, without compromising the visibility. Small chokka baits will get the majority of the bites, with the larger fish such as rock cod being taken on a whole sardine on the bottom hook (6/0-8/0). Species which have been caught in these depths recently include stumpies, bronze bream, blacktail, grunter, lantern fish and also rock cod. Fish in this depth of water also do not suffer from barotrauma, which allows for much safer releasing of smaller fish.

South - Fishing here has been as productive if not better with tuna, wahoo and dorado in the deep off Shelley Beach and Rocky Bay. There have been excellent showings of bait in the water, which should be caught, frozen and kept for bait to avoid running low in tough times.  

A reminder that the Couta Classic will be taking place on 25 and 26 April 2015.

(File Photo: FreeSpool)

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