Diamond rays in Richards Bay
Kosi Bay is fishing well at the moment and is producing a decent variety of fish. Black Rock is seeing a good few anglers who have managed a few decent kingfish and shad. These have been landed on spinning tackle as well as bait. For those who have continued to fish with decent sized ground baits, the larger species such as sharks and flatfish have been trickling in, but are relatively quiet compared to the smaller edibles such as wave garrick and shad. Chokka and red-eye baits seem to be doing well across the board.
Cape Vidal saw few anglers over the past week, but managed to perform fairly well, producing good numbers of shad and surprisingly enough, blacktip kingfish. These fish are not uncommon, but have been shoaling in extremely large numbers and have been caught more regularly by the day. Any small bait that these fish swim past should be taken readily, as well as spoons, drop-shot and even plugs. The smaller 1oz Chaos plugs have been known to work better for these shoaling fish. The flatfish bites have also begun to increase in this area, as well as the Natal snoek, which have preferred chrome coloured spoons of late.
Richards Bay had an excellent run of inedibles over the weekend, with the diamonds, honeycombs and sandies making a huge appearance. This provided hours of fun for anglers on both heavy and light tackle. There were also a few raggies in the mix, which were also of decent size, being landed on throw baits as well as larger slide baits.
Tugela had a few surprises throughout the week, with some days producing nothing and other days going wild with fish. A few good sized garrick and kob were landed, including a lovely garrick of 17kg which was taken on live mullet. Kob have been caught on a variety of baits, but the larger specimens seem to have fallen victim to shad cutlet baits. This, as fresh as possible, rigged on a Mustad Big gun 5/0 or 6/0 will do the trick. If there are grey sharks in the area, a short section of Carbon coated steel can be added to avoid getting bitten off.
Ballito has fished well during the week, seeing many anglers going home with fish. Snoek have been landed on spoon, with most of the shad coming out on bait. Grey sharks have been taking shad traces, which have left the shad anglers breathless for a few seconds, leading them to believe for a few moments that they may beat the top ranked angler in the Kingfisher Shad Competition.
On 1 August The Kingfisher started their annual Biggest Shad Competition. This year it will be run over a two-month period, August and September, with three prizes each month. The heaviest shad for each month will receive a Daiwa SL 50SHK Reel, valued at R1625, the second heaviest shad will receive a 13’6” Kingfisher Coastline Medium, three-piece, 4-6oz Graphite Rod, valued at R1145 and third heaviest shad will receive a Daiwa AG 6000 Reel valued at R598. Please note that all shad (fresh) must be weighed at either, The Kingfisher, 53 Hunter Street or Tackle Centre, Old Fort Road or The Fishing Tackle Shop, Warner Beach during trading hours.
Please remember there is a bag limit of four and the minimum size is 30cm and that the season closes 30 September and re-opens 1 December 2015.
(File Photo: Gallo Images)
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