Dorado and sailfish off Sodwana
Our real KwaZulu-Natal summer ski-boat fishing is here with plenty of our bigger pelagic fish making an appearance around the north coast as well as off Durban.
Starting off at Sodwana, anglers have been rewarded with brilliant catches of dorado, sailfish and tuna. Most anglers have reported these catches on pink and blue hard plastic diving lures, trawled along dirty water lines.
A little further south at Cape Vidal and St Lucia the anglers are really getting stretched by big tuna and a few couta. The dorado bites are also on the rise in the deeper water. The couta have been caught on fast trawled walla-walla. Fast trawling orange and pink lures are working well for the wahoo. Anglers who are having problems with landing these fish and losing lures are reminded to use a short length of single strand wire, such as American Fishing Wire, to allow the angler to get a better hook-up without getting cut off by the incredibly sharp teeth that the wahoo is known for. If you are in a well-known wahoo area, it is always good to keep these traces on your lures, just in case you hook one.
Zinkwazi has unfortunately been a bit rough this week, but anglers have still braved the conditions in order to find their favourite fish. Paddlers fit enough to get into the deeper water are getting a few dorado. With the ski-boats able to get out to the ships, they are reporting good numbers of big dorado in the area, with a few sailfish in between. This is a good sign that the season is in swing. A few Natal snoek are still coming out on sardine cutlets rigged with bright skirts.
Off Tinley Manor there is still plenty of snoek around. Bigger fish such as tuna have been reported as well.
Durban has once again stunned us with what it has to offer with good catches of tuna from both ski-boats and kayaks. There are plenty of dorado off the anchored cargo ships and a few billfish lurking around. A good trick to catching the dorado is to use one live maasbanker on a light spinning rod, small grinder and braid. Throwing the maasbanker directly at the shoal will create a lot of interest and a good fight. This is going back to basics with a light tackle touch. The fight will be outstanding and will be a good story to tell.
Anglers on kayaks are catching good amounts ofsSnoek with the Strike Pro Magic Minnow in the new UV clear colour. This lure shines a brilliant blue in the water, attracting a lot of interest from the fish.
There are still a lot of good reports of daga salmon coming in from our bottom fishing anglers further down south. Most catches are now later in the evening. There are still a lot of reports of good bottom fishing and plenty of tuna coming out in the Port Shepstone and Shelley Beach areas. Anglers are also having fun targeting the odd yellowtail that are cruising around the area, often hitting bottom fishing baits either on the way down or on the way up. Double-up on yellowtail does occur quite often as most traces have more than one baited hook. These fish can give the angler a hard time as they are shoaling fish. They tend to fight together rather than against each other.
A little further south at Cape Vidal and St Lucia the anglers are really getting stretched by big tuna and a few couta. The dorado bites are also on the rise in the deeper water. The couta have been caught on fast trawled walla-walla. Fast trawling orange and pink lures are working well for the wahoo. Anglers who are having problems with landing these fish and losing lures are reminded to use a short length of single strand wire, such as American Fishing Wire, to allow the angler to get a better hook-up without getting cut off by the incredibly sharp teeth that the wahoo is known for. If you are in a well-known wahoo area, it is always good to keep these traces on your lures, just in case you hook one.
Zinkwazi has unfortunately been a bit rough this week, but anglers have still braved the conditions in order to find their favourite fish. Paddlers fit enough to get into the deeper water are getting a few dorado. With the ski-boats able to get out to the ships, they are reporting good numbers of big dorado in the area, with a few sailfish in between. This is a good sign that the season is in swing. A few Natal snoek are still coming out on sardine cutlets rigged with bright skirts.
Off Tinley Manor there is still plenty of snoek around. Bigger fish such as tuna have been reported as well.
Durban has once again stunned us with what it has to offer with good catches of tuna from both ski-boats and kayaks. There are plenty of dorado off the anchored cargo ships and a few billfish lurking around. A good trick to catching the dorado is to use one live maasbanker on a light spinning rod, small grinder and braid. Throwing the maasbanker directly at the shoal will create a lot of interest and a good fight. This is going back to basics with a light tackle touch. The fight will be outstanding and will be a good story to tell.
Anglers on kayaks are catching good amounts ofsSnoek with the Strike Pro Magic Minnow in the new UV clear colour. This lure shines a brilliant blue in the water, attracting a lot of interest from the fish.
There are still a lot of good reports of daga salmon coming in from our bottom fishing anglers further down south. Most catches are now later in the evening. There are still a lot of reports of good bottom fishing and plenty of tuna coming out in the Port Shepstone and Shelley Beach areas. Anglers are also having fun targeting the odd yellowtail that are cruising around the area, often hitting bottom fishing baits either on the way down or on the way up. Double-up on yellowtail does occur quite often as most traces have more than one baited hook. These fish can give the angler a hard time as they are shoaling fish. They tend to fight together rather than against each other.
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