Durban beachfront shad success

With spring on its way along with the fish, anglers have been experiencing some excellent fishing during the northeasterly winds.

Kosi Bay started off with some good sized honeycomb rays and sandsharks on larger baits. Bloody throw baits and slide baits seem to be doing well. The smaller fish are also available for light tackle anglers to have fun with.

Cape Vidal has seen plenty of shad that have been keeping anglers busy for hours on end. This is one of the most popular spots along our coast during this time of the year as just about anybody can expect to catch shad along with other species for most of the day. During the evenings there have been quite a few rockcod and cave bass caught close to the rocks. For those spinning, some good reports of Natal snoek action have come in. The kingies are also starting to turn on slowly but surely, with more and more being reported by the week.  

Good catches of raggies have been seen in the general Zululand area too, which is nice to see for this time of the year.

Richards Bay was up to its usual tricks, having dozens of diamond skates and a fair amount of honeycombs being landed. Shad baits have worked best for these larger species. Shad head is a firm favourite for many anglers, rigged on a Mustad Circle hook and you're ready to go. South of Richards Bay saw the usual species being milkies, shad and a few diamonds. Lucky anglers also managed a few raggies in the area. 

Tugela Mouth had a fair amount of action, not only at the river mouth but also north and south of the mouth. These areas saw quite a few anglers over the weekend and had catches of kob and garrick reported.  

Salt Rock saw a few anglers trying their luck on spoon, only some of which being successful, with Natal snoek being the main target species in this area.

Ballito had a good run of non-edibles over the weekend with competition anglers making good use of the water conditions.  

The Durban area has seen good activity over the last week, with the bulk of which being mainly shad. The beachfront saw a few grey sharks, blue skates and diamond skates during the week in the northeasterly winds. Most of the fish were caught on mackerel.

Grey sharks, diamonds and honeycombs were caught at Toti during the week and a few more during the weekend. Many anglers will eagerly be awaiting the brown skates which are extremely popular in the Toti area from later on in September through to April or so.

Scottburgh Point saw a fair share of action over the last week, with quite a few fish being landed. Shad, grey sharks, blue skates and diamond skates were landed fairly regularly by anglers on throw baits as well as slide baits. Many of the spots around Scottburgh have been producing grey sharks as well.

Port Shepstone has been relatively quiet recently, producing only a few bronze bream, shad, kob and the occasional garrick.

Terry Nel has given us the following news concerning fishing at Port Edward over the past week: August and September are normally good fishing months in the year, this year certainly being no exception to the rule. Reasons could be the extreme shad run we have had over the past few months and in very favourable weather conditions, larger fish have come into our waters to feed on all the baitfish and shad around. Kob, geelbek, garrick, yellowfin tuna and various shark species have all made a great appearance and anglers lucky enough to have been here can all take home the Port Edward fishing experience as one of the best it has been. Activity is still at its peak and over the week a number of garrick, hammerhead sharks and blue skates have been caught and in one evening, three raggedtooth sharks were landed at Splash Rock. Estuary fishing has picked up, so river fishermen can expect yet another good season.

North of Port St John's the shad are so plentiful that they have been considered a pest. The odd good sized raggie has been landed on slide baits. Further south both shad and garrick have been fairly large and plentiful. Raggies and hammerhead sharks have also been caught here and there.

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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