Durban daga and geelbek action

North Coast - Fished decently over the weekend, but had below average fishing throughout the week. The odd ski-boater hooked into some nice couta and tuna, but they were unfortunately few and far between. In the shallows, Natal snoek were plentiful and had it not been for the lack of fishable days, a big dent in the population would have been made. There have been plenty of reports of excellent bottom fishing up north with catches of musselcracker on live baits and also accidentally caught on deep trawled couta baits. There were a number of sailfish caught in the deep, but nothing over 30kg. All were caught on Kingfisher Rattlers and Konas. Mark de la Hey of FreeSpool landed an amberjack in the deep off Tugela and you can see both angler and fish in our thumbnail photo.

Central Coast - Anglers have targeted snoek, tuna and bottoms with some success. The fishing has been tough, but persistence has played off. Snoek have been caught off Tinley Manor on Strike Pro Magic minnows and Halco divers. Bottom fishing is the main practice of late, with excellent reports from all over the Durban area ranging from daga and geelbek to musselcracker and slinger.

South Coast - From around Hiberdene there have been reports of garrick being hooked on the backline. Smaller shad (please make sure they are size) have been used as bait as they are easily attained in the same area as the garrick. Bottom fishing has settled slightly as catches of larger species have been less common throughout the week except for the catches of musselcracker and yellowtail which have been plentiful.

I tried my luck chasing tuna on Monday morning off Durban. Despite finding loads of dolphins and having both live and artificial bait, I ended up drawing a blank. It was a far cry from my garrick success with the FreeSpool team off Zinkwazi last month. You can see that successful trip on DSTV channel 208 at 7pm tonight.

(File Photo:FreeSpool)

Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa