Durban pompano and grunter action

North

An average week of fishing on the KZN north coast as few anglers managed to put fish on the table or put their camera to use. Most reports included smaller gamefish caught on spinning tackle, with a small portion of the catches being taken on bait. Some excellent sized wave garrick have been taken on smaller Maria Spoons and 4" drop-shot fished on light jig heads. A significantly lower number of stumpnose and speckled snapper were landed. However, an equally as fun species has made for a fair replacement. Although not as good eating as the aforementioned species, bonefish have managed to provide hours if not days of fun to anglers on light tackle who enjoy a decent fight when nothing else is on the bite. Cape Vidal saw some good edibles the whole week despite the seas being slightly up. Lantern fish, small kob, rockcod and also some decent stumpnose have been caught regularly. Red-eye cutlet and chokka baits have produced good numbers and mackerel head being the bait of choice for the rockcod. Richards Bay had good catches of a variety of rockcod and a variety of other smaller edibles. Larger baits such as mackerel head or large sardine baits have definitely seen the bulk of larger fish such as rockcod. These baits need to be presented on the correct hook and leader in order to ensure a good hook-up as well as a natural movement on the bait. The hook needs to sit proud and well exposed to make better hook-ups and easier hook set on lighter tackle. The lightest leader possible for the application should be used, to allow for free movement, as well as being less visible to a weary fish.

Central

At Ballito a good presence of pompano, grey sharks and brown skates was experienced over the weekend as well as some nice Natal snoek off the rocks. There have been far better sightings of snoek in the general Ballito/Salt Rock area which seem to have been targeted excessively over the last week on 10/11ft spinning outfits. The preferred set-up for anglers targeting snoek only would be a far lighter set-up as opposed to one for the use for kingfish etc. Daiwa's Lexa 10 and 11ft 2oz rods are ideal for the light spoons required for these fish and will cast anything as low as 14g fairly well. Many anglers will fish with as little as 10lb braid in order to attain maximum distance. However, the average still remains at between 15-20lb braid. The thinner braids such as Mustad Wish and Gator Braid will help with casting distance as well. Umhlanga Lighthouse produced the odd small grey shark, shad and other juvenile shark species such as hammerhead sharks. Red-eye and chokka baits worked well for smaller edibles and mackerel for the larger sharks.
Blue Lagoon saw a few shad and kingies in the mornings and some pompano during the daylight hours. Sea lice being the preferred baits, followed by red-eye head or small chokka baits. A few anglers also managed a few snoek on spoon to the right of the pier, with some anglers managing two and three at a time. Again, these fish are being landed on small spoons which still have a decent weight to them such as the Maria or Kingfisher Pro Jet Spoons. Durban beachfront has also seen some very nice catches of pompano over the last week, as well as its fair share of grunter. Both of these species have been taken on smaller chokka baits or sea lice, if the angler can find a few. Cracker has also been effective if used fresh. Cracker should be kept in well oxygenated sea water in a bucket free to swim around. The piers have fished well consistently and have produced a wide variety of species. The bulk of these have been grunter, pompano, shad, sole and also a few redfish such as santer.  

South

Further down towards the Bluff, we have had good feedback from spearfishermen regarding couta as well as snoek and kingfish. A few anglers have fished with live baits around the Cave Rock area and managed to get into some decent rockcod and kingfish. Toti and Warner Beach have both seen kingfish early in the mornings on bait and drop-shot, as well as the odd big shad which have been caught just before sunrise on most days. Umkomaas had its regulars bending with some nice grunter, pompano and stumpnose.  Snapper salmon have been plentiful on most days too. Anglers casting further have also managed to land some decent brown skates, which was made possible with the use of braid for added distance on the casts. Scottburgh was off the bite for the majority of the weekend and anglers only managed a few smaller skates. However, the week has fished well and a decent amount of fish were landed, including a few nice brown skates between 12 and 16kg. A few grey sharks were also landed earlier on in the week. Umdoni Point had good action with anglers spinning for snoek, bonito and couta. One couta was landed, a few snoek and one or two bonito which were handed on as bait. Margate had good shad and bronze bream fishing for most of the week. The shad were small, but plentiful. Port St John's has also had a bit of a slow week, with kob making up the bulk of the catches reported.  

Next month will see Pumula on the KZN south coast hosting the annual Quattro King of the Sea fishing contest.

Contact [email protected] to enter the Pumula event scheduled for 23 and 24 May.

The 2015 Inanda Bass Classic will be held at Inanda Dam over the first long weekend in May 2015.

Friday 1 May 2015 will be the show day where our sponsors will display and sell some of their goodies.

Entry forms are available at www.inandabassclassic.co.za or from Ken Ainslie who can be contacted on 031 205 3777.

(File Photo: Gallo Images)

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