Excellent fishing off the Bluff
We have heard of very good bottom fishing for deep sea anglers off the Bluff this past week.
North
An excellent week of ski-boat fishing has passed on the upper north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, with charter boats cleaning up with Natal snoek, tuna, wahoo and some smaller couta. Sodwana has seen the lion’s share of these catches, but Cape Vidal is starting to produce much more action recently too. The best way to locate these summer fish is to trawl Rattlers and Konas through most of the popular spots if possible, and when the fish are located, live bait can be used to pick off the larger species. This method can also be used to cover ground with the possibility of boating a fish or two between spots, particularly when spending a day on the water doing bottom fishing. Garrick are still coming out in good numbers in the Zinkwazi/Tugela area, which are possible return shoals traveling back down the coast to cooler waters. For catch and release purposes, a circle hook is preferred. Mustads new Tuna Circle is by far the most popular choice for this application, taking the place of the ever so popular Z-Steel circles.
Central
There has been excellent bottom fishing off Durban over the last week, including a number of amberjack and copper steenbras landed on the slightly deeper wrecks. Some huge soldiers have been coming out on the deeper marks too, which have been an excellent fight for anglers using lighter tackle. Slightly more shark activity has been reported in the shallower waters off Durban, so heavy tackle is advised if targeting larger species. The Bluff has once again come to life and is the top bottom fishing spot over the last week. Numerous musselcracker, soldiers, rockcod and copper steenbras have been boated.
South
From Toti to Margate, the bottom fish have also come to life and have kept anglers busy all week. Apart from that, there have been very few gamefish apart from the odd yellowfin tuna and an abundance of sarda-sarda which have been taking Daisy Chain readily. There have been a few catches of yellowtail on the shallow marks which have taken baits intended for geelbek and daga salmon.
(File Photo: Gallo Images)
Twitter - @kingfisherdaiwa @SportswaveAndre
Facebook - ECRSportswave
An excellent week of ski-boat fishing has passed on the upper north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, with charter boats cleaning up with Natal snoek, tuna, wahoo and some smaller couta. Sodwana has seen the lion’s share of these catches, but Cape Vidal is starting to produce much more action recently too. The best way to locate these summer fish is to trawl Rattlers and Konas through most of the popular spots if possible, and when the fish are located, live bait can be used to pick off the larger species. This method can also be used to cover ground with the possibility of boating a fish or two between spots, particularly when spending a day on the water doing bottom fishing. Garrick are still coming out in good numbers in the Zinkwazi/Tugela area, which are possible return shoals traveling back down the coast to cooler waters. For catch and release purposes, a circle hook is preferred. Mustads new Tuna Circle is by far the most popular choice for this application, taking the place of the ever so popular Z-Steel circles.
Central
There has been excellent bottom fishing off Durban over the last week, including a number of amberjack and copper steenbras landed on the slightly deeper wrecks. Some huge soldiers have been coming out on the deeper marks too, which have been an excellent fight for anglers using lighter tackle. Slightly more shark activity has been reported in the shallower waters off Durban, so heavy tackle is advised if targeting larger species. The Bluff has once again come to life and is the top bottom fishing spot over the last week. Numerous musselcracker, soldiers, rockcod and copper steenbras have been boated.
South
From Toti to Margate, the bottom fish have also come to life and have kept anglers busy all week. Apart from that, there have been very few gamefish apart from the odd yellowfin tuna and an abundance of sarda-sarda which have been taking Daisy Chain readily. There have been a few catches of yellowtail on the shallow marks which have taken baits intended for geelbek and daga salmon.
(File Photo: Gallo Images)
Twitter - @kingfisherdaiwa @SportswaveAndre
Facebook - ECRSportswave