Good dorado fishing off Umhlanga
We have been told of good dorado and tuna fishing off Umhlanga and Durban this past week. Sodwana on the KZN north coast has seen good dorado, tuna and sailfish action this week.
As always at this time of the year we really begin to experience the best that our oceans can offer, although weather and seas being a little rough, reports of our big summer fish have been coming in very strong.
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, being trawled along dirty water lines.
A little further south by Cape Vidal and St Lucia the anglers are really getting stretched by big tuna and plenty of wahoo. Dorado bites are also on the rise in the deeper water. 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 using 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.
Zinkwazi has been a paddle-ski dream this past week with the water being slightly smaller, allowing paddlers and ski-boaters alike to get good catches of tuna. Paddlers fit enough to get into the deeper water are getting a few dorado, but with the ski-boats able to get out to the ships, they are reporting good numbers of big fish in the area, with a few sailfish in between. This is a good sign for a hopefully brilliant season. A few Natal snoek are still coming out on sardine cutlets rigged with bright skirts.
At 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 ski-boats and paddle-skis. There are plenty of dorado off the 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 paddle-skis are catching good amounts of snoek 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 geelbek and 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 good reports of bottom fishing and even the odd tuna coming out in the Port Shepstone/Shelly Beach area. Anglers are also having fun targeting the 15kg 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.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @kingfisherdaiwa @SportswaveAndre
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, being trawled along dirty water lines.
A little further south by Cape Vidal and St Lucia the anglers are really getting stretched by big tuna and plenty of wahoo. Dorado bites are also on the rise in the deeper water. 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 using 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.
Zinkwazi has been a paddle-ski dream this past week with the water being slightly smaller, allowing paddlers and ski-boaters alike to get good catches of tuna. Paddlers fit enough to get into the deeper water are getting a few dorado, but with the ski-boats able to get out to the ships, they are reporting good numbers of big fish in the area, with a few sailfish in between. This is a good sign for a hopefully brilliant season. A few Natal snoek are still coming out on sardine cutlets rigged with bright skirts.
At 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 ski-boats and paddle-skis. There are plenty of dorado off the 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 paddle-skis are catching good amounts of snoek 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 geelbek and 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 good reports of bottom fishing and even the odd tuna coming out in the Port Shepstone/Shelly Beach area. Anglers are also having fun targeting the 15kg 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.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @kingfisherdaiwa @SportswaveAndre