Good fishing off Umdloti
We have heard of good fishing off Umdloti this past week.
North
The north coast areas such as Sodwana have been quiet recently, with very few boats launching. The anglers fishing off the bait-balls managed to rack up the fish, with Natal snoek being the most frequently caught, even in the deeper water. Further down at Richards Bay, anglers have been launching on any day fishable in order to target billfish and tuna, and have had some excellent catches. Dorado have also been plentiful in these areas and seem to be much bigger than before. Most of the bigger tuna which have come out over the last week have been on live baits and have been mostly from Zinkwazi down to the Westbrook area.
Central
Some of the bigger fish have also been landed from Westbrook down to Durban, however these have been with the dolphins using either live bait or Rattler Poppers etc. The beauty of live bait fishing is the angler is playing an open field and has the ability to fish one bait and target a variety of species at the same time. Durban has had some very good days of fishing over the last week and anglers who braved the less than desirable conditions were rewarded with some good fish. Umdloti had everything from dorado to couta, sailies and tuna, the problem was the sharks, but other than that, many fish were landed. In these situations anglers need to remember to use slightly heavier tackle in order to avoid wasting fish. You need to boat the fish quickly in order to limit the risk of a shark hitting it. Number One saw some small tuna early in the mornings and anglers who travelled to the ships caught some very nice tuna and wahoo. Aliwal Shoal has produced a mixed bag of gamefish over the last week. Species like snoek, couta, tuna and kingfish have all been landed. Artificial lures produced good results in the deeper water, while live baits produced some very nice results in the shallows. In the dirtier conditions which we have been experiencing recently, a small green duster in front of your live bait will be almost guaranteed to get a bite quicker than a plain live bait.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa
The north coast areas such as Sodwana have been quiet recently, with very few boats launching. The anglers fishing off the bait-balls managed to rack up the fish, with Natal snoek being the most frequently caught, even in the deeper water. Further down at Richards Bay, anglers have been launching on any day fishable in order to target billfish and tuna, and have had some excellent catches. Dorado have also been plentiful in these areas and seem to be much bigger than before. Most of the bigger tuna which have come out over the last week have been on live baits and have been mostly from Zinkwazi down to the Westbrook area.
Central
Some of the bigger fish have also been landed from Westbrook down to Durban, however these have been with the dolphins using either live bait or Rattler Poppers etc. The beauty of live bait fishing is the angler is playing an open field and has the ability to fish one bait and target a variety of species at the same time. Durban has had some very good days of fishing over the last week and anglers who braved the less than desirable conditions were rewarded with some good fish. Umdloti had everything from dorado to couta, sailies and tuna, the problem was the sharks, but other than that, many fish were landed. In these situations anglers need to remember to use slightly heavier tackle in order to avoid wasting fish. You need to boat the fish quickly in order to limit the risk of a shark hitting it. Number One saw some small tuna early in the mornings and anglers who travelled to the ships caught some very nice tuna and wahoo. Aliwal Shoal has produced a mixed bag of gamefish over the last week. Species like snoek, couta, tuna and kingfish have all been landed. Artificial lures produced good results in the deeper water, while live baits produced some very nice results in the shallows. In the dirtier conditions which we have been experiencing recently, a small green duster in front of your live bait will be almost guaranteed to get a bite quicker than a plain live bait.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa