Grunter biting at Umgababa

North

Kosi Bay - The lakes have fished much slower than usual for this time of the year, which has meant most anglers have resorted to light tackle rock and surf angling. Over the last week however, the lakes have come to life again and anglers have found themselves fishing more frequently in the lakes than before. A wide variety of species have been caught, with the two main target species being grunter and rock salmon. Spinning enthusiasts have struggled somewhat, while anglers using prawn, sardine and even cracker have had some extremely pleasing results. In the surf, most reports have been of small brown skates, smaller edibles and the odd blackfin shark.  

Cape Vidal - This area saw plenty of edibles at night, along the sand banks shallower in. Most of the fish caught were small stumpies, grunter and pompano. Very few fish made size apart from a few good pompano of around 5kg. The only inedibles apart from the milkies were the honeycombs rays and brown skates which were few and far between, but made good size.

Richards Bay - This stretch had a very good run of flatfish which were surprisingly caught on mainly mackerel as far as reports indicate. The bulk of flatfish landed were brown skates and diamonds, with a few honeycombs in the mix as well. Edibles were scarce and despite the high number of anglers fishing for them, only a few were landed. These few were mainly small grunter and snapper salmon. The bulk of the flatfish that have been frequenting the Mtunzini area seem to have moved slightly further south and have been caught in large numbers around Amatikulu. Reports from the locals indicate catches of diamond rays and brown skates were not uncommon. Anglers in this area using the Daiwa Catalina and Daiwa Saltist grinders have managed to land these fish in half the time and have lines back in the water, meaning no time is wasted and more fish are landed per session.

Ballito - This spot had an excellent run of grey sharks towards the end of the week and over the weekend, with a fair amount of diamond rays being landed too. During the day, anglers saw quite a few catches of pompano on sea lice. This is a good sign as these fish were late to arrive in our waters.

Central

The entire stretch from Blue Lagoon down to the Bluff has fished relatively well and yielded decent catches of edibles such as grunter, cave bass, snapper salmon and pompano. The water has been somewhat off colour and has not been that productive with flatfish or Sharks. The unusually high water temperature may also have something to do with this. The only inedibles to be caught were the odd milkies and brown skates.  Lucky anglers managed a diamond ray or two over the weekend.

South

Toti and Winkelspruit have both produced good diamond rays and the odd large honeycomb on bigger baits. Some very nice shad were also caught at Winkelspruit. Umgababa saw a wide variety of species as well as good sized grunter caught on cracker and sardine baits in the mornings. As usual, Umkomaas produced the goods and most anglers who paid the river mouth a visit did not come home empty handed. Both kob and grunter have both been around the 2-3kg mark and have been present the entire week. The larger fish seem to be feeding in slightly deeper water which means anglers are forced to make extra-long casts. Braided line is important here, and many anglers have opted to go down to as little as 20lb Gatorbraid to increase casting distance. The odd grey shark has also been landed around Umkomaas, with baits which have been stuffed with floatation. Hibberdene has been fishing very well and has produced many rock fish such as bronze bream and stone bream. The best bait in these areas has still been red prawn or cracker. A mixture of the two on a Mustad Red Bait holder is deadly. Umzumbe had quite a bit of action off the point with grey sharks on mackerel head baits. Smaller edibles such as grunter were also caught in the area fishing into the evenings. Port Shepstone had good numbers of hound sharks at night and plenty of bronze bream and hammerhead sharks during the mornings and into the day.
Port St John's produced some good fish on larger slide baits throughout the week, mainly grey sharks and hammerhead sharks. The deeper water points seem to producing better bites. The water south of Port St John's is starting to cool drastically, but is still very clean, which means that fish will begin to make their way back up the coast for their annual trip.

Reminder - Imperial Nissan Zululand Couta Classic at Mtunzini on 25 and 26 April 2015.

For more details on this KZN north coast deep sea fishing competition you can contact Hylton on 078 854 9358 or Rod on 083 587 3990.

May 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)

Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa