Huge garrick at Richards Bay

Kosi Bay - Early in the week before the big seas rolled through, Kosi saw some good catches of edible fish on the high tide. Reported catches included stumpnose, kob, shad and plenty of wave garrick. The lakes have still managed to keep anglers busy with fair sized grunter and kingfish. There have been a few smashes on the surface in the lakes, which have sent mullet and other small baitfish flying in every direction. When this happens, make sure to keep a rod and reel ready to throw plugs or poppers to try hook into one of these kingfish which are hunting bait. Rattler stick baits and poppers will do the trick.

Cape Vidal - This spot has been producing dozens of undersized shad recently, with the odd kingie coming out on smaller spoons in the bay while spinning for shad. Pro Jet spoons and Spanyid maniac spoons have been working well, skipped fast along the surface. Live mullet has also caught the odd kingie.

Richards Bay - Very good catches of grunter, salmon and garrick have been reported from the Richards Bay area over the last week. North coast angler, Dave Pereira, caught an awesome Garrick of 16.2 kg on ultra- light 4kg Triple Fish line using a live shad as bait. It was hooked at 06h15 and took 25 minutes to land. Unfortunately, this fish could not be released because of the lengthy fight as well as the fact that it was hooked in the gut. The SA record garrick of 17.6kg was caught in 1976. These fish have showed no sign of slowing down and with the weather expected over the next week, anglers should consider staying within the bay for safety and hopefully land a few of these hungry garrick.

Ballito - One of the only hot spots for inedibles over the last week, Ballito has certainly been at the top of the list for spots on the north coast for species such as grey sharks and brown skates. These came out mainly earlier on in the week in the flat seas, but remained on the bite at intervals during the rough seas. Other edibles were slower to bite, but good bronze bream and stumpnose were landed throughout the days on chokka baits and prawn baits.

Virginia - Anglers had good success throughout last week fishing for shad on bait, with a decent amount of larger shad being caught towards the end of the week on live baits and larger sardine baits. The odd brown skate found its way to shore, but nothing else as far as reports indicate.

Blue Lagoon - Anglers spinning off the beach had fun with juvenile kingies on McArthy drop-shot and also small spoons during the week. A few shad have also been landed from the beach on bait and some smaller specimen on spoons.

Durban - Beaches fished relatively well throughout the week with the exception of the stretch of beach from North Pier to Ushaka, which seems to be very silted up with a black sludge which sticks to the fishing line and guides. Fishing has come to a standstill, but after the big seas predicted mid-week, the sea should be back to normal and fishing well again by the weekend. Sherwen Naidoo landed four brusher at Twini Beach on Saturday the 27th using crab as bait. That’s great fishing - well done!

(File Photo:Freespool)

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