Kingfish action at Salt Rock
Kosi Bay - From the most northern stretch of Kosi Bay through to Cape Vidal there have been thousands of shad all between 25cm and 40cm in massive shoals frequenting the shallows throughout the day. These fish travel way into Mozambique and can be caught throughout the season up until around the end of November or even into December. As the water heats up these fish move back down the coast towards the Transkei where they will spend the summer months. Kosi Bay has been a very popular spot over the years for live bait fishing with shad as bait. Species to be expected to eat them are kingfish, predominantly the larger sort such as the giant trevally, sharks such as blackfin, kob and even the occasional garrick.
Cape Vidal - Reports suggest a large spread of shad in the low light sessions, on bait only. As the sun rises they have also taken Falcon spoons. A number of reports included garrick sightings and a few that have been landed as well. These fish have been landed on live shad. Smaller kob have been landed during the evenings on chokka throw baits.
Richards Bay - The harbour has produced some fine angling over the last week, yielding some excellent kob and grunter. The main target species however seems to be garrick which have taken surface lures and live baits. Anglers should take as much time as possible on the water at this time of the year as the garrick tend to move on quite soon. Angling in the surf has been fruitful as well with good catches of kob and even geelbek.
Tugela - This area has with no surprise been on top form with many reports of kob up to 15kg and also good garrick catches along the stretch of the south bank. There had been a slight issue with debris in the water from the river which seems to have subsided now. Angling has become a pleasure in this Tugela area and the days to come should make thss your number one destination if kob and garrick are on your list.
Zinkwazi - This stretch has been a bit quiet over the last week with Tuesday being the most productive day's angling with reports of grey sharks and blue rays being landed on smaller baits.
Salt Rock - Some nice kingfish of between 3 and 5kg were landed in the bay at Salt Rock over the last week. They have taken both baits and paddletails in the 4" range. There were also a few nice grey sharks caught off the point of the pool.
Ballito - This spot has had its ups and downs throughout the week with the fishing going in the shad angler’s favour. Falcon spoons once again being the culprit. Anglers using red eye or Japanese mackerel as bait have landed bigger fish.
La Mercy - Locals have used bait boats to drop baits out deep for bigger species with great success. Using bonito as bait, anglers have hooked into some serious blackfin sharks using this method.
Blue Lagoon - Plenty of shad on bait in this area with decent numbers being landed on spoon as well. There have been more catches of garrick recently which seem to be in full force now. On the inside of the mouth there have been many catches of good size perch which have been landed on sardine or red eye.
Durban - There have been reports of some small tropical yellowtail being landed off the piers on baits and live baits. Shad anglers have had their load of fish daily and sizes still seem to be around 300mm-350mm or so. Stumpies have been coming out off Vetch's reef in the evenings. Best presentation seems to be drift sea lice on a Mustad Big Gun 2/0. Kob have been sighted around Addington wreck and Vetch's pier as well, which should be on the bite with this week's weather forecast.
Bluff - Good conditions to be expected throughout this week to favour the Bluff anglers. Thursday's westerly will put the kingfish on the bite and hopefully some nice bronze bream too. There have been reports of kingies between 1kg and 3kg that were landed on baits intended for kob. Catches of kob have been few and far between, but still there are some around. The kob that were landed ranged between 3kg and 7kg. Some very respectable bronze bream were landed closer towards the South Pier.
Toti - Anglers around Toti found themselves having fun with shad throughout the week. Catches of garrick were slower than before.
Warner Beach - Smaller fish have been landed over the last week, but plenty all around this area. Kob under 5kg were seen by a few, landed on chokka and red eye throw baits. Garrick were landed on live shad in the mornings and later on in the afternoons a few anglers had some fun with the blue rays.
Umkomaas - Water conditions have been good recently and this has resulted in good catches of kob and also garrick. There have been reports of good sized kob in the river which have taken live mullet and McArthy Paddletails as well. Anglers who targeted inedibles also hooked into a few blue rays and grey sharks on the south bank of the river.
Scottburgh - Good action for the fishermen off Scottborough Point on the weekend and some excellent fun with grey sharks and blue rays during the week. Smaller kingies have been targeted heavily on paddletails and spoons throughout the week and reports suggest many strikes have been had on a faster retrieve. These fish hunt at high speeds and cannot be given much time to scrutinise the lures. A faster retrieve will almost always get a better bite.
Mtwalume River - Towards flat rocks this has been relatively quiet with a few small edible fish and at the station a few shad were landed on bait. There have been plenty of karanteen from the rocks, which is good news for anglers looking to target bigger species with live bait. North of the tidal pool anglers hooked into good numbers of zebrafish and blacktail and Compound Bay produced some shad, but nothing much else to talk of. Spring tides allowed for plenty of crayfish exposure so anglers lucky enough to get their hands on some of this awesome bait will be first in line for some brusher and bronze bream.
Members of the FreeSpool team are fishing in the Transkei this week and I have seen a photo of a hammerhead shark landed off the rocks.
(File Photo:Gallo Images)
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa