KZN rock and surf fishing update

Kosi Bay - The lakes were responsible for most of the reports this week, showing that there are plenty of fish to be caught at this time of year. Variety is definitely not an issue, having seen anything from rock salmon to rock sod, grunter to springer and everything in between. There are a lot of fish being landed on artificials in the afternoons, which have been thoroughly enjoyed on light tackle. Much of the action has been seen on small diving lures fished with erratic movement with pauses between twitches. As the light disappears a slower more constant retrieve becomes more effective. On the surf side, no real fireworks to speak of, however there have been some fairly decent edibles and sand sharks which were caught later on in the week.

Cape Vidal - This area saw a few more catches of edibles such as stumpies, kingies and pompano, mostly on chokka baits as well as prawn baits. At night there have been a fair amount of raggies that have been caught off the ledges, using throw baits and larger slide baits. The real action happened down in the Mtunzini area, with literally hundreds of fish being landed. Competition anglers got stuck in during a diamond smash over the weekend and managed to rack up lots of these flatfish.

Richards Bay - This spot produced some good grunter in the surf, along with a number of small spinner sharks. Most shad anglers had a good time. However, the size of the shad left much to be desired. Good reports from the harbour too, with many fish being taken on artificials. A very respectable blacktip kingie of 4.2kg was landed on the weekend on a Daiwa Megaforce 7ft light rod with a Daiwa Procaster 2500 spinning reel. These fish are excellent fighters and will give the angler a good rev on any tackle used.

Ballito/Umhlanga/Durban - Reports have been slow, but Ballito had the best of them with some decent diamond skates as well as some grey sharks. The Umhlanga area only produced the odd shad and stumpie off the rocks, with hardly any bites on large baits. Some anglers caught a Natal snoek or two on spinning tackle off the rocks in the Umhlanga area, which is nice to see. The snoek have been scarce, but have recently started to make an appearance again. Towards the Durban area things started to heat up a bit, with good reports throughout the week. The beaches have produced a mixed bag of edibles as well as some inedibles. Most inedibles were landed in the NE winds that blew over the end of the week and into the weekend, and consisted of mainly diamond and brown rays. The edibles which came out were of impressive size and were taken on most chokka and red-eye baits. The late afternoons seemed to be the most productive time of day. Be sure to head down to the uShaka stretch after two days of NE winds to take part in the flatfish runs and enjoy a lovely afternoon on the beach with your family. The Bluff had a good run of grey sharks, which were caught on Thursday afternoon on live baits as well as larger throw baits.

Toti and Warner Beach - The beach here also had a mixed bag of fish, being made up of mainly inedibles. Warner Beach, being the stumpie hotspot, saw quite a few decent stumpnose as well as shad early in the mornings. Sea lice have been the most effective bait.

Scottburgh - This stretch was quieter than usual, but still managed to produce a handful of sharks and flatfish.  Umkomaas, however, saw plenty of brown rays and sandies throughout the week. Smaller kingies were also present and took artificials and small baits.

Baizley - This area was on fire on Saturday and Sunday, producing plenty of diamond rays, sandies and browns, all of the usual summer suspects.

Margate - Still worth trying this area, with some bigger shad, bronze bream and even pompano landed. Once again, the early risers have been responsible for most of the damage. Munster has also woken up with good reports of bronze bream, stone bream and blacktail.

Transkei - Port St John's is working well and has pleased most anglers. Good shad, many small kob, kingies as well as garrick on plug. Smaller kingies have been landed in good numbers in the estuaries by anglers using live mullet or artificials. Mazeppa Bay has shown off some of its larger garrick, which have taken live shad or plugs.

(File Photo: Gallo Images)

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