Snoek feeding well off Umdloti
Ski-boat angling started off relatively slowly last week, with only a few fish being landed at Maphelane, Cape Vidal and off Durban.
It didn't take much to get the ski-boaters on the water and towards the end of the week and over the weekend many fish saw the gaff, mainly at Cape Vidal and St Lucia. Good catches of wahoo and couta were seen at St Lucia, mostly caught on strip baits and live baits.
Just a tip for the wahoo - when using lures and live bait in an area which is known to produce wahoo or has been producing wahoo recently, all lures and live baits should be fished with steel trace. Wahoo have some of the sharpest teeth in the ocean and will not hesitate to bite straight through even 1mm Flourocarbon. For diving lures such as Rattlers, a minimum of No. 6 wire should be used, and on Konas and surface lures, no less than 150lb Carbon Coated wire. Don't take a chance, because even a wahoo of 10kg will give you a fight that you would not want to miss out on!
Due to the "up and down" seas over the last week in Durban, anglers have had to be fussy about launch days, luckily the sea became very fishable on Thursday and Friday and also saw Sunday being an incredible day. The weekend was touch and go, but ended up being fishable. Boats saw wahoo, tuna, couta, Natal snoek and sailfish all over the Ballito, Westbrook, Umdloti and Umhlanga area. Poobal Govender managed to pull off a win at the Westbrook Ski Boat Club Monthly Mug with a haul of wahoo and tuna which were all caught on shallow diving lures along the Umdloti stretch. Tuna were caught by the shoal and dorado surprisingly enough were still coming out in dribs and drabs.
The snoek were in full force at first light off Umdloti where they seemed to be feeding heavily on the shoals of anchovies in the water. Most of these snoek were caught on small Rattlers, Strike Pro Magic Minnows and small spoons such as the popular Anchovy spoon. A few boats also had fun with spoons at a few of the rips off Hyper-by-the-Sea.
Bottom fishING off Toti and Warner Beach area saw plenty of action, with most of the fish being reds and rockcod. South Coast anglers found themselves puzzling for amberjack and yellowtail, which were slow to bite but present nonetheless. Good trawl soldiers in the deep, the odd daga and geelbek and also good catches on trap sticks of tuna and wahoo.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @kingfisherdaiwa @SportswaveAndre
Just a tip for the wahoo - when using lures and live bait in an area which is known to produce wahoo or has been producing wahoo recently, all lures and live baits should be fished with steel trace. Wahoo have some of the sharpest teeth in the ocean and will not hesitate to bite straight through even 1mm Flourocarbon. For diving lures such as Rattlers, a minimum of No. 6 wire should be used, and on Konas and surface lures, no less than 150lb Carbon Coated wire. Don't take a chance, because even a wahoo of 10kg will give you a fight that you would not want to miss out on!
Due to the "up and down" seas over the last week in Durban, anglers have had to be fussy about launch days, luckily the sea became very fishable on Thursday and Friday and also saw Sunday being an incredible day. The weekend was touch and go, but ended up being fishable. Boats saw wahoo, tuna, couta, Natal snoek and sailfish all over the Ballito, Westbrook, Umdloti and Umhlanga area. Poobal Govender managed to pull off a win at the Westbrook Ski Boat Club Monthly Mug with a haul of wahoo and tuna which were all caught on shallow diving lures along the Umdloti stretch. Tuna were caught by the shoal and dorado surprisingly enough were still coming out in dribs and drabs.
The snoek were in full force at first light off Umdloti where they seemed to be feeding heavily on the shoals of anchovies in the water. Most of these snoek were caught on small Rattlers, Strike Pro Magic Minnows and small spoons such as the popular Anchovy spoon. A few boats also had fun with spoons at a few of the rips off Hyper-by-the-Sea.
Bottom fishING off Toti and Warner Beach area saw plenty of action, with most of the fish being reds and rockcod. South Coast anglers found themselves puzzling for amberjack and yellowtail, which were slow to bite but present nonetheless. Good trawl soldiers in the deep, the odd daga and geelbek and also good catches on trap sticks of tuna and wahoo.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @kingfisherdaiwa @SportswaveAndre