Still kob and garrick at Tugela

Still kob and garrick at Tugela

We have again been told of good garrick and kob action at Tugela during the past week.

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North
 
Kosi Bay has seen quite a few decent sized edibles over the last week, although the water has been very cold for this time of the year. There are a variety of summer species moving through slowly but surely, although there has been no shortage of shad and grunter.

Cape Vidal had an excellent weeks fishing recently which included edibles and inedibles. Blackfin sharks have been in the area and have taken live bait in most cases, with the larger throw baits being picked up occasionally.  Shad have been plentiful and have made many a proud youngster. These shad also make for a great slide bait for the blackfin sharks in this area. Remember that the shad that an angler uses as live bait should be counted as a part of their quota for the day. So if an angler uses two shad as bait, a further two shad are permitted to be taken. 

In Richards Bay on the North Banks, the odd large flatfish has been landed, mainly diamonds and honeycomb rays.  A fair number of extremely large flatfish were hooked, but not landed. Smaller grunter have been in the area too, feeding on smaller chokka baits. South of Richards Bay has seen far less flatfish activity over the last week.

The areas between Richards Bay and Zinkwazi have been very productive and have produced excellent numbers of grey sharks and larger shad. Both shad and grey sharks have been feeding on shad baits.

Tugela is still producing fair numbers of kob and garrick with a few good sized grey sharks appearing too.

Ballito has also had an excellent run of grey sharks and shad, with the odd kob being landed also.

Salt Rock and surrounding areas has had a terribly slow run with Natal snoek and shad recently, despite all of the anglers spinning and throwing baits. The only fish being reported in these areas have been the smaller bronze bream and other edibles.

Central

Durban has had a far better run of shad in various spots. Blue Lagoon has been great most mornings and afternoons, but has seen a far better result for larger shad in the afternoon sessions.  Blue Lagoon has also fished well in the afternoons for shad on spoon. In the week to come, the tides will be a lot better in the mornings, so be sure to make your way down to get in on the action before shad closed season commences.  The piers are also fishing relatively well and have not only produced shad, but also grunter, geelbek and smaller kob.  

Addington and Moyos Pier surroundings were where the action was, seeing sardines netted daily during the week. There was little action around the sardines. However, there were good numbers of shad and other edibles around. The shad have been much better sizes and have not been fussy on baits. Many anglers have been successful on sardine fillet, as well as mackerel fillet. Flatfish have failed to make a decent appearance in Durban over the last weeks, largely due to the amount of bait around, making feeding on anglers bait an unappetising meal.

A decent kob of 8kg was landed on the Bluff during the weekend. This fish was taken on a McArthy paddletail by an angler using the Daiwa Exceler 4000 reel, Exceler 11ft rod and Mustad Wish 28lb braid. The fish was safely released back to the water. Bronze bream were also landed during the week by anglers using light spinning outfits.  A light gauge hook is necessary for this style of fishing as penetration is important. A fine wire Demon Circle hook or other fine gauge style such as the Big Gun or Tarpon hooks is ideal.

South

Toti saw quite a few good sized kob at night on live baits and also shad cutlet baits. For those who have been visiting the deeper water points, grey sharks have been the main species landed during the evenings.

Scottburgh Point is back to original form, producing good catches of kob, garrick, shad, grey sharks and blue rays.  These fish are on and off the bite, so be patient and the fish will present themselves. Diamonds rays were also present and made good account of themselves on light tackle.  

Port Shepstone was relatively quiet with only shad and bronze bream reported. The deeper waters have produced the odd hammerhead shark.

Port St John's was on fire with an excellent run of raggies during the week and over the weekend. Most of these were landed on grinder outfits. Be sure to fish with a decent braided leader when targeting these raggies as their behaviour around the rocks can be devastating to your leader. Port St John's River has had a lot of kob and garrick coming out, not far behind has been Brazen Head with good sized sharks, garrick and shad.  There is still plenty of sardine action up and down the coast.


(File Photo: Gallo Images)


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