Tuna and dorado off Umhlanga
Thanks to the big seas many anglers opted to stay in bed and enjoy the sunrise from home. Those who didn’t and launched at Vetchies were in for a rude awakening when they got past the harbour mouth.
Seas like this can be very unpredictable as it may seem flat from the beach, but as soon as you get past the protected area you will see what the sea is really doing. There were only two or three days maximum on which anglers would have been able to launch in most areas, which resulted in very few reports from the entire KwaZulu-Natal coast.
The boats up on the north coast managed to boat a few dorado and wahoo, as well as some decent Natal snoek for the anglers who stayed shallow. The stretch between Tinley Manor and Blue Lagoon produced some large snoek on small spoons and on fillet traces. Red-eye fillets have been king, with pink or live glow dusters in the dirty water. Also in this dirty water anglers are urged to trawl slower than usual, allowing the bait to be located easily. Anglers fishing for snoek are using the lightest of light tackle, with most anglers using 10lb braid, a 7ft medium rod and a 2500 size grinder.
Umhlanga produced some nice tuna, with kayak anglers having a blast with the dorado and tuna.
Durban had a few reports of tuna in the shallows and dorado out deeper near the ships.
South coast anglers had better luck and saw a good amount of yellowtail being caught on live baits on bottom rigs. The usual catches of tuna were seen at Aliwal Shoal and Protea Banks. Some good bottom fishing was reported off the south coast over the weekend, proving that there are some excellent musselcracker and steenbras around.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @kingfisherdaiwa @SportswaveAndre
The boats up on the north coast managed to boat a few dorado and wahoo, as well as some decent Natal snoek for the anglers who stayed shallow. The stretch between Tinley Manor and Blue Lagoon produced some large snoek on small spoons and on fillet traces. Red-eye fillets have been king, with pink or live glow dusters in the dirty water. Also in this dirty water anglers are urged to trawl slower than usual, allowing the bait to be located easily. Anglers fishing for snoek are using the lightest of light tackle, with most anglers using 10lb braid, a 7ft medium rod and a 2500 size grinder.
Umhlanga produced some nice tuna, with kayak anglers having a blast with the dorado and tuna.
Durban had a few reports of tuna in the shallows and dorado out deeper near the ships.
South coast anglers had better luck and saw a good amount of yellowtail being caught on live baits on bottom rigs. The usual catches of tuna were seen at Aliwal Shoal and Protea Banks. Some good bottom fishing was reported off the south coast over the weekend, proving that there are some excellent musselcracker and steenbras around.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @kingfisherdaiwa @SportswaveAndre