GOOD news for anglers targeting the North Coast is that the wave garrick, caught mainly on spinning outfits, were of excellent size.
Cape Vidal saw some good edibles the whole week with lantern fish, small kob, rock cod and some decent stumpnose caught regularly.
Red eye cutlet and chokka baits have produced good numbers while mackerel head was the bait of choice for the rock cod.
Richards Bay had good catches of a variety of rock cod and other smaller edibles. Larger baits such as mackerel head or large sardine baits worked well for rock cod. These baits need to be presented on the correct hook and leader in order to ensure a good hook-up as well as a natural movement on the bait.
At Ballito there was a good presence of pompano, grey sharks and brown skates over the weekend, as well as some nice snoek off the rocks.
The preferred setup for anglers targeting snoek only would be a far lighter setup as opposed to one for the use for kingfish and the like.
Daiwa’s Lexa 10 and 11ft 2oz rods are ideal for the light spoons required for these fish and will cast anything as low as 14g fairly well.
Umhlanga lighthouse produced the odd small grey shark, shad and other juvenile shark species such as hammerhead sharks.
Red eye sardines and chokka baits worked well for smaller edibles, while mackerel attracted the larger sharks.
Blue Lagoon saw a few shad and kingies in the mornings and some pompano during the daylight hours. Sea lice was the preferred bait, followed by red eye head or small chokka baits.
A few anglers also managed a few snoek on spoon to the right of the pier, with some anglers managing two and three at a time.
Again, these fish are being landed on small spoons which still have a decent weight to them such as the Maria or Kingfisher Pro Jet Spoons.
Durban beachfront has seen some very nice catches of pompano over the past week, as well as its fair share of grunter. Both of these species were taken on smaller chokka baits or sea lice – if the angler can find a few. Cracker has also been effective if used fresh.
The piers fished well consistently and produced a wide variety of species. The bulk of these have been grunter, pompano, shad and sole with a few red fish such as santer.
Further down towards the Bluff, we have had good feed- back from spear fishermen regarding couta as well as snoek and kingfish.
A few anglers fished with live baits around the Cave Rock area and managed to get into some decent rock cod and kingfish.
Toti and Warner beach have both seen kingfish early in the mornings on bait and drop shot, as well as the odd big shad caught just before sunrise on most days.
Umkomaas fished well for grunter, pompano and stumpnose. Snapper salmon have been plentiful on most days too.
Anglers casting further have also managed to land some decent brown skates.
Scottburgh has been off the bite and for most of the weekend anglers managed only a few smaller skates.
Umdoni Point had good action with anglers spinning for snoek, bonito and couta.
Margate produced good numbers of shad and bronze bream for most of the week.
Send any info about fishing, fish caught or competitions in your area to [email protected] or fax 031 368 4007.
Until next week… TIGHTLINES!