THE croc couta have been plastered all over social media this season. Some amazing sized fish have been landed in the fishing skis and the boats.
The North Coast has seen most of the bigger couta action. Specifically the areas around Mtunzini, Tinley and Umdloti. Most of these bigger fish have been caught on bait but some have found the allure of a wiggling lure too exciting to pass up. These bigger fish have gotten to their size mostly by being clever so take your time in presenting your bait properly and ensuring it swims straight.
The snoek have been around the Umdloti area with some days seeing them throw all caution to the wind. Small spoons and fillet baits are the way to go.
The Durban coast has seen a bit of bottom fishing and gamefish action this past week. The water has been quite cold so the fishing has not been easy. The geelbek have been patchy and often sitting off the structure, either up or down current.
Make sure you scan the area properly before moving on. Sardines have been the most successful bait reported. The snoek have been feeding at the Umgeni mouth. Guys have reported fillet baits trolled behind the backline to be the best method this past week. The bigger swells have been around so please be careful while fishing on the backline and have someone on a constant lookout for these bigger waves.
The South Coast has seen a lot of action around the sardine shoals and the beaches where they are netted. There have been plenty of garrick caught on jig-and-drop sardines, live bait and lures around the shoals.
The deep water jigging and live baiting for the amberjack has produced some good results this past week. These are powerful fish and require brute force to get them off their structure. This is not light braid country. This is 100lb Daiwa J braid and KP kind of fight.
Much like the offshore fishing, the shore angler’s main action has been based around the sardines. Some amazing gamefish have been caught around these silver shoals.
Sardine central. The South Coast has been the place to go whether you are after a garrick or a giant grey shark. There have been. The jig-and-drop method accounted for some good edibles including big kingfish, prodigal son, kob and garrick. This method is exactly as the name states. You cast into the sardine shoal, jig a sardine by striking and then let it drop out of the shoal. This is a deadly way of targeting edibles around the sardines.
Those looking for the bigger sharks are best served by either sight casting to the fish around the nets or dropping a big bait in the deep. Make sure you are ready for the battle that follows as these are not small fish.
Kevin Foster from Pumula landed a 61cm, 5kg brusher on Saturday with his Daiwa BG rod. Bait was a small sardine bomb bait on a Mustad Demon perfect circle fine 1/0 targeting bronze bream. Great catch Kevin, well done.
The Durban coast saw a lot of shad action this past week. The betting of sardines along the beachfront did bring in some snoek and garrick which the spinning anglers took full advantage of. Throwing spoons is a great way of targeting the gamefish in and around the sardine shoals.
Try to match the profile of the sardine with your spoon. Sometimes this makes a big difference, other times a piece of tinfoil will be fine. Tight lines and screaming reels.
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The Mercury