KZN FISHING REPORT   -   3 May 2007

Further north the Umkomaas area has over the past week or so produced quite a few shad but the main target fish in this area now is small shoal kob. These fish must have made this area their home as almost daily some fine fish have been landed here. Best baits that have been working is chokka and if available, red eye sardine. These fish are being caught all along the north bank in discoloured water. Winkle High rocks is also producing quite a few shad and the odd pompano. The Toti to Isipingo area has also produced some good fish recently, mainly small grunter but grey sharks move in during the morning and afternoon sessions to spoil thing somewhat for anglers.

ROCK & SURF - Durban Area
The Blue Lagoon area with the pier in particular is still out of action due to the bad seas not so long ago but angling in this area is still a little slow and should start picking up shortly. On the North and South piers however, angling seems to have picked up. Anglers here have recently landed some good grunter and natal snoek together with some nice kingfish have made up anglers bags recently.

ROCK & SURF - North Coast
The Zululand area with the Mapelane in particular is starting to produce some good edible catches. Kingfish, grunter, small kob and the odd lobotes make up the edible batch. Anglers fishing for sharks have also not been disappointed as quite a few zambezi sharks in the 70 kg have already been landed.

ROCK & SURF - Transkei
Anglers venturing to the Transkei have also been well rewarded as most deep-water spots down there are now producing some good shark fishing. The bulk is made up of hard fighting grey sharks in the 50 kg mark. Some bigger raggies were landed in the Port St Johns area. Reports from down there suggest that most spots are scoured out and that winter fishing should be a great experience down there. The Port St Johns River is also producing some nice kob at night.

SKI BOATS
Ski Boats operating out of Durban are having a good season as far as game fish is concerned. Couta are feeding well off the Bluff and the Number One ground and boats that travel up to the Umdloti area are also getting fair catches.

The results of the recent Mapelane Ski Boat Trophy, 1st Richards Bay with 43.4kg's, second Vidal with 39.3kg's and third Mapelane with 30kg's. Top angler and skipper was Gerhard Vermaak and the biggest cuda was a great fish of 21kg's caught by Wayne Ritchie. The first sailfish released was on the boat Ten Four skippered by Andre Olivier and first black marlin released was on boat Kelly, skippered by Wayne Ritchie.

E.S.A.
In the ESA Bass show on Super Sport 1 this week we join Lionel and Justin at Inanda for some early morning top water action. Using mainly Pop-R and Zara Spook lures they manage to land a number of decent bass from 1 kg to approximately 1, 5 kg. We then take a look at the ESA B.E.T.T Tournament held on the Vaal River on the 7th of April 2007 where all winners take a share of the prize money after a hard days fishing.

In the ESA Saltwater Show on Super Sport 1, we join the guys for some LBSA (land based shore angling) in the Eastern Cape at Fish River Point where they land a ragged tooth shark and two beautiful diamond rays. Geremy Cliff covers the inside out on the ragged tooth shark in our extreme specie for the week. For Drop Shot we visit the guys in the Transkei as they explore the DSSA (drop shot shore angling) spots in this area. OSSA (off shore angling) show Mark and Wesley having a blast targeting giant yellow fin tuna of Cape Town.