ROCK AND SURF
WITNESS EDITORIAL 02ND MAY 2009
Well winter is just around the corner and typical winter fishing can soon be expected. There has been some whisperings of garrick on the south coast for the last month but not really in large enough numbers to target. Further South in the Eastern Cape area there have been some phenomenal reports on the abundance of garrick, a sign for a possible great garrick run. These fish generally trickle through in May/ June as they migrate North to spawn but generally arrive in numbers with the sardine run. Then in September and October will turn around and head back South after spawning and follow the cold water.
Terry Nel from Tackle Net says the shad are there with the occasional hound shark still to be had. The hound sharks just like the flat fish should be disappearing as the Winter sets in though. The league anglers have been scratching up some nice bronze bream and other reef species. There is hype down there as anglers prepare for the Port Edward Couta Classic. Some crocodile sized couta have been caught recently so hopes are high for a successful event. Land based anglers have been targeting these fish from Splash rock but with no recent success.

Durban’s Ski Boat Couta Classic
Durban’s Ski Boat Couta Classic was just held over the 25th and 26th of April, Close to 500 boats competed in a very smoothly run event. As far as couta caught Saturday was the less productive of the two days, but did produce the biggest Snoek, Yellowtail Kingfish Queenfish and surprisingly Couta. A Queenfish of 10.8kgs caught by Byron Kane won the biggest non couta prize. The winning Couta was a magnificent fish of 24.9kgs caught by Frank Bouwer. Sunday the conditions were great and so the majority of the couta were boated on the second day. Most fish were over the 12kg mark with a total of 117 weighed in.
But in general the couta season has been dismal to say the least but the snoek have made up for it. The main concentrations of snoek have been coming out at Umgeni mouth and umdloti. And in the South Coast the Illovo and Umkomaas stretches have been producing.
Reports from the Cape Vidal area also suggest the fishing has been very slow throughout the season. One can only hope a good sardine run will get things going as far as couta are concerned.
Transkei has been fishing well in General. Lots of garrick have been caught and plenty sighted as they have taunted unsuccessful fisherman on the rocks. Good reports of big sharks have come in from Mazeppa to Port St Johns, anglers should make use of this productive time before the sardine shoals come past and vacuum the fish into the deeper water.
Anglers targeting Pompano have had some good measures of success in the Toti and Doonside areas where some nice size fish have come out lately but long hours are needed to be put in. Shoal Kob have also been reported from the Umkomaas area where anglers have had some good catches In the vicinity of the river mouth. Flatfish have slowed down quite dramatically and only sporadic catches are reported locally as these fish return North with the warmer water.Otherwise its all about the Sardine run around the corner, and so lets hold thumbs for a possible long and uninterrupted run. The Sardine Run can be expected to start in June or July, water temperature permitting. 


ESA
Be sure not to miss ESA salt water this week on Super Sport 1, premiering on Thursday night with several repeats throughout the week. Mark and Ray take on some giant fish at Nanoti with the some sneaky help. DSSA has the boys searching the deeper water off Ponto and the OSSA team are accompanied by Bruce Mann as he gives us some much needed insight on different species of fish and how to handling fish that are to be released.
ESA Bass has Zavier and Sealin fishing Inanda in fall conditions.
(Super sport 1, premiering on Tuesday with repeats throughout the week.
Be sure to keep your eyes open for the new ESA tackle box in every show, where you get to see what product your favourite ESA talents use to bring some spectacular catches to the screen.

  "Hier Gaan Ons Alweer"
is airing on Thursday evenings on Kyknet, channel 111 at the following times:
Thursday 7th of may18:30hr.
There will be six rebroadcast as follows:
Fri 13:00, Sat 9:00 and 0:00, Mon 13:30, Tue 9:00 and 1:00.This series will run for three months. 
“Hier Gaan Ons Alweer” is in "Stywe Lyne” as well as "Fish" magazine.
Both magazines are doing a series of articles on this fishing series. Petri and his team fish all over Southern Africa, fishing in salt and fresh water and will be fishing with The Kingfisher products, reels, rods, lines lures etc.

Trading times
The Kingfisher’s trading times for the public holidays during April / May are as follows, 27th April closed, 1st May open from 8:00 to 13:00. Our normal trading hours are Monday, Wednesday to Friday 8:00 to 17:00, Tuesday 8:30 to 17:00 and Saturday 8:00 to 13:00.

Fishing Clinic
The Kingfisher at 53, Hunter Street, Durban hosts a free Fishing Ski Clinic on their premises once a month by Markham Pollard.
These monthly clinics are there to help beginners and experienced anglers to see what the sport is all about and how to target certain species of fish.
It also shows anglers what equipment to use and also elaborates on safety.

Over and above this they also hold Rock and Surf clinics run by Ivan Stopforth and a Drop Shot clinic by Lloyd Pereira.
These Clinics are very informative and covers all the basics, including equipment, knots, bait presentation, and tactics.
To book for one of these free clinics phone the Kingfisher on 031- 368 3903.
We are looking for guys or girls to help us with clinics in the bass and fly fishing fraternity if anyone would like to get involved
please give Mike Pereira a call on 031 368 3903. 

Any info about fishing, fish caught or competitions in your area please send to
kingfish@iafrica.com or fax 031- 368 4137, attention, Mike.
For the latest KZN fishing news presented by O.J.,
tune into East Coast Radio
at 5.40am Monday - Friday.

See photo of Petri de Wet from “Hier Gaan Ons Alweer”
with his 40+ kg kingfish caught last week at Kosi Bay.