FISHING REPORT 15TH AUGUST 2009.

Anglers
Brusher seem to have entrenched themselves along the South Coast with the Isipingo and Doonside areas producing numerous good size fish. The Winkle High Rocks area has also to a lesser degree yielded some good size specimens, however it is shad and garrick that are featuring prominently on the entire KZN coastline. Some really good size shad, up to the 3 kg mark have been reported from areas such as The Blue lagoon and Toti areas. The Durban area itself has for the past few weeks fished very well with anglers getting their quotas of shad very quickly. Amongst the shad anglers here have also caught some grunter, small kob and now the odd pompano.

On a more positive note, anglers chancing their arm at early summer flatfish have been pleasantly surprised as some small sandsharks, up to the 15 kg mark have been landed in the Illovo and Umkomaas areas during the course of last week. Hopefully we have a better run of sandies this year as the last season produced only a handful of these hard fighting fish.

Marcel Greyling`s great snoek of 9kg’s
On Sunday, Marcel Greyling from The Kingfisher, landed a magnificent snoek from the shore. Marcel waded out to the rocks off Sheffield when he saw fish smashing through baitfish. One throw with his Stimulator rod and Daiwa SL30 reel and his Sheppy Bomber spoon got chomped. Ten minutes later Marcel landed a great snoek of 9kg’s.

Small dusky sharks have also made an appearance, mainly on the South Coast and can make angling miserable for anglers fishing for the bigger shad and kob at night, never the less there are anglers that fish hard for these dusky sharks and can provide hours of fun.

The Transkei is now probably in the prime season for edible fish as garrick and kob are feeding are feeding well in known areas such as Port St Johns. Some exceptional garrick, some in excess of 20 kg have been reported from the Lighthouse area and a few very big kob have recently been landed in the Poenskop area. A little further down, the Coffee Bay and Mpolompo areas have started producing some Cape yellowtail. Sharks, mainly hammerheads have also made their presence felt along this coastline.

2009 GRUNTER HUNT
These are the results of the BASHEE River 2009 GRUNTER HUNT that was held on the 7th, 8th & 9th August.

BIGGEST FISH OF THE DAY
DAY 1 Mark Osner 12.36 P
DAY 2 Dave Fraser 17.47 P
DAY 3 Greg Sutherland 20.49 P

BIGGEST FISH OTHER THAN BIGGEST EDIBLE AND BIGGEST PIGNOSE AND DAY 1/2/3
6 Brian Johnson 9.27P
5 Jeremy Ferrow 11.26P
4 Marco Manietti 11.26P
3 Mark Osner 12.36P
2 Geoff Perkins 14.36P
1 Dave Fraser 17.47P

BIGGEST EDIBLE OF THE HUNT – BASHEE CUP
Greg Sutherland 20.49P

BIGGEST PIGNOSE OF THE HUNT – PIGNOSE PLAQUE
Greg Sutherland 20.49P

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL GROSS – FISHERMAN TROPHY
Jeremy Ferrow 28.38

HIGHEST TEAM GROSS Piggies 70.22
Kippers 63.43
Shadous 38.42
Pinkies 14.33
Tobies 9.81
Kobous 4.45

Well done to the Piggies who pulled it out of the bag again to claim 1st prise with only 10min left in the compo.

Biggest Shad Competition
The Kingfisher has started their “Biggest Shad Competition”. This year it will be run over a two month period, August and September, with three prizes each month. The heaviest shad for each month will receive a 14’ Kingfisher Poseidon 5pc Graphite Rod, valued at R1, 925.00, the second heaviest shad will receive a Daiwa SL 50SHK Reel, valued at R1,189.00 and third heaviest shad will receive a Daiwa Opus Plus 6000 Reel valued a t R567.00. Please note that all shad (fresh) must be weighed at The Kingfisher, 53 Hunter Street, Durban during trading hours and please remember there is a bag limit of four and the minimum size is 30cm. So far the winning shad for the month of August is a fish of 3.1kg’s caught by Silvalinjn Pillay while fishing at Green Point. There has been no fished weighed in for the second or third prizes, so guys make sure you bring your fish in to be weighed at The Kingfisher, you could be missing out on a very nice prize.

Ski boats
Ski boaters are still having a wonderful winter season as daga and geelbek salmon are still feeding freely on both North and South Coasts. Big sharks are making for difficult angling as many fish are being ‘taxed’. This is happening mainly on the South Coast and it seems hordes of sharks are accompanying the shoals of salmon. General bottom fishing is also producing some very good results of mainly reds and rock cod. A few boats that have ventured out to the deeper grounds off Durban have reported that there are a few dorado around already.

Umkomaas 40th Interclub Competition
Some feedback from Jonathan Pilling on the Umkomaas 40th Interclub Competition held at Umkomaas on the7th, 8th & 9th August 2009.
1st, Warnadoone with 452 points who caught two lovely cooper steenbrass of 19kg's and 18kg's
2nd, was Pennington Juniors with 407 points they caught a yellow fin tuna on Aliwal Shoal
3rd, was Midlands with 142 points, they landed a small muscle cracker and geelbek
Jonathan and the Umkomaas Club would like to thank all our sponsors which made their 40th Interclub a great success.

KwaZulu Natal Fly Fishing Association Provincial trials for 2008
KwaZulu Natal Fly Fishing Association ended its season of Provincial trials for 2008 last weekend with a well attended and fun Inter-Provincial Event with Gauteng North Fly Fishing. Hosted at Glengarry in the Kamberg, 11 teams of 5 anglers each took to nearby still waters in rather unpleasant fishing conditions to co-erase the elusive trout with their choice of flies. This is the first year of what will become an annual event with Provincial trophies up for grabs in the seniors, Ladies and Junior Categories. The event was a great stepping stone for many development anglers from both Provinces who have recently decided to try their hand at competitive fly fishing.
The competition was very close with marginal point’s difference and Gauteng North managing to just clinch the trophies from KZN in each category.

Despite the conditions, fun and camaraderie prevailed and all look forward next year’s event.
A total of 79 fish were caught and released over the three sessions.
Top SENIOR ANGLER - Richard Gorlei - KZN
Top LADY ANGLER - Marietjie Davies - Gauteng North
Top JUNIOR ANGLER - Graham Paige - Gauteng North.
The event also concluded trials 7 & 8 for KZN so team selections for the forthcoming 'A" National events in the Boland have been made:

KZN 2009 JUNIOR TEAM:
Matthew Cave`
Matt Gorlei
Keaton Bottriel
Matthew van Weiringen
Alex Meyer.

KZN SENIOR TEAM:
Greg Fendt
Grevin Price
Richard Gorlei
Jan de Jager
Gillies Mc David

KZNFFA will continue to do development clinics for juniors and Ladies as well as run regular Provincial trials. Anyone wishing to participate can contact the secretary Linda Gorlei on linda@xis.co.za or 083 631 5301.

ESA
Catch the ESA team doing battle on ESA Saltwater at 7:30pm on Thursday and don’t miss the bass show at 7:00pm every Tuesday on Super sport 1 (unless mentioned otherwise – check your DSTV guide for details) the latest ESA magazine is out and on sale at The Kingfisher for R19.95. This issue it is jammed packed with great features.

The Kingfisher’s trading hours
The Kingfisher’s 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.

Free Rock and Surf clinic
The Kingfisher at 53, Hunter Street, Durban hosts a free Rock and Surf clinic run by Ivan Stopforth on their premises once a month. 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 Fishing Ski Clinic by Markham Pollard 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.

See photo of The Kingfisher’s Marcel Greyling and his 9kg snoek.