FISHING REPORT 20TH FEBRUARY 2010

Angling
With continuing good weather, anglers seem to be getting some good results mostly as far as the inedible species is concerned. Those anglers who have during the past week or so headed up to the Zululand beaches have been rewarded as far as the diamond skates and the odd big sand sharks are concerned. Good catches have been reported from the Amatikulu and Port Durnford areas.

The ESA boys were up there on Tuesday and Wednesday and landed a number of these fish. The recent hot and humid conditions have made these areas an ideal venue for those anglers who like to target big fish. The Tugela North bank area has also been quite active recently with reports of a few big sand sharks but anglers who target the shark specie have also not been let down, a good number of fair sized zambezi sharks have been landed by anglers who have used small live spinner sharks and diamonds for bait.

Shad have been rather erratic but things seem to be getting better as the month progresses. Better catches are coming in from the Durban area but on the south coast places like Winkle and Umkomaas have started producing some nice fish during the early morning sessions.

Locally the inedible species are keeping anglers busy as there are good reports of fish on both north and south coasts. A few nice size sand sharks have been caught in the Tinley, Ballito and Tongaat areas recently together with some brown skates. A few above average size honeycombe rays have been reported in the Illovo and Green Point areas.

The Transkei is also fishing well with favorable reports coming in from the Port St Johns and Hole in The Wall areas. Mostly hammerhead sharks are coming out but there have been some good size grey and spinner shark activity as well. Anglers fishing these venues at night are getting some small kob and grunter.

The results for Common Venue for Round 2 have been posted on the website.www.kzncau.co.za.

“Summer fishing at its Best”. Zululand Shore Angling Association report by Barry Tedder.
The Zululand ladies team still buzzing with triumphant success down in Mossel bay recently. Finishing in 2nd place in 2009 and where surely the hot favourites for the 2010 SA ladies shore angling championships, taking 1st place and winning themselves gold medals. With two ladies finishing in the top ten namely Liezel van Duyker 6th overall and Liezel Steenkamp taking 1st position overall who also got her President A team call up.
They sure have set the bench mark for the masters, senior A and B team who depart for PE, East London and Cape Town respectively later this month to take part in their respective national events.

The Juniors SA championships event which was hosted by Zululand this year using Mtunzini as a base to accommodate the 12 various provinces. To the coordinators, organising committee, namely Carol and France Chretien, Sonja Andrews, Tim Dunk, Janine and the Mtunzini country club staff and parents congratulations on a well organised event. With some real positive comments coming from the visiting teams management.

On the angling side Zululand ended up in 6th position after a real tough tournament with the weather not playing the game, and their moral was further broken when on the last day with only a few hours to go the Natal team and Central Gauteng team anglers landed two magnificent kob of 34 kg and 20 kg respectively pushing them into 1st and 2nd positions.

Reporting on the past weekends common venue competition fished in perfect summer conditions and producing some record catches to date. Summer fishing at its best where amongst the 76 anglers that turned up for their respective clubs landed 5548.2 kilograms of fish. Consisting mostly of Butterfly rays, Honeycomb rays, Sharp nose brown skates and the odd Giant Guitarfish. With Zululand introducing a 20% no gaff bonus for every kilogram on all fish over 5 kg not gaffed, saw not one fish being gaffed. All fish are also measured instead of weighed on a scale and returned back into the water. The heaviest recorded fish was a Honeycomb ray of 80.2 kg caught by Garth Tedder of Tugela club. The heaviest edible was a Dusky kob of 2.2 kg caught by Etienne Gerber of Mtunzini club.

Top junior went to Brendon Andrews on 123.4 pts from St Lucia club. The top lady angler went to Heather Tiltmann on 206.58 pts from Umzingazi club and the top master went to Andre Botha on 111.9 pts from Tugela club. Top senior angler went to Barry Tedder on 419.0 pts from Tugela club. Tugela club ended up overall winners on the day with 1424.7 pts. The next competition being a postal round falls on the weekend of the 13/14th March.

Current Zululand Shore Angling Standings.
TOP 5 ANGLERS FOR THE LAST ROUND
1.  Barry Tedder - 419.0 pts (10 fish)
2.  Bollie Crouse - 399.7 pts (6 fish)
3.  Neels Visagie - 359.4 pts (7 fish)
4.  Kobus Scribante - 330.8 pts (6 fish)
5.  Timothy Dunk - 298.1 pts (5 fish)
TOP 5 TEAMS
1.  Tugela A - 1424.7 pts
2.  St Lucia A - 1119.2 pts
3.  Mtunzini A - 1087.5 pts
4.  Umzingazi A - 905.4 pts
5.  Richards Bay A - 678.0 pts.


Ski Boats
Ski Boats are still having a very good season as far as game fish are concerned as there are plenty of fish around. Boats off Durban are still getting some dorado off the deeper reefs but these fish seem to be moving on as catches are not as prolific as they were last month. Closer inshore the couta season has not really materialized yet but a few good fish have been caught in the Zinkwazi area. The Aliwal Shoal and Protea banks have really lived up to their reputations recently as a large variety of fish have been caught at these venues for the past few weeks.
Mostly average size yellow fin keep anglers busy but dorado, wahoo, couta and even a few rainbow runner have made up bags here.A spear fisherman landed an absolute monster kingfish at this venue last week, the fish weighed in at an incredible 63 kg.

Fishing ski’s
Fishing ski’s are also in on the action and reports coming from the Toti and Scottburgh areas suggest that fishing has definitively picked up over the past two weeks. Dorado and snoek make up most of the catches but a few good size couta have also come out. Some good catches of couta and snoek were reported from the Warner beach and Toti areas last week and the Zinkwazi area in the North.

Exciting upcoming ESA Saltwater shows not to be missed.
The crew at ESA (Extreme Sports Angling) have been hard at work, and as a result they have a fantastic line up of exciting episodes set to air on Supersport1 in the coming weeks. For ESA fans who need more than their twice weekly dose of angling action on Supersport1, ESA Pro Anglers and Presenters are also on Twitter and Face book, and the ESA World Group on Face book is open to everyone.

ESA Bass
ESA Bass airs on Tuesdays at 7.00pm and ESA Saltwater is every Thursday at 7.30pm.

ESA Saltwater
In next week’s ESA Saltwater episode (18 February), Presenter Olivia “OJ” Symcox gets the chance to surf with the Umthombo street children in Durban. Umthombo, a South African street children organisation led predominantly by former street children, aims to change the way that society perceives and treats street children through educating society as to the realities of the street child experience. Established in 2004, Umthombo is based in Durban and focuses on the eastern seaboard of South Africa, with offices in East London in the Eastern Cape.

In the same episode, Ray, who has started his own blog at www.raymonddebruyn.myblogger.co.za, takes a trip to False Bay in the hopes of hooking Bronze Whalers, while the Drop Shot Sports Angling (DSSA) team get stuck into some beautiful Yellow spot Kingfish in Paindane, Mozambique. In the offshore angling section Mark de la Hey takes on some Yellowtail in Port Edward on the KZN South Coast.

The following week (25 February) sees ‘Team Pink’ make their ESA debut, pulling in some monster Amberjacks. Team Pink consists of Kelly Lidston and Brenna Bales-Smith, who can usually be heard doing the voiceovers, the pair start their on-screen presence in fine form with some impressive catches. In the same episode, OJ gets to act like a big kid on the slides at uShaka, and Ray gets dealt a bad hand by Mother Nature during a Land Based Sports angling trip.

ESA Saltwater
ESA Pro Angler Craig Stubbs and ESA Teen Pro Angler Bruno Costa onboard their Yamaha Wave runners head out on an adventure looking for some Kingfish in Mozambique. In the first March ESA Saltwater episode (4 March), Rusty the talented Jack Russel makes another appearance with OJ, this time showing off his soccer skills at uShaka beach. Ray and his guests can been seen at Errol Hayes on the South Coast targeting flatfish, while Mark and the girls from Team Pink continue their hunt for monster Amberjack on an Off Shore Sports Angling (OSSA) expedition.

The ESA talents are available on Twitter on the following links: http://twitter.com/Raycat99
 http://twitter.com/OliviaSymcox,  
http://twitter.com/robfishersa

The Kingfishers Fishing Clinic
The Kingfisher hosts free Fishing Clinic’s on their premises once a month, booking is essential. These 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.

Shane from Freedivers is hosting a diving clinic on the 27th February at The Kingfisher, 53 Hunter Street, Durban. This will be a great clinic, especially as the crayfish season opens on the 1st March. To find out more about these clinics and to book a seat please phone The Kingfishers sales staff on 031 368 3903.

The Kingfisher’s trading hours
The Kingfisher’s trading hours are Monday, Wednesday to Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm, Tuesday 8:30am to 5:00pm and Saturday 8:00am to 1:00pm.
Please note that The Kingfisher will be closed on Monday the 1st March and
Tuesday the 2nd March for stock taking, we apologise for any inconvenience
this might cause you
.
For the latest KZN fishing news presented by OJ, tune into East Coast Radio At 5.40am Monday – Friday. If you miss that then phone the Kingfisher’s KZN Angling Hotline on 082-234 6362, this report is updated 7am daily.

Liezel and her Daiwa Saltiga 40 reel, she made us proud, she took top angler at the recent SA Ladies nationals down in Mossel Bay, and the trophy for an outstanding catch.  Many hours of practice and fishing has paid off, well done Liezel.