FISHING REPORT 27TH FEBRUARY 2010

Angling
Well as you sit back in your chair and read this the bad weather has probably hit already with some strong South Westerly winds. The good news is the sea and weather will be back to normal by Saturday or latest Sunday.

Terry Nel from Tackle net tells me the red eye sardines are plentiful down Port Edward way. Apart from that the fish have been scarce; the boats have been getting the occasional big couta but few and far between. Bronze bream are still on the bite as well as the smaller reef species but that is pretty much it from down the deep south Coast. In the Umkomaas area there has been a number of shoal cob with some grunter as well. Alohwal shoal has been fishing relatively well with some smaller yellow fin tunny and nice size wahoo.

The Durban beach front has been producing a couple grunter and some sporadic pockets of shad. For those anglers who have been targeting the Skates and sharks in Durban have had some success when finding some discoloured water or persevering through the night. A couple smaller diamond skates have been landed in the Ushaka area. Unfortunately the sandsharks have been missing a little this season north and south coast but the honeycomb’s and brown skates have made up for them. The Durban harbour is still continuing on its great season with some fantastic light tackle spinning action and some great grunter. Many reports have come in about zambezi sharks frequenting the harbour right onto the banks in water as shallow as 2 foot.

After a very successful Dorado season, boats are reporting that things are slowing down as far as the Dorado are concerned but those that are venturing far out to sea off Durban report that there is still quite a bit of Marlin activity out there. These fish are mostly smaller Black Marlin but a few Striped Marlin have recently been hooked. Closer inshore Couta remain a bit elusive in local waters with the occasional bigger fish being boated. Most couta seem to be in the 15kg range with the occasional one in the twenties.

Nikao fishing adventures
Mike Laubsher from Nikao fishing adventures produced a nice Wahoo for one of his clients along with some other nice catches. Umhlanga has been producing some lovely size snoek over the last week off the boat and paddle ski’s.

Up north the occasional couta has been reported but snoek are still appearing and disappearing like usual. Not too many reports have come in from the north coast rock and surf anglers, I think the crystal clean water has made fishing extremely tough.

Tugela has been producing some labotes, grunter and snapper salmon, alongside the obvious good run or skates and sharks. The Zululand coastline is still producing skates and sharks when the conditions are right. Mtenzeni, Port Durnford and the surrounding areas are the hot spots for this time of year and for another month at least.

The weather to look for is very hot conditions and at least one full day of North Easterly wind to have blown before you make the effort. Generally to start on the low tide and fish the pushing tide is most effective. Generally your target species this time of the year up there is the diamond skate with honeycombs, browns and the occasional sandy in between.

Baits to use are red eye sardines, chokka, makeral and bonnies. Most of which you will be able to get from The Kingfisher.