FISHING REPORT 27TH MARCH 2010 

Angling
With continuing good weather, anglers seem to be getting some good results as far as shad are concerned. Most well known spots are eventually starting to produce some better fish. The Durban and the Umgeni areas have had some good results lately with anglers getting their quotas mostly in the early morning sessions.

On the South Coast places like Toti, Winkle, Umkomaas, Scottburgh and the Park Rynie areas have also picked up nicely as far as the shad are concerned and as with the Durban area these fish are also caught mostly during the early morning sessions.  As far as the inedible species are concerned there are still a few above average size honeycombe rays being caught in the Illovo and Green point areas as well as the North Coast. Last weekend Warren Pereira landed a honeycombe of around 25kg’s and a diamond of 40kg’s and Jos Laurens land a nice sandie of about 40kg’s from the middle north coast.

Sand sharks and brown skates are still being caught in fair numbers along both north and south coasts. Terry Nel reports that some nice hammerhead, hound, grey and also a tiger shark have been landed in the Port Edward and Leisure Bay waters and have been in the 30+ kg mark providing good evening fishing for anglers. Most fishermen have turned to 'scratching' for smaller fish in the reef areas but bronzies are few and some shad are eating in the Glenmore area. A great kingie of over 29kg’s was landed from Spiros on Monday, this fish was caught on a chokka bait and was released back into the water after the measurement was taken. Always good to hear of fish like that being released back in the water, well done to the angler.

When favourable conditions allow, the Zululand coast is still producing fair numbers of diamond skates and sand sharks. The Transkei is also fishing well with favourable reports coming in from the Port St Johns and Hole in The Wall areas. Mostly hammerhead, grey and the odd big ragged tooth sharks are coming out. Anglers fishing these venues at night are getting some small kob and grunter. We have also heard of a couple of big raggies landed north of the Richards Bay area.

The results for Postal Round 2 have been posted on the Union’s website. www.kzncau.co.za. Thanks to Dave Nisbet for the info.

Ski Boats and fishing ski’s
Ski Boats are still having a good game fish season as couta have started filtering through on a more regular basis on the north and south coasts. Fishing at Cape Vidal has really stepped up a gear with quite a lot of shoal couta being reported from both ski boats and fishing ski’s alike.

After these fish have been missing for some time, it’s an encouraging sign for the rest of the season. Apart from the couta dorado, tunny and some reasonable size snoek were also reported. Locally the couta season has also started picking up with some good fish being reported from the Zinkwazi and Westbrook areas in the north and the Scottburgh and Umtwalumi areas in the south.

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.

Fishing ski’s are also in on the action and reports coming from the north and south coasts suggest that fishing has definitively picked up over the past two weeks.

ESA fishing shows on TV
Don’t forget to watch the action packed ESA fishing shows on TV. These shows feature both saltwater and bass fishing and are aired on Super sport 1. The ESA Saltwater show will be broadcasted weekly on Thursdays between 19h30 and 20h30, and the ESA Bass show will air weekly on Tuesdays between 19h00 and 19h30.

This is what you can expect over the next two months in  ESA saltwater.
Episode 13, 25/03/2010. In LBSA Ray & Tinus target sand sharks at Nonoti. The DSSA team take a look at a new area, Port Alfred. In OSSA Mark and his team have some exciting catches.

Episode 14, 01/04/2010. Watch the team as they get up to some mischief and land some beauties. Watch the DSSA team as they target green job fish amongst the denizens of the deep. In OSSA Mark explores the waters of Kenya.

Episode 15, 08/04/2010. In LBSA the guys enjoy some of the best of summer angling on the North Coast. Dean drop shots in Port Alfred. In OSSA Mark takes on the good old waters of Cape Vidal.

Episode 16, 15/04/2010. The LBSA team catch kingies while the DSSA team explore angling off Wave Runners on the South Coast. Make sure you don’t miss this exciting OSSA show in Kenya.

Episode 17, 22/04/2010. In LBSA learn more about targeting diamonds with Ray and Lloyd. In DSSA take a look at fishing off a house boat in Port Edward while Mark in OSSA targets Marlin in Cape Vidal, stay tuned to see if he hooks his target specie.

Episode 18, 29/04/2010. Watch as the Ray and his guests catch an array of interesting species in LBSA. Be sure to catch this episode of DSSA as Clive hooks a Zambie off a wave runner. Watch as the OSSA team land marlin.

Episode 19, 06/05/2010. In LBSA watch as Ray catches some record breaking fish. The DSSA team targets fish in Port Edward while Mark in OSSA says goodbye to his beautiful extreme destination, Kenya.


The Kingfisher Free Fishing Clinic
The Kingfisher hosts free Fishing Clinic’s on their premises once a month, these clinics cover Shore Angling, Off- Shore Angling, Fresh Water Angling as well as Diving. 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, spear fishing and cray fishing clinic on the 27th March at The Kingfisher, 53 Hunter Street, Durban. This will be a great clinic, especially as the crayfish season is now open. To find out more about these clinics and to book a seat please phone The Kingfishers sales staff on 031 368 3903.

”The Ray de Bruyn bait encyclopedia”, NO MORE SECRETS
Raymond de Bruyn from ESA extreme sports angling recently released a very informative bait presentation guide. This reference book contains some proven bait presentations with large full color photos with very easy to follow steps. Volume 1 covers baits made using Sardines and includes some very useful information on collecting and preserving your bait. This series of reference books will comprise of 12 issues.

There is some fantastic information available in this series which is called
”The Ray de Bruyn bait encyclopedia”, NO MORE SECRETS, and in this series he has done his best to share his vast knowledge and cover many secretive fish catching bait combinations.  Collect the entire set and store them in the file which will be available with volume 6 for easy reference. The Ray de Bruyn bait encyclopedia’ is available at R49.50 from The Kingfisher in Durban or ask your nearest tackle store to order one for you.

Ray will be at The Kingfisher on Saturday the 3rd April from 9 – 12 noon, to sign your purchased copy.

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.
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.