FISHING REPORT 29TH MAY 2010.

Despite the very cold water that moved in along almost the entire KZN coast there were still some fish to be found. Shad came on the bite and were being caught in good numbers at all known spots. The Umkomaas area in particular produced many fish and all anglers fishing along the beach stretches here quickly had their quotas.

The Durban area and the Umgeni North bank also produced some good numbers and a few good fish in the 2 kg mark were landed. The flat fish are not as prolific as the cold water certainly played its part in putting these fish off the bite. There are still a few nice big fish around but now they are becoming harder to find.

A few good size sand sharks were caught in the Green Point and Scottburgh areas during the cold water spell. The first shoals of pilot garrick should also start making an appearance soon, as in the past they appear on the south coast for a week or two towards the end of May and then as quickly as they get here they seem to disappear for a while only to pop up again in June. However, the Port Shepstone area had a bit of action during the latter part of last week when two fair sized garrick were landed. A live shad put out as bait during the early morning or late afternoon sessions could possibly surprise a few anglers.

Other good winter fish that are coming out now are small kob, grunter and some very nice stumpie. A few nice specimens of between 4 kg and 6 kg have been landed along the coast before the cold water moved in.

Terry Nel from Tacklenet in Port Edward informs us that shad are being caught at various different places and at a number of different spots there, the sunrise is silhouetted by fishermen catching shad. Interesting news came in that garrick were being caught by hand line at the Beachcomer Lagoon and on investigation by a group of pro's, one of these fish was caught and released. Terry went last Sunday gone but no fish were found. While fishing at the same lagoon some months ago, Terry noticed a security guard on duty there jigging perch with a hand line like he does it all the time and it's a pity that the area does not fall in KZN's jurisdiction.

There are also reports of some good grunter fishing in the Umkomaas north bank and river mouth areas as well as along the Durban beaches and the Umgeni North Bank. As far as the flatfish are concerned, there are still some brown skates, small diamond skates and the odd sand shark being reported from both north and south coasts.

The Transkei is also fishing well with favourable reports coming in from the Port St Johns and Hole in The Wall areas. With the recent cold water spell quite a few big ragged tooth sharks were landed at these spots along with hammerhead and black fin sharks. Shad angling down here is as good as it can get with some very good reports of some nice size fish coming out in the Brazen Head and Poenskop areas.

Anglers fishing in the river at Port St Johns reported some excellent grunter fishing and the odd fair size kob is also being landed at night.  Zululand, although things seem to be slowing down is still producing some good catches of flatfish and sharks particularly in the Tugella North bank and Mtinzini areas. There is some encouraging news from the Tugella area in that quite a few lobotes have come out here recently together with grunter and smaller kob. Small spinner sharks have also become a menace here for anglers targeting edible fish.

Ski Boats
Ski Boats went through a bit of a bad patch due to the cold and dirty water but never the less reports of a few couta still came in. On the North Coast the Zinkwazi area seems to be producing some very good fish with the Westbrook and Umdloti areas not far behind. The Aliwal shoal and Protea banks will almost certainly yield some good fish this week end as the water starts warming up.


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 with some good bags of big couta being reported. Ski’s operating the Zinkwazi area are also getting some big couta and the Westbrook area is also producing some couta along with quite a few very big snoek.