FISHING REPORT 12TH JUNE 2010

There are still no confirmed sightings of any sardines along our coastline despite numerous ‘fake’ sightings being reported. Even as far down as East London, there are still no sightings of mass congregations of fish or sea birds. We will, once there is confirmed movement of these fish let readers know exactly what is going on.

In the mean time there are quite a few fish around to keep anglers busy. Shad are now biting well along the coast and places like Green Point, Umkomaas, Winkle and Toti producing good results in the early morning sessions. Umkomaas north bank has been a steady performer lately with anglers getting a variety of fish. Grunter, pompano and shoal kob are keeping anglers busy at this venue. Anglers targeting garrick are finding the odd fish here but it is the Illovo stretch where most of the action has been. Early morning and late afternoon seems to be the best times and live shad is doing the trick as far as bait goes. Anglers fishing the Twini ledge at night are now starting to get some good stumpies and the odd shoal kob.

Anglers traveling down to the Transkei however are finding plenty shad at most of the big points down there. The odd kob is coming out in the Port St Johns area but sharks are still giving anglers some good fun.
 Some specimens that were caught at Mezeppa Bay area were over the 150 kg mark. If you intend fishing for these sharks, really big baits and top class heavy tackle should be used to subdue these big fish. Anglers using lesser tackle will hook up, but a one hour fight could last up to four or five hours. This also puts stress on the fish and could end up dying. The emphasis on shark fishing is the fight these big fish give anglers and more importantly is that it gives anglers great pleasure in releasing the fish alive. This is why we say that if you target these fish use the heaviest tackle and subdue the fish as soon as possible. A very good combination to use is the very strong Daiwa Saltist or Saltiga 50 reels filled with 600m of 45lb Kingfisher Pro Braid and 200m of 40lb Kingfisher Giant Abrasion or 38lb Daiwa Tournament nylon. A strong rod like The Kingfisher Poseidon HMG Heavy would work well.

Mike Laubscher
On the ski boat side, big sharks, manta rays whales, dolphins and lots of bonnies were see off Durban over the last few days, thanks Mike Laubscher for this info.

Mike left Durban harbour at around 07h30, and the seas were flat with water surface temperatures averaging 22 deg. C and there was a light wind blowing. They started out collecting live bait and there was plenty around and they had the live well filled up in a short space of time. Mike then set a drift and put 2 live baits out on down riggers and fished another on the surface, one of the down rigged baits was a very large mackerel that they had caught and it was not long before this reel went off. Mike immediately knew it was a big shark by the slow intermittent run of the reel, but it kept the guys busy for a long time whilst dragging the boat around and eventually the line parted.  Whilst on the drift they observed a giant manta ray breaching twice.

They were hoping for a couta but the shark had taken too much of their morning time and so they decided to set a spread of 6 lures and look for some yellow fin tuna in the deeper waters, as they went deeper the water temperature rose to 23 deg. C. They saw a small whale on the way out and at 140m depth they found a current and debris line and trolled along the side of this, then they were picked up by a pod of dolphins over 100 strong who stayed with them swimming in their bow and wake for some time. Mike was hoping that after the dolphin left they would pick up some yellow fin tuna as often they swim behind the dolphins but there were none.

Whilst they were trolling this line they hooked up a diver’s flipper which really had them fooled and they thought it was a decent fish until they saw what it was, but it really put up a convincing fight. Then they hooked up something that really made the reel scream and after all the excitement it was a realy heavy dead weight and we then saw this dark shadow behind the line and for a while we feared it was a body that belonged to the flipper, thankfully it was a long length of netting. When they tuned to go back into shallow waters on the shore side of the current line we started picking up bonnies and they provided them with some good sport.

A few days later Mike hade some great fun with yellow fin tuna. They headed out of Durban Harbour at around 06h30 and were greeted by an orange sky sunrise which looked so beautiful; leaving the water with a reddish glow and it makes you feel like you got what you came for and so the rest of the day was going to be a bonus. The water is still warm averaging around 22.5 deg. C on the surface. ( we will need this temperature to drop at least another 3.5 deg. C if we want to see any sardines). The wind started out as a North Westerly early in the morning and slowly changed throughout the day to a South Easterly and eventually ended up as a light North Easterly, in the morning the wind blew a little harder and the sea was not big, although the surf was, but it was somewhat unsettled, gradually it became calmer and it was a superb day.

They eventually headed back at around 15h30.The plan for the day was to target some Natal snoek (Queen Mackerel) early in the morning, and then to collect some live bait and try their luck for a sailfish and end the day doing some reef fishing. The thing about fishing is that the fish are completely unaware of your plans and things do not always go according to the plan and one needs to improvise and modify the initial plan as one becomes aware of the prevailing conditions. They shot from the harbour mouth straight out to the Umgeni River mouth where they trolled 4 strip baits and 2 lipless crank baits all along the back line until they got to La Lucia, they did not find any snoek and the surf was huge and so they stayed on the 10m depth contour.

They then pulled in the lines, and there were two whole strip baits missing, complete with steel trace and the line looked like it was cut off by a pair of scissors, it was strange as the reels never made a sound and the drags were not set that hard. After that they shot out to the Fonteo to collect some live bait where they got a lot of mozzies and Mike was pleased to report that they also got a lot of mackerel. Whilst the guys were fishing the Yozuri’s, Mike jigged a small snoek spoon and hooked a mackerel about 500mm long. This mackerel was immediately put out on the trap stick with no weights in to hope of finding a hungry sailfish, but instead it found itself in the jaws of a very large shark that kept the guys busy for some time.

Mike then set a spread with 2 live mackerel and 2 teasers on the outside still hoping for a sailfish and they took a slow troll, when going over the Glen Ashley pinnacles they saw a lot of activity but no takes and when Mike went over Yarning Dales one of the reels let out a high pitched yelp and lost line at a high rate of knots  and then all the other 3 lines  went but not like the first one, they landed 3 yellow fin tuna all around 5Kgs from the other 3 lines whilst they were still kept busy with the first one for some time and then suddenly the line went dead, they reeled it in and there was the live bait still strong and everything looked untouched, it is strange and Mike never saw what it was. After that Mike set a spread of 6 lures and tried to find the yellow fin tuna again without luck; but they did get a small eastern little tuna, and after circling for some time they headed out over Honeymoon and the No.1 pinnacle towards S Brick when all the lines went and they landed 5 eastern little tuna of fair size and another yellow fin tuna. Not a bad day at the office.

A reminder to ski boats, Jet Ski’s and fishing skis is that ORI have deployed a few ‘Drifter Buoys’ off our coastline. These are black buoys with a material substance hanging below them and their basic functions is to gather information for ORI as far as offshore currents and the KZN Bight are concerned. If any of these buoys are encountered anglers are asked to leave them alone (satellite tracked) or phone the relevant people at ORI. If they are encountered in the surf zone a call would be appreciated by ORI so that they can be deployed. Contact people are: Lisa Guastella 082 860 4043, UCT Oceanography Sean Fennessy 073 648 4804 or Lisa Hancke 082 713 0270.