Have you heard it yet? The KZN Angler News audio fishing report is South Africa’s first fishing podcast series that focuses on the latest fishing reports of the East Coast, whether they’re hot or not! It delivers true and accurate content from the provinces most prominent anglers on a weekly basis on various facets of angling. This report is free and available on all major Podcast platforms including Apple Pods, Google Pods, Spotify and Deezer as well as SA’s most popular Facebook Pages.
The sardines might be absent for the most part but the fishing has been fantastic along the KZN coast. Plenty of gamefish, bottomfish and a host of inedibles have been landed this past week.
Top tip: Skirts.
No, not what you chased as a lighty…
Skirts and flashers are a great way of drawing attention to your bait. They work for shore and offshore fishing. Generally the brighter colours work better in clear conditions and the darker colours in dirtier water, the exception is pink… pink works in all water colours and conditions. Try adding skirts on to your trace if you haven’t before and see how your catch rate goes up.
Offshore:
The offshore fishing has been good along the KZN coast with a lot of good bottomfish and gamefish being landed.
North:
The north coast has been a snoek hotspot. The dropoffs at Umdloti have been producing a lot of snoek and some very decent couta. The snoek have gone off eating the spoons and have been favouring fillet baits. The colour of the skirt in front of the fillet is a hot topic but the UV liveglow colour is always a winner.
The couta have been preferring a bait downrigged as close to the bottom as possible. Bait has not been too important but a livebait has been king.
Central:
The central coast has seen snoek as well but not at the same level as the north. Your key spots have been Limestone reef, the Bluff and the Blue Lagoon mouth. Fillet baits and spoons have been the most successful methods with lipped lures coming out third.
The central coast has seen some good tuna on livebait and poppers. Look out for pockets of baitfish or dolphins and throw your popper around the action. The tuna have been big so make sure to beef up your tackle and pull them with force.
South:
The south coast has seen a good run of bottomfish with most of the reefs and wrecks producing good hauls of both geelbek and kob/daga. Chokka and squid have been the most productive baits for the smaller fish while livebait has been the key to getting the bigger fish.
The backline anglers have managed some decent snoek on lures while the livebaits have produced a good number of garrick.
Rock and surf:
The rock and surf fishing has been heating up with a host of edibles and a couple decent inedibles being taken along the KZN coast.
North:
Spinning has been very productive on the north coast. Garrick, big shad, kingfish and snoek have all been taken in good numbers up north. Plugs have been very effective and so have bucktails for the bigger shad and garrick. The snoek and kingfish have mostly been taken on spoons.
The north coast has seen kob and stumpies for the edible anglers, raggies and the odd blackfin for the shark guys. Chokka and sardine baits have been the ticket for the edibles while the sharks have jumped on any livebait or bigger, bloody bait.
Central:
The Durban coast has seen a real mix of fishing. The evenings have seen some good stumpies coming out along the beaches and off the piers. Crabs, pink prawn and sardine baits have all been good choices. Remember that the stumpies can be finicky at times so fish with a running sinker so the fish doesn’t feel resistance when it picks up the bait.
Durban has also seen some good shad fishing and a good number of kob and garrick. Livebait has been the king of the baits for the kob and garrick while the bigger shad have been taken on drift baits.
South:
Bream, bream and more bream. This has been the story of most of the reports from the south coast. The bronze bream have been feeding well and the sizes have been impressive. Pink prawn has been the most successful bait for these fish with a couple of other species jumping on as well.
The south coast has seen some good garrick fishing with lures and livebait producing the best results. Much the same can be said for the kob on the south coast, of which there have been some bombers.
Freshwater: This in From Jan at the Kingfisher PMB
Trout:
The stillwaters continue to produce some amazing fishing. Most of the midlands venues have seen quality rainbows and browns. Those travelling to the eastern cape in previous weeks have seen some really big fish, most taken on streamers.
The colder days have been really icy so make sure you have your warm clothes packed and ready, nothing worse than packing your fishing short because you are too cold to hold the rod.
Minnow imitations have been the pick of the flies with bigger sizes seeing good results. Fish these on faster intermediate or sinking lines to get them down. Fiddle with the retrieves until you find the right speed and strip length.
As is usual, we start with the weather – which, we pointed out last week has been rather meek and mild for mid-winter … BUT as the saying(s) goes : ‘Speak of The Devil…’ or “Step on The Devil’s tail…” – and it seems we did both as there was a proper flash of winter this weekend as she showed us her teeth!
I am, however, happy to be able to report that while it did put a slight delay in getting out there – let’s just say that an extended breakfast and an early lunch were called for while waiting for conditions to settle before venturing out! – there were some fish out and about and happy to play along…
Up here in The Midlands, trout is the name of the game and retains the crown for fishing the winter stillwaters. With the recent spell of good weather, waters have warmed somewhat … temps are back into the double figures for some waters … and last week’s prefrontal conditions made for great fishing. With the trout back on the feed, some excellent fish have been reported.
Winter fishing is usually all about colour – the brighter and more sparkly the better, and while there was an initial surge of interest at the start of winter, the rest of the season has been a bit of an exception with small, natural patterns taking over from the usual “egg” patterns, blobs and orange beadhead buggers. Also, the “rip and strip” brigade that usually do well over this time, haven’t, and a change in tactics (and mindset) was required. Fishing (almost) static has produced fish … as mentioned last week, if the fish are being iffy (and truth be told, when are they NOT iffy?) … just slow down.
I was lucky enough to crack the nod to spend the weekend on some special water this past weekend, and managed to entice a good couple of fish to the net … including a 1st for me : a stillwater Brown Trout of 49cm / 19 inches … Happy Day! The balance of the catching comprised of rainbows in the 30-35cm / 12-14 inch bracket, all shiny and silvery, giving a great account of themselves. With 7 anglers on the water at varying times, and everybody fishing their favourites, fish were caught on a wide variety of flies including woolly buggers, dragonfly nymphs and minnow patterns.
Returns received from the Natal Fly Fishers Club (NFFC) once again had a fish over 60cm / 23 inches, with the bulk of the catches being in the 30-50cm / 12-19 inch bracket.
As mentioned last week, still early days for the scaly (Natal Yellowfish) anglers here in The Midlands. There have been some good reports however from further north, where it’s no doubt a tad warmer … The Buffalo River in the Newcastle region has been putting on a show of fish.
Still – you won’t know what’s out there unless get out on the water! Tight Lines to all and stop by the Kingfisher-PMB for the best in tackle and advice!
Bass:
The bass fishing is starting to feel more like spring and less like winter. The waters are starting to warm up and so are the bass.
Most of the dams in KZN have been fishing well. Small minnow patterns fished on light tackle have produced endless fun. The fish have not been the biggest but they are feisty and in big numbers.
Albert Falls has been a bit slow of late … with only sporadic reports of fish here and there. Local anglers Zeyn Habib and Arshud Maiter struck it lucky last week after a VERY SLOW start of 5hrs on the water without so much as a knock … and then finding the fish. Zeyn reports that fishing a soft plastic, they even had couple of double-up’s and an excellent fish of 3.6kg, just shy of 8lbs. Great fishing guys and shows that perseverance pays off … not sure that I would have stuck it out after 5hrs of diddly squat!
On the other hand, Midmar Dam seems to be still producing well on soft plastics … “anything and everything” as one angler reported.
The fish were in relatively deep, 20ft water, indicative of the cooler water temps that is keeping the bass on the bottom for the time being. The anticipation is however already building for the Spring Spawn, which should start in about a month’s time.
Carp:
Not much has been reported on the carp front.
The specimen anglers have been very quiet about where they have been catching their fish but there have been some impressive specimens landed. Boilies have been the pick of the baits for the specimen guys with fishy scents producing the best results.
The conventional anglers have been catching a mix of numbers and sizes. Some anglers have reported good results with the fruity/sweet scents despite the colder weather. The most mentioned flavour has been almond with gumtree/Vicks just behind.
This show is proudly sponsored by The Kingfisher to ensure you get into the right feeding zones with bending rods for the upcoming weekend!
https://ansapodcast.buzzsprout.com
Tight lines and screaming reels.
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