Please remember to leave the areas that you fish in a better condition than when you got there. Take a few moments to pick up some litter and take it to the nearest bin. Tight lines and screaming reels.
Fishing has been rather exciting this past week with most of the facets reporting good catches. The sardine news is looking promising, so keep a lookout in the next few weeks for the silver shoal!
Top tip: Quick clips. One of the biggest game changers in the last few years was the use of quality quick change clips for most fishing facets. These allow you to swap out lures quickly from a plug to a spoon, or change from a trace with wire to a full nylon one. On the competition side, it allows anglers to prepare baits on traces and then just clip on and throw to make the most of a bite. If you haven’t tried these yet, get some proper quality clips and see how much more you enjoy your fishing.
Offshore:
Couta have been making many happy anglers along the coast along with some beastly bottom fish.
North – The north coast has seen the bulk of the gamefish action. There have been some very good catches of couta, dorado, tuna and sailfish to name the top four. Live bait has been (and always will be) king. All of the species will rarely turn down a well-presented and lively baitfish trolled behind a boat or ski. When bait is scarce then lures will still produce good results.
Vidal has been the place to be with social media full of amazing catches from there.
Central – The central section of the KZN coast has produced a lot of bottom fish and gamefish for the boating crowd. The tuna and couta have been the main gamefish coming out and they have not been that picky when it comes to bait. Both species have been caught on trolled lures, poppers and live bait. Use whichever method you prefer and look for the action (birds or fish busting). The bottom fishing has seen a lot of geelbek, daga and rockcod being landed. The sharks have taken their tax and beating them has required some heavy pulling so make sure your knots are good.
The 2nd edition of Bobbies “Croc” Cuda Competition was held this weekend in Durban, despite the big winds that were predicted, and arrived a little early, they had a 37% increase in entries over 2023. A total of 132 anglers on 50 boats and 6 Kayaks took part in the competition. Although the fishing was tough, with numerous anglers losing big fish to the sharks, a total of 25 King Mackerel (Cuda) and 7 other games species were weighed in. The winning fish, a Cuda of 22.05kg was caught by Marc Mc Laughlin who walked away with over R36 000.00 worth of prizes. The real hero of the weekend was Baylin Muller, a 14-year-old, who fished for only his 2nd time on a Ski boat, landing a Cuda of 10kg and walking away with the Mercury 5hp 4 Stroke outboard motor and numerous other prizes totaling R38 500.00. The total prize pool for this year’s competition was over R150 000.00. Well done to Brett and all involved.
South – The shallower areas down south have produced a couple of couta and some nice snoek. The fillet baits have been the pick of the bunch for the snoek while a larger live bait has been a killer for the couta.
The bottom fishing continues to produce really good quality catches with some bomber rockcod being brought up from the depths. The geelbek and daga are still keeping the commercial guys busy while the charters target the closer reefs. Please stick to your limits no matter how wild the fishing is.
Rock and surf:
The shore angling has shifted more to spinning with the current target species changing from the summer inedibles to a more edible-dominated mix. Remember the sardines are on the way.
North – The north coast has seen the bulk of the inedible catches. Blythedale and Zinkwazi have been the two most productive spots along the north coast. These spots have seen edibles and inedibles in most conditions.
On the edible side, chokka and prawn have been the best baits mentioned while the bigger shad have preferred sardines. There have also been plenty of spadefish around which love a white bait. Fishing has been best around rocks and particularly in bays that form some protection from the seas.
The inedibles have favoured mackerel and redeye as a bait. There have been some good sandies landed as well as some big flatfish. The sea has been a bit warm, but the northeast winds should help drop the temperature.
Central – The beaches in and around Durban have seen some decent fishing this past week. The central beaches have seen mostly edibles from the reports but there have been some inedibles scattered in the mix.
The shad have been around albeit a bit patchy. The stumpies and smaller kob have been around in good numbers. These fish will both eat a neat chokka bait on a longer hook snood (promotes a more natural presentation).
The inedibles have mainly been of the grey shark kind. For these fish, floatation is vitally important as well as a bit of attraction in the form of glow. Use a mix of chokka and a meaty bait to target these fish as well as most other species.
South – The south coast has seen some very good kingfish hooked by the anglers throwing bigger spoons and plugs. There have been both gts as well as blacktip kingies. These are very hard fighting fish that require full use of your pulling power and drag as they will try to cut you off.
The gullies and ledges are still a great place to target the edibles on both chokka and prawn baits. Most bream species are around at the moment as well as a host of surprises waiting in the foamy white water.
In the gaps between the bigger seas, the deeper points have been fishable.
These spots have produced some big fish as well as some big hidings.
Freshwater:
The rains have churned up the rivers and halted a lot of action. In the dams the bass have continued to hammer the topwater frogs and the rain has not changed that bite much.
Bass – The mighty topwater frog bite has been wild. If your heart does not stop briefly when a bucket-mouth opens up underneath your topwater frog as you work it through the weeds, then you might need to check in at the local morgue…
Fishing with these frogs requires a rod with plenty of backbone but it must have a fast tip action to allow you to work the frog properly. to this a fast baitcaster so you can take up the line quickly. On to the line, braid is a must and 50lb is a minimum if you are going into the thicker weeds.
Inanda and Albert Falls have been producing in the back bays.
Carp – The specimen anglers have been quiet; this usually means there are some big fish biting. The colder months do produce the best specimen fishing (most of the time).
The conventional anglers have reported good numbers from most of the dams. The fruity banana and strawberry flavours have produced results in most of the KZN waters. remember to fish accurately so as to make the most of your feeding area.
Trout – We are in the spawning season in most of the Stillwaters so get your orange flies ready for some heart in mouth stalking. If that is not your type of fishing, then the rivers are still producing plenty of fish on dries and nymphs. The larger minnow-type streamers are also very effective when blind casting in the dams. Remember that the fish are going to congregate in set areas, so take a walk around the venue and use your eyes.
News in from Jan Korrubel, The Kingfisher in PMB “It had to happen sometime – the snow and chill is finally here … guess we can’t have summer all winter long! Now we can commiserate with our southern Hemisphere friends about having to bundle up for fishing. On the upside, at least the weather effects up here were somewhat less than those experienced down at the coast.
The main news of course is that the trout river season is now officially closed for 3 months. This, while the rivers were still looking absolutely great, had us wishing that the season could be extended for a couple more weeks … but now that the real winter has arrived, probably best for a closure to let the fish get the rest of their nuptials done and give the little ones a chance to grow out a bit and start moving around. Somewhat unusual, the fishing was excellent right to the last minute – ask me how I know … I was out at the closing and had an absolute Red-Letter Day. Good flow, crystal clear water and a bracing 9deg water temperature at mid-morning (only rising to 11deg by 1pm), made for a slow start but as the water warmed, it was game on. It was 1-(dry) fly day, and I could call it early as I had caught enough fish to slake my thirst from having been on my home stream on only 2 occasions for the entire season! So now we have the long wait till Opening Day on 1 September…
But as the saying goes : one door closes, and another opens … although the (winter) stillwater season is already on the go with a couple events under the belt, it gets into full swing now with the Kamberg Trout Festival this weekend, and the Boston Fly Fishing Festival the weekend after … both events yours truly is fishing in, so I look forward to reporting on these first hand. Further events in the local trout calendar are Leg 3 of the TOPS Corporate Challenge (TCC) 27-30 June, and the inaugural Women In Waders Ladies Fly Fishing Festival 11-14 July. The Finals of the TCC is scheduled for 1-4 August. Busy times ahead.
Last weekend saw Leg 2 of the TCC, and the anglers reported TOUGH fishing compared to Leg 1 that took place 2 weeks prior. Lower numbers overall for this leg, with the biggest fish recorded coming in at 59cm, and lower numbers of fish overall. Water temperatures continue to drop and were reported to be around 15/16deg. I suspect that the fish know a thing or two ahead of time, and with the winter weather arriving at full steam like it did (with a corresponding drop in air pressure), they started buckling down for the onslaught. With the forecast looking better, albeit well into single figure temperature starts in the mornings, fingers crossed that this weather has pretty much blown over by the weekend and fish come back on for the Kamberg event.
With a just a handful of returns from the Natal Fly Fishers Club anglers, it appears that the NFFC stillwaters were also on the go slow. A return from a higher altitude water reported water temperature of 13deg, and fish getting dressed up into spawning colours. Fish brought to hand fell into the 11-13 inch / 28-33cm and 15-17 inch / 38-43 cm classes, with a single biggest fish coming in the 17-19 inch / 43-48 cm bracket. Fishing a dragonfly nymph pattern along the weed edges was reported to be effective … and with the fish now getting into spawn mode, brighter patterns will add to the catch.
For those anglers desperate for moving water, the NFFC beat on the Umkomaas also provided some good numbers of scaly. Lots of smaller fish around in the 3-5 inch / 8-13cm and 7-9 inch / 18-23cm classes, but with the odd larger fish showing up in the 17-19 inch / 43-48cm range. Copper, silver, and pink bead head nymphs were the order of the day.
The bass fishing has picked up again, with some good reports coming in from both Albert Falls and Midmar. Event 5 of the Joey’s Towing Tournament Trail took place this past weekend on Albert Falls Dam. Heaviest fish of that day came in at 2.51kg from Team Sea Beam, and Team Trellidor PK Builders taking the win with a 5 fish bag of 8.562kg. Congrats to all the anglers.
A great rig to try for bass this winter is a swing head jig with a weedless wacky hook. Nose hook the soft plastic to give it more action. A floating plastic is great as it will float off the bottom, making it look like a bait fish feeding on the bottom.
The carp have been active on the Alberts with the boat anglers targeting them on dry fly with hopper patterns.” Thanks Jan.
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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. 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. https://www.ecr.co.za/podcasts/ansa/
Please send any info about fishing or fish caught in your area to mike.pereira@kingfisher.co.za