The winds have been blowing us around this past week. The rough conditions have yielded some difficult albeit rewarding fishing.
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:
The offshore fishing continues on a high in spite of the cooler weather.
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.
Cape 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.
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 inedibles are starting to give a good account of themselves. There have been kingfish around in good numbers, with most being taken on lures.
North – The upper reaches of KZN have been a bit quiet for the past few weeks, the summer fish are starting to show though. There have been rumours of raggies with a splash of diamonds in between. The raggies have mainly come out at Tugela with bigger head baits getting the best results.
The rest of the north coast has been hit or miss with some spots producing amazing action and others that are seemingly perfect, not seeing fish. Your best bet is to line up the conditions as best as possible and go check out the spot you want to fish on a low tide to see the banks. Wait for three or so days of northeast wind to blow and ideally a small sea. Look for a spot where you can fish into the deeper water either over the sandbank or between two banks.
Central – The central coast has been producing a good mix of species for the intrepid angler. The shad season is closed, please let them do their thing in peace. The piers and beaches have produced a good number of edibles with lighter tackle often getting the most bites.
The stumpies and smaller kob have also been feeding on the rolling banks. Look for the whitewater along the sandbanks. Chokka and prawn baits are the choice for these fish.
South – The south coast remains a bit quiet. There have been fish around, but you have had to scratch hard to find them. The reefs of Trafalgar have been the main drawcard down south. Some of the areas have required a long cast so make sure your tackle is up to the task. Once again prawn and chokka have been the best baits. Red prawn has taken the lead over pink prawn.
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 bait caster 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), so you still have a bit of time to get a new PB if you haven’t had a chance yet.
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 – The stillwaters are still producing good fish. Highland Lodge saw an absolute giant caught recently that went well over 10lb!
The fishing in the stillwaters has been based on a more methodical approach, focussing on keeping your flies in the strike zone as long as possible.
The rivers have been difficult to fish with the current flush of water from the snows and rain. Heavier flies and eddies are the answer.
Focus on the areas of slower water close to the main channels as the fish will often hide out here waiting to pounce on anything that is swept past by the current.
News in from Jan Korrubel, The Kingfisher in PMB – “After ‘The Big Freeze’, and a some more chill weather thereafter, it would seem that with temperatures soaring this week to near 30degC, we are (finally) back on track for summer! The heat, along with the recent rains, of course means that The Midlands is now starting to don a new verdant green coat, and other “summer activities” – like mowing the lawn! – now come into play and may affect one’s fishing time. This seems to be the case, as there have been only a handful of returns from the Natal Fly Fishers Club Anglers over the past week – and the rains having fed the rivers and streams, not to surprising that there were more from the moving water fraternity than this on the stillwaters.
A little more than a week ago, the river returns noted “river is low and needs a flush” – and just a few days later “river has a fair amount of silt” … indicating the wished-for flush in process! Both returns however noted browns that came in on the lower end of the tape in the 5-7 inch / 13-18cm and 9-11 inch / 23-28cm brackets. Other returns noted fish of similar size … these are early days yet, and no doubt the bigger fish are still in their over-wintering holes and will start moving up now that the rivers have some decent flow. Watch this space…
For those that made it to the stillwaters, there were some just rewards in rainbow’s that taped in the 19-21 inches / 48-53 cm bracket … and then a PB for brown that came in at 21-23 inches / 53-58cm! A stunning fish in anyone’s books.
Even with the rivers having gone from zero to hero with the rains and snowmelt, it seems that the lower sections are slipping their hero status with reports indicating “quite low and cold”, so not ideal for scaly. Not to be deterred, some anglers have headed out in search of their favourite summer fish, but have found pickings to be slow, with just a few little ‘un’s to report.
Also on the yellowfish front is the news of the first yellows for the season from that other favourite of summer venues : Sterkfontein Dam. Local guide David Weaver reports however that the snowmelt has slowed the usual summer warming of the water, with water temperature currently sitting around the 14deg mark. Normally by this time of the year, water temperature should be getting close enough to the 16deg mark to signal the opening of the season but commented that it’s going to be a couple weeks yet. David also reports that water levels are way down, similar to that of a few years back.
The dearth of bass activity reported last week can perhaps be attributed to the Joey’s Towing Tournament Trail Season Finals held at Albert Falls on Day1 and Midmar Dam on Day2 this past weekend. While full bags were the order of the day at Alberts, all fish weighing in at between 1-2kg, with no big fish coming out. Fishing was even tougher on Day2 at Midmar, with only 1 team bettering 10 points. Congrats goes to team DST Natal, comprising local anglers Zeyn Habib and Arshud Maiter, who took the win. Zeyn reports that Arshud hooking a 3.45kg gave them the edge, propelling the team to victory.
With a few warm / hot days this last week, the carp have been active at Albert Falls, reports Jeremy Rochester from Escape Fly Fishing. They had an excellent day on the water recently, targeting surface-feeding fish with hopper patterns. The bank anglers have also been getting some good fish at Midmar.
Tight Lines all … and do stop in at Kingfisher-PMB for the best in tackle and advice! Opening hours are 8am-5pm Mon-Fri, and 8am-1pm on weekends and Public Holidays”. Thanks Jan.
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