Coast KZN

There seems to be much interest this year in the upcoming sardine run, despite it still being some way off. The problem at present is the dirty Eastern Cape waters making sighting of the fish very difficult. Small shoals were spotted in the Mazeppa Bay area where plenty of dolphin and bird activity was observed. At the weekend small pockets of sardines appeared in the East London area but these were decimated by dolphins, birds and some sharks.

Sea conditions were not all that great along the KZN coastline last week with rain down the lower South Coast and big swells at most places. I saw a surf reading of four metres at Salmon Bay but at least the beaches were open, unlike last year when all the beaches under eThekweni’s management were closed.

Despite adverse sea conditions, shad had begun to come on the bite. Those caught on the South Coast just reached the size limit however. Local beaches produced good catches with the main areas being the Zimbali area, Ballito, and a few larger fish hauled in at Tindley Manor. It’s a strange opening of the season this year because normally shoals of small green shad would flood up the coast, followed later in the year by the larger blue shad making their way north to spawn.

So far it seems as if red eye sardine is the way to go when targeting shad.

Bronze bream are increasing in numbers again as bronzies were caught on the South Coast and from local rocky areas. It seems as if the bronze bream have never really left, but with water temperatures beginning to cool they are now returning to their normal winter hunting grounds. No doubt the rocky outcrops are going to become very popular again as other winter species such as lantern bream and big blacktail begin to arrive.

So far garrick remain scarce with a couple being caught on live bait on the upper South Coast.

Anglers complained of unsettled seas along the upper South Coast fishing spots but these areas should be firing at this time of the year. Fishing remains quiet at this stage. Those fishing with light tackle along the local beaches have had some luck in the shore break zones.

A lot of small salmon have been caught so far this year and they should also begin to increase in numbers again as the sea water cools. Prawn and chokka baits have been producing good results. I heard that a couple of big stumpies were caught last week at night in the Salt Rock area. Weather and sea conditions permitting, anglers may be blessed with some excellent fishing this week.

Umdloti, Stud Rock and the game fish grounds off Ballito all produced sizeable barracouta again last week even though sea time was somewhat restricted.

Bottom anglers who managed to launch and spend time at sea recorded fine catches that included half-kob and some big rock cod.

A swell has been running out deep making fishing difficult, and when the wind begins to blow, it inevitably means the end of the day’s outing. Guys fishing inshore are now finding some lantern bream and moff grunter, but the winter barbell are beginning to make a nuisance of themselves.