KZN FISHING REPORT - 18 April 2008

ROCK & SURF - South Coast
Shore anglers have, during the past week had some good angling as weather conditions held off and anglers fishing in the Durban area have had some good catches of Natal snoek and shad, mainly off the piers and at Umgeni mouth. The Umgeni north bank area has once again started producing some nice fish. Anglers fishing here at night have caught some nice grunter and the odd sizable stumpie has also been landed. Queen fish have also been at this venue but not in any notable numbers. Fishing on the South Coast has stepped up a gear and as with the North Coast shad seem plentiful at all known spots. The Umkomaas river mouth area is also producing a steady flow of fish. Grunter are being caught off the beach as well as some nice shoal kob. The river mouth here is still open to the sea and the discoloured water here is what is attracting the fish. Some nice brown skates as well as the odd honeycombe ray has also been taken in the north bank area. Further south the Kelso and Mtwalumi areas are fishing well with some reports coming through of nice size pompano being caught here.

ROCK & SURF - North Coast
The Zululand beaches, with Mapelane in particular are yielding some really good fish. Shad are being caught in the Lighthouse area but it is at night when anglers here are having good catches. Kob some up to the 10 kg mark are now regularly being landed as well as grunter. Those anglers fishing for sharks have also had some fun with small zambezi sharks but a few huge ragged tooth sharks have been landed of late. A little further North an excellent catch of a rather rare shark to be caught by shore based anglers was made by Andries Oostuizen of Richards Bay Angling club. Whilst fishing for sharks in the Sodwana area Andries hooked and landed a monster tiger shark of 206 kg.

SKI BOAT'S & FISHING SKI'S
Ski Boats went through a rather lean period last week end, especially those who fished the Aliwal Shoal area. After a really stunning season at this venue some cold green water pushed in and virtually no fish came out. Most venues on the South Coast were affected by this cold water and no significant game fish were landed. The North Coast has steadily preformed and good catches of couta are reported from Durban, Umdloti and the Tinley areas. Sharks have over the past few weeks have really been giving anglers a hard time by ‘taxing’ quite a few fish.
This week-end sees the Winkle Fishing Ski Club holding its annual team event competition. Any interested ski anglers who are interested can get hold of Jaco 082 782 9114 or Karel 083 679 0818 for further information.
The Durban Ski –Boat Club are having a fishing festival on the 26 &27 April 2009. First prize for the biggest couta is a completely rigged 565 Sea Cat with trailer and 2 x 70HP Yamaha’s, the value is about R310, 000.00. There are R200, 000.00 worth of other prizes to be won and pre-entry is R200.00. For more info on this very well run competition visit their Website: www.durbanskiboatclub.co.za.
Entry forms for all of these competitions are available at The Kingfisher, 53 Hunter St., Durban, of phone the sales guys on 031 368 3903.

HEER GAAN ONS ALWEER
Heer Gaan Ons Alweer is back on TV. This very interesting show is hosted by Petri de Wet and covers many different fishing spots, fresh and salt water in Southern Africa. This fishing show is on kyknet, channel 35, every Thursday at 18:00 with reruns during the week. Check your TV guide for details.

ESA
The latest ESA magazine is out and on sale at The Kingfisher for R19.95. This issue it is jammed packed with great features like. The sailfish, extreme species, targeting bronzies in Namibia, ten hot tips for paddle ski fishing, chunking for tuna and cranking rods get put the test in the bass section. Also don’t forget to tune into SS1 on Tuesday at 19.00 for bass and Thursday at 19.30 for the salt water section, great viewing. In the Bass section we join Xavier and Morne de Beer at Mokolo Dam where they catch a 2,7kg fish on the 5” WAVE WORM. Then they proceed to catch a number of smaller bass on crank baits. Then we cross over to the ESA Bass Pro Series that took place at Inanda Dam in KZN on the 5th of April 2008, where there were lots of prizes up for grabs for Kids; Ladies; Pro’s; and Teams. In LBSA, Raymond and Dean heads out to three different Angling hotspots, Spiro’s, Doc Wilson and Palm Beach where they scratch for edibles. They land a number of cat face rock cod.
Drop Shot takes place off Tinley Manor where the diversity of fish species on the South African Coastline is once again exposed as they catch soldiers; cat face rock cod; tomato rock cod; triggerfish; half-moon rock cod and yellow belly rock cod.
Then we join the OSSA team on their exotic trip in Tanzania jigging away. They land a variety of kingfish; dog tooth tuna and rainbow runners.

FRESH WATER
Thanks to Bill Simson from UHTFC for this report. After some time in the doldrums the fishing is returning to normal. The rivers, having had so much rain recently and having been in flood for so long, are now in prime condition and are fishing well. The biggest river fish this week is one of 1,4kg. Anglers are advised to take advantage of the excellent conditions in the few weeks remaining of the season. Still water fishing has also improved and we have had a report from one fisherman of 2 trout in quick succession, one weighing 2, 7 kg and the other 3, 4 kg.
Bass Anglers, the 11th Inanda Bass Classic takes place at the Inanda Dam on the 26-27 April. Entries are limited to 300 boats and it is strongly recommended to register early. The past 2 years have seen entries turned away because of the popularity of this tournament.

KINGFISHER

The guys from The Kingfisher (Fishing Tackle Store, not Club) have landed some great fish recently. Ian Andrew landed a yellow fin tuna of 76.5kg’s at the Mapelane Billfish, see Photo. Lloyd Pereira caught and released a sandie of 41.05Kg’s (1.94m) on Saturday evening from Umhloti beach. Lloyd was using the new Poseidon HMG rod and Daiwa Saltist 50 reel and had this fish beat in twenty five minutes. Michael Roger landed a great snoek of 6.5kg’s on drop shot early on Saturday and landed another nice one on Tuesday morning, Michael was fishing from the Durban Beach front Pier with his Daiwa Crossfire 2500 reel filled with Kingfisher 12lb braid and a Daiwa 8’6” Firewolf rod. Wayne Close landed two snoek last Thursday from the Beach front Pier with his Megaforce 7’ rod and Daiwa Regal 2500 spinning reel. Mike Philip caught and released a great trout of +- 8lb using a dirty big Mrs Simpson while fishing in the Swartberg area last week end. Peter Marriott spent a few days with his son Warren, at Chrystal Waters in the Underberg area and they landed a number of rainbow trout in the 1 to 2 kg mark. They were using a Kingfisher Malachite 4 wgt rod and a Daiwa LMS100 fly reel.

THE KINGFISHER CLINICS
The Kingfisher hosts a free Fishing Ski Clinic on their premises once a month by Markham Pollard. These clinics are there to help beginners and experienced anglers to see what the sport is all about and how to target certain species of fish. It also shows anglers what equipment to use and also elaborates on safety. Over and above this they also hold Rock and Surf clinics run by Ivan Stopforth. These Clinics are very informative and covers all the basics, including equipment, knots, bait presentation, and tactics. To book for one of these free clinics phone the Kingfisher on 031-3683903