FISHING REPORT 6TH JUNE 2009.
Angling has picked up quite well particularly down in the Transkei where anglers are catching some very good size shad. These fish seem to be at all spots down there and quotas can be caught very quickly. Some garrick have been reported in the Hole In The Wall and Port St Johns areas but are not there in big numbers just yet.
 Some fair size kob are also coming out in these areas and are all being caught mainly at night with Strike Pro lures. For anglers who target bigger fish there are now plenty of big sharks and skates around. Raggies in particular have given anglers some great fun as some of there fish have been reported in the 200 kg range. Duskys and spinner sharks have also been caught on a regular basis down here. Closer to home, fishing has also picked up with shad being found at most points and beaches. Garrick are being caught from the Port Edward area right up to Toti, but the main concentrations seem to be at the Sandspit at Port Shepsone and at Foster Road near Winkle.
 Terry Nel from Port Edward reports that apart from the huge sea last weekend, water conditions have been good and the season seems to have begun and shad have been coming out readily with most popular spots producing decent catches. Big fish have been few with only the odd grey and hound shark around. All eyes are on the water now expecting to spot some signs of the sardines and current baitfish here are being spotted on the water often.
The Durban area has also seen an improvement in fishing as shad are now being caught along the Piers and in the Umgeni area. Small shoal kob are being taken along the Umgeni north bank stretch at night. The North Coast is a little quiet but it should not be long before the fish start moving north.
Sardines are still proving to be a little elusive although there are some unconfirmed reports of them being sighted in and around the Port St Johns area. The only sightings have come from the East London and Bashee River mouth areas where there has been some bird and dolphin activity.

 ESA will be offering a sardine run package deal during June and July for ESA members to participate in one of the greatest angling phenomenons along the South African coastline, namely the annual sardine run. The guided angling trips will be conducted by the ESA presenters. The angling public, whether they are new to the sport or have years of angling experience have grown to trust and believe in what the ESA presenters do and can do for them when it comes to angling. The sardine run is a huge hit and miss affair and having “experts” in the angling arena as guides during this time will be valuable to any and all anglers interested in successfully participating in the annual sardine run. The guest house we will be using is ideally situated as a head quarters for them to actively pursue the sardines, apart from being relatively central to the main sardine run action it is also well laid out to entertain guests in such a way as to make it more interactive with braai area and pool area for socializing after a hard days angling. The packages will run for 4 days, with the maximum number of guests being 12 per package, the first group will arrive by 14h00, Sunday the 28th of June, where you will meet at the guest house, it will start with a seminar which includes talks about the sardine run and give a run down on traces, rigging and basically how to tackle up for the sardine run in the board room. Fishing will be done over the following 3 days till Wednesday the 1st of July; the group will depart on the morning of the 2nd of July. The same process will apply throughout for the 3 week period.
Group one: Sunday the 28th – Thursday the 2nd
Group two: Thursday the 2nd – Monday the 6th
Group three: Monday the 6th – Friday the 10th
Group four: Friday the 10th – Tuesday the 14th
Group five: Tuesday the 14th – Saturday the 18th   
They are limited to 60 people in total therefore bookings are essential. Booking can be done by mailing raymond@charadon.com this e-mail address is being protected from spam bots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The 4 day package is available with all food, accommodation, soft drinks and transport around the sardine run in the ESA branded vehicles plus the groups will be filmed for possible use on the ESA show. The package will cost R 4995.00 per person for ESA members and R 5995.00 per person for non members. Also please note that due to the nature of the sardine run they cannot guarantee sardine run action every day, however they will fish in and around the most likely areas to catch your dream fish.

Ski Boats and fishing ski’s are still battling to find some regular catches of couta and the only areas that are producing is the Zinkwazi area in the north and on the lower South Coast and Transkei areas where some very nice size fish have been caught recently. Anglers who fished in the Painedane competition in Mozambique report very few fish as well and the only good catches were made quite far out at sea. General bottom fishing as far as ski boats are concerned has picked up well and boats are reporting some good catches of fair size ‘red’ fish and rock cod.

Boats that are fishing the deeper reefs and wrecks off Durban have had some steady catches of geel bek salmon.

News from Brian is that the weather in Cape Town has been upside down. Not much action on the fishing front, but a couple of galjoen and blacktail came out on the reefs. A lot of freshwater in the sea made the conditions less than ideal. The Pipe area in the Strand looks good on a high tide (if the surfers don’t make fishing impossible again!) On the boating front the snoek that were plentiful last week has disappeared.  Brian is sure after the cold fronts have passed, they will make a showing again. Tuna fishing has also quieted down due to the weather. A couple of long fin and smallish yellow fin (30/40kg) came out on Monday and Tuesday, but then the weather turned nasty. Brian’s prediction is the mountainside in Gordon’s Bay will produce some big fish if the water flattens off a bit. This is the time of year for the big spear nose rays to make an appearance. The cow sharks should also be on the bite already in Betties Bay (Cow shark Corner and Verwoerd Beach) and Hangklip (Geheimeplek) areas.
 

Report
Janet Hendrikz the Convener of the Belfast Fly Fishing Association, sent in this report about the 7th Annual Ladies Competition held on the 22-24th May. This year ’s competition saw a change of program after consultation with all interested ladies regarding what changes they would like to see to improve this well established event. As a result the weekend commenced on the Friday afternoon with coaching for the inexperienced by the more experienced ladies on a one on one basis and a fly tying demonstration. Registration and light refreshments followed, giving the ladies an opportunity to meet the representatives of the main sponsors Land Rover and mix with other competitors, their partners and the organisers. During the registration the ladies also received their “goody bags”. Saturday morning 34 ladies took to the waters for a great days fishing, within minutes the first of the record 56 trout were caught. The morning saw 32 trout caught and the afternoon 24.  The day also saw a highest percentage of successful anglers ever with 24 ladies (71%) catching. So eager were the fish to bite that one trout swallowed BOTH the flies that Marietjie Davies from Waterval Boven had tied on her line.  It was the first time in her 25 years of fly-fishing that she double-hook a trout: It first swallowed a Hot Spot Nymph, and then also tried to gobble down her Pers Woolly Bugger”. For this Marietjie won the Marshall’s Choice Prize for the event of the day. Marietjie went on to be the overall winner of the competition with the Longest Bag netting her the coveted Land Rover Trophy and prizes worth R8350. Michelle Meyer took 2nd Prize valued at R6150 and Juanet van der Westhuizen 3rd Prize valued at R5540. Jenni Lord caught the longest trout earning her prizes worth R5100. A prize giving dinner attended by competitors, partners, officials, sponsors and media followed a great days fishing. All competitors received Lucky Draw Bags at the start of the evening proceedings. The ladies of the NHSV Kerk put on a wonderful spread in a tastefully decorated hall. First time competitors Christine Kleynhans, Tiphanie Martin, Christine Pile, Marisa vd Linde, Hannie Visagie and Kate Visagie were awarded Stealth starter rod, reel and line kits by Land Rover...Congratulations to all the participants, especially the prize winners, LONGESTBAG: Marietjie Davies. LONGEST TROUT: Jenni Lord, 2ND LONGEST BAG: Michelle Meyer. 3RD LONGEST BAG: Jaunet vd  Westhuizen            & Thalia Thain.
The Belfast Fly Fishing Association launched their new members only dam on the competition’s third day, which saw even more trout chasing after the ladies’ and their partners’ flies. During the Sunday morning competition 53 trout were hooked, this will be a hard act to follow and also a good reason to take out membership of the club. The weekend ended with lunch and another prize giving where R14000 worth of prizes were distributed and every entrant received a lucky draw prize. The Belfast Fly Fishing Association raised sponsored prizes worth R110.000, making the annual event well-worth entering.

Talking about trout, we have received the following info. As you may be aware by now, the current draft Alien and Invasive Species Regulations under the National Environmental Management : Biodiversity Act propose that trout be species which are managed by area and for which a series of trout zones will be identified.  Within these zones trout-related activities will be continued very much as at present and without too much red tape. Outside of the zones anyone wishing to do anything with trout will have to comply with stricter standards or maybe not even be allowed to have them at all.  While it would obviously be advantageous to include all the present trout waters into zones, this will probably lead to some clashes with indigenous biodiversity conservation. Thus it is likely that only the most valuable trout waters will be retained. For this reason, FOSAF is preparing a map which will be given to Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife for use in its aquatic biodiversity conservation plan.  Depending on the content of this map, and on the distribution of key indigenous aquatic species, a compromise shape for the trout zones will be attempted. Work on this has already started but there is still opportunity for refinement of the areas involved. As a person who has an interest in trout fishing in KwaZulu-Natal, you are invited to examine the attached four maps and consider whether they are a fair reflection of the status of the trout fisheries in the province at the moment. 

If you have any comments or wish to change the status of an area please let Jake Alletson know at jallet@telkomsa.net  Maps can be view on www.kingfisher.co.za in the fishing report dated 5th June.
Catch the ESA team doing battle on ESA Saltwater at 7:30pm on Thursday and don’t miss the bass show at 7:00pm every Tuesday on Supersport 1 (unless mentioned otherwise – check your DSTV guide for details)

Have just received info that Mark De la Hey and Lloyd Pereira from ESA plus a few guests did a bit of fishing in the Vidal area on Wednesday afternoon. They were delivering a Riviera Sports Fisher boat to Richards Bay and decided to do a bit of fishing on the way. They managed to land a number for great fish, the fish that we have heard of is, a dorado of about 12kg’s, three yellow fin, two of 30 – 40kg’s and one of around 70kg’s. Lloyd was very fortunate and managed to boat a blue marlin of + - 180kg’s.

"Hier Gaan Ons Alweer" is airing on Thursday evenings on Kyknet, channel 111 at the following times: Thursday 7th of may18:30hr. There will be six rebroadcast as follows: Fri 13:00, Sat 9:00 and 0:00, Mon 13:30, Tue 9:00 and 1:00.This series will run for three months. “Hier Gaan Ons Alweer” is in "Stywe Lyne” as well as "Fish" magazine. Both magazines are doing a series of articles on this fishing series. Petri and his team fish all over Southern Africa, fishing in salt and fresh water and will be fishing with The Kingfisher products, reels, rods, lines lures etc.
The Kingfisher’s trading hours are Monday, Wednesday to Friday 8:00 to 17:00, Tuesday 8:30 to 17:00 and Saturday 8:00 to 13:00.