FISHING REPORT 31ST OCTOBER 2009.

Angling
It has been a frustrating month for anglers and although weather reports suggest fair weather the gods change their minds and really come up with a recipe for disaster. Shore angling has not been what it should be and anglers are finding fish hard to come by. The KZNCAU fished their common venue annual meet last week end on the lower south coast and judging by the fish that were caught one can only imagine the weather and sea conditions. The bulk of the somewhat meager catch was made up of bronze bream and other rock fish. The biggest fish to come out was  kob of seven kg. For the results check out www.kzncau.co.za

The pattern is much the same for North and South as well as the Zululand coasts and anglers are just going to have to sit this period out. However for some of the die hard anglers there are some brusher and bronze bream around and should a good window of weather present itself anglers should take full advantage of it as there are some very good fish around at this time of the year. In the North Coast area there have been reports of garrick, kingies and snoek coming out, this news came from local rock and surf anglers fishing with the Kingfisher Chase bullet spoons ( these bullet spoons  come in four sizes, from about 1oz to 3oz) .

There have also been reports on one or two springer coming out along deep water points on the North Coast.  News from the South Coast is that the weather has also been a little on the dull side, although over the past week along much of the South Coast from Hibberdean to Palm Beach, anglers have been stuck into the bronze bream. Most of the fish fitted comfortably between to 2 - 4kg mark. There have been reports of garrick coming out at Splash Rock, Port Edward, (folks remember shad closed season is upon us and the feds will not tolerate greedy anglers. We all need to do our bit. Stay off the shad, if you should catch one, let it go! This is their reproductive season and as a once threatened species in our waters we need to give them a chance to reproduce, we as anglers will benefit from this so best we stick to the rules!)

The weather on this stretch of the coast has also been a little temperamental with lots of rain leaving the rivers dirty and not very fishable for light tackle enthusiasts. There have however in between messy weather been catches of hammers at Splash Rock and water temp is currently sitting at 19°C. News from the Transkei is the weather has been better and anglers visiting this beautiful part of the country have been getting stuck into some really decent fish. We received repots of big muscle cracker coming out all along the coast line. Most being caught on sand prawn and red crab. Thanks Brenna from ESA for the update.

On the fresh water side Ryan Tippett from Shayamoya informs us that, The Jozini dam is still fishing reasonably well, but there is a fair amount of dirty water pushing in. They have had some excellent, early rain this year. It’s good for the bush, but it always affects the fishing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The water temperature is just right at the moment. It is sitting at around 23 to 26 degrees. The water clarity currently varies from terrible near the bridge to crystal clear in parts of the main dam.

Now is the time to start fishing the main dam and the gorge as the whole river is a muddy, chocolate brown colour. The ginger-beer coloured waters where the dirty water meets the clear water can produce excellent fishing. The fish are less weary here than they are in the clean stuff. Bait is working particularly well at this time. Anglers are catching with just about any meaty bait. Sardines, red-eyes, chicken breast, chicken livers and live bait are all producing the goods. Ryan spoke to some guys who had success with chokka and prawn as well as rump steak that had passed its sell by date!

The average sizes for tiger fish on bait have been from 1 to 1.5kg’s with larger fish being landed regularly. Ryan has been doing quite a bit of drop-shotting (McArthy soft plastics) for tigers of late. The results are encouraging; they caught some nice tigers in the 1, 5 to 3kg range. He went through a lot of drop-shot lures, especially when there were shoals of small tigers in the area. The larger fish tended to take the whole lure and therefore produced more hookups. Little tigers have the nasty habit of biting the tails off the lures. Make sure that you use high quality jig-heads. Unfortunately they lost some large fish that managed to straighten the thinner hooks. Trolling is not producing the results, but spinning around the weed beds near where the river section meets the main dam with spoons, spinners, crank baits and poppers has worked very well.

Ryan has found most success with copper coloured spoons. The tigers are also hitting flies very aggressively in these areas. Orange, yellow, red and black are very good colours in the off coloured water.

The World Carp Angling Championships
The World Carp Angling Championships was held from 21-25 October 2009 at Lac de I’Uby in Cazaubon, Barbotan, in the Southern part of France. Twenty-one nations participate in this event namely Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, England, France, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Latonia, Macedonia, Moldavia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Ukraine and Greece.  Following on last year's excellent performance when South Africa hosted the tournament and  won gold in the Team Event, came 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Individual Pairs Classification and broke seven world competition records, they were extremely excited and had a high expectancy that the South African Teams would do well. They were however also realistic in weighing their changes in regaining the world championship title, taking into account that our Protea Team would compete in foreign conditions against highly competitive and professional teams with excellent sponsor back-up.

They did however not in their wildest dreams expect to almost repeat the best performance that a National Team could achieve at a world championships event. With the exception of the individual pairs combination of Loutjie Louwies and Gilbert Foxcroft finishing an fantastic 8th position out 63 pairs in the individual classification, our Protea Team once again almost made a clean sweet of the medals on offer. South African once again took glory in winning the team event and retaining the World Champions title. In the individual pair’s event Hennie Du Preez and Andries Mare, who last year finished third, won the gold medal and are now the new individual World Champions. GP Nel and Kobus van Loggerenberg who last year finished first, this year won the bronze medal. This result was the best ever achieved by a Protea Angling Team in a word championships on foreign soil.

The Protea Team thoroughly deserve their number one FIPS-ed world ranking in the carp angling discipline. Well done guys and congratulations to the Team Manager Johan Donald and Team Coach Johan van Heerden under whose leadership our Protea Team consecutively obtained world championship status. Their effort once again stress the critical importance of a long term medal winning programme of support to athletes, the effective analysing of the opposition and angling conditions, the use of technology and an effective game plan incorporating the preceding factors. Our thanks to Fred Visagie for the feedback.

Ski boats and Fishing Ski’s
Ski boats and Fishing Ski’s are also experiencing the frustration of the shore bases anglers lately but for those that do get out, especially the ski boats some good bottom fishing can be had, As summer slowly approaches, boats and ski’s alike are looking forward to the first of the summer game fish run. There are already reports of dorado and the odd sailfish being caught close inshore. The big game fish anglers that target marlin have already had some mixed results from the Sodwana area. Numerous marlin and sailfish have been taken up there recently and this is good news for those anglers that are taking part in the Billfish 15 000 which is fished in the middle of November.

We have heard the guys have got stuck into some decent game fish, the likes of tuna and marlin along the Zululand Coast. There have also been reports of the odd dorado coming out, this a true sign that the summer game fish are soon to fully appear. Most catches coming out in between weather but into this week the sea has been a mess with howling SW swinging to pumping NE. Divers have reported sightings of couta along the lower North Coast once again, a good sign that the summer fish are making an appearance, when the weather settles anglers should be landing some of these beauties.

THE ESA SHOW
Join us on Super Sport 1 every Tuesday and Thursday for the highest in angling entertainment.

ESA BASS: Tuesday @ 7:00PM.
We are back at Lake Chikumba and get stuck into to the real deal that makes this dam one of the best in Southern Africa. Don’t miss it!

ESA SALTWATER: Thursday @ 7:30PM.
In LBSA we are back in the Eastern Cape with Ray and Lloyd as they visit a stunning spot, Bigha. In OSSA we are aboard the Tom Cat for some reel screaming action in Mozambiquean waters and for the DSSA section we will be introducing the NEW ESA Facet that puts the EXTREME in Extreme Sports Angling. We join Mark and Craig off Pindane in Mozambique, with rods bending something chronic you don’t want to miss this action packed episode!

The guys at The Kingfisher are hard at work, sorting and pricing products for their annual sale of samples, demos and shop soiled items. Check out the newspapers towards the end of the month for further details.

First off, we would like to apologies for giving the incorrect date for the diving clinic, it was held on Saturday the 24th not the 25th as advertised.

Free Fishing Clinic
The Kingfisher hosts free Fishing Clinic’s on their premises once a month, booking is essential. 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. To find out more about these clinics and to book a seat please phone The Kingfishers sales staff on 031 368 3903.