FISHING REPORT 21ST NOVEMBER 2009

Anglers
This week end sees the end of the Postal Rounds of the KZNCAU when they fish their Annual Meet at Salt Rock on the North Coast. Weather predictions look quite favorable at this stage with moderate Easterlies on Saturday and turning to the South West on Sunday. These weather conditions should favor not only the competitive angler but social anglers as well. Not too many reports are coming in from the North Coast except for some bronze bream and brusher along the La Mercy stretch but reports of traditional grey sharks at this time of the year remain sketchy. On the South Coast however the Park Rynie, Umdoni and Sezella areas have fished well as far as some above average size yellowtail kingfish are concerned.

These fish are being caught on a regular basis here, and amongst them a few garrick are being caught as well. There are also favorable reports of garrickand kob down at the Sandspit at Port Shepstone. Terry Nel from Tacklenet in Port Edward reports that few fish are around and they are still experiencing lots of rain and windy weather. Bronze bream are on the bite at the moment and some fair size fish are being caught. For info in the Port Edward area give Terry a call on 039 3113 013.

Kob are also around and those anglers who can put in a couple of hours at night are being rewarded with a few good fish. Brusher and bronze bream are now being actively targeted by most anglers. These fish can be caught in almost any weather conditions due to their habitat being in and around rocky ledges and bays. There are good reports of some bigger brusher being caught in traditional places like the Twini ledge and the rocky bays at Doonside.

Fishing in the Transkei should also start picking up as far as shark angling is concerned. Reports from the Hole in The Wall suggest that a few nice size raggies have come out recently and that some average size grey and hammerhead sharks have also been caught. The same can be said for the Port St Johns area where some really big raggies have been landed recently.

Barry Tedder from Zululand Shore Angling reports that well into November and still no hot summer days, and no sandy’s. The giant guitar fish also known as the sandy is a sort after fish amongst the competitive sport anglers, a fish over eighty kilograms can keep an angler busy for anything from two hours plus, testing the anglers endurance, stamina and tackle to the limit. (Guys, make sure you have the right tackle, you need a very strong reel, the Daiwa Saltiga’s and Saltist 50 reels are great, as well as a strong rod like the Kingfisher Poseidon HMG range of rods, these will do the trick for these hard fighting fish).

Let’s hope this week sees the turn in weather and the welcome return of the sandy’s, butterfly and honeycomb rays. Although there have been reports of isolated catches of these fine shore angling game fish, Chad Engelbrecht landed a good size honeycomb ray of 104.4 kilo’s up at Mapalane and Desmond Ngubane landed a young sandy of 30 kg’s up at Nogiyane recently.

As reported last week, Chad’s honey is a pending Zululand record and SA under 21 record. Reporting on Zululand shore angling’s past postal competition, the third on the Zululand shore angling calendar to date. Where some 79 anglers turned out with their respective clubs to compete, catching a total of 98 fish telling up to 1112.7 weight points during a un interrupted period of eight hours at a venue of their choice. The presence of a few bonus fish in the form of raggies making up the bulk of the catch.

Weather conditions were favourable with fresh to strong NE winds prevailing and a reasonably flat sea. Kwambo Club who opted for a early start and fished Friday night pulled off top honours with their A side on 484 pts weight points followed by Richards Bay A on 297 pts. Third place went to Tugela A on 227 pts, but unfortunately due to a technicality where they transgressed a competition rule by overstepping their boundary limit had no option but to withdraw their weights.

Another hard luck story Mtunzini Club now nicknamed Mtunzini Safari’s travelled all the way down to Hole In The Wall only to come away with 2 pts. Top junior went to Carl Nel of St Lucia club on 17.6 pts; top master went to Max Donnoli of Kwambo club on 21.8 pts. Top senior angler went to Bryan Rapson of Kwambo club on 215 pts, including in his catch an outstanding raggie of 179.2 kg also being the heaviest inedible for the weekend.

The heaviest edible was a speckled snapper of 9.1 kg’s also caught by Max Donnoli also an outstanding catch for this species. Congratulations to Francois Massyn of Tugela Club who got a belated call up to the Masters Protea team, Francois joins Julian Pybus, Justin Carroll and Clinton Woodley who will be making their way down to Port Elizabeth on the 2nd December to compete in the International against Namibia.

The next competition being a common venue competition is scheduled for this weekend the 21st November with Richards Bay, Umzingazi and Qalakhabusha Correctional Service Clubs making the call on the area to be fished. The Mtunzini Diamond classic, a fund raising initiative by the Zululand Juniors to raise funds for their national tournament to be fished in Zululand next year will be held on the 6th December in conjunction with the annual Turkey with a prizes totalling the value of R450,000.00. Please e-mail either Barry.Tedder@mondigroup.co.za or contreac@saol.com for a pre entry form at R180 per entry.
                      TOP 10 ANGLERS FOR THE LAST ROUND
1.  B Rapson 215 pts
2.  I Minnie 186.7
3.  C. d'Offay 171.7
4.  C Engelbrecht 125.2
5.  K Boyder 122
6.  P Lamont 110.8
7.  D Hunter 64.0
8.  D Ngubane 61.8
9.  D King 54.0
10. D Pereira 50.9
                                                   TOP 10 TEAMS
1.  Kwambo A - 484.3 pts (8 fish)
2.  Richards Bay A - 297.5 pts (9 fish)
3.  Kwambo B - 193 pts (3 fish)
4.  St Lucia A - 99.7 pts (36 fish)
5. Umzingazi A - 75.2 pts (6 fish)
6.  St Lucia B - 62.5 pts (23 fish)
7.  Richards Bay B - 31.3 pts (2 fish)
8.  Umzingazi B - 17.9 pts (1 fish)
9. Kwambo C - 11.2 pts (4 fish)
10. Mtunzini A – 2.0 pts (1 fish).

Ski Boats have stared catching some good numbers of dorado mainly off the deep reefs off Durban but quite a few have recently been caught on the shallower reefs off the North and South Coasts. When weather permits , the Cape Vidal area is also fishing well with reports of dorado, wahoo, sailfish, small tunny and the odd couta being boated. Fishing on the Aliwal Shoal and the Protea Banks have also started picking up with catches of wahoo and tunny being reported. General bottom fishing is still going well when the sea lets up as there are still good numbers of geelbek and daga salmon around.

Mike Laubscher
Mike Laubscher sent in this report on the 16th. “We launched from Durban Harbour at about 16h00 and went out to collect live bait, there was a moderate SW wind blowing and the water surface temp was around 22 deg. C. After collecting our live bait we headed out to some pinnacles in the 40m depth area hoping for some daga salmon, the wind had shifted to a SE and had picked up considerably.

The mackerel were scarce but the ones we got were all big, there was also plenty small shad around. At first our live baits kept on getting eaten and all than was left was their heads as smaller sharks where just biting them as they hit the bottom.

I then changed the way I rigged them and then the whole trace got bitten off again as the live bait hit the bottom. We then moved to about 50m depth and here we got some daga salmon on and they gave a real good fight, but before we could get them to the boat the sharks were taking them and left us with just the heads, and in the end after about getting 6 or 7 heads and all our live bait was used up, we decided that the sharks won that night and headed back at around 21h30. For a great fishing experience contact Mike on 076 2999 445, or check out his website www.fishingadventures.co.za.

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.

The Kingfisher’s trading hours
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.
 The trading hours for the festive season are: Every Sunday in December, including Wednesday the 16t and Saturday the 26th, plus November the 29th and Sunday the 3rd January, from 9:00 – 13:00.

ESA Saltwater
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 Super sport 1 (unless mentioned otherwise – check your DSTV guide for details) The latest ESA magazine is out and on sale at The Kingfisher for R19.95. This issue it is jammed packed with great features.