Bonito spinning at Umdloti

Umdloti surf fishing has been quiet this past week.The amount of baitfish along the backline was incredible and many anglers lucky enough to have a spinning rod with them managed to hook into a few unstoppable fish. The majority of the fish hooked were assumed to be yellowfin tuna, which were quick to the draw and lost either to sharks or inexperience in a hurry. Among the bait-fish were millions of bonito which seem to have made up the bulk of the catches for the surf spin fishermen over the last week, with the odd Natal snoek coming to the party every now and then. For those who have opted for the use of bait, there have been a number of pompano around, being caught on prawn baits and sealice. Shad have been a popular target species over the last week, yielding very few results for most. Smaller shad just making size have made very good baits for grey sharks and other species such as sandsharks. 


Umgeni River has been a hotspot for anglers catching in-edibles recently. Diamond rays, brown rays and grey sharks have taken baits here.


Durban Beachfront has been quiet apart from last Friday just before the storm and even into the storm. Prior to the westerly hitting Durban, the pressure dropped substantially and turned the fish on the bite, which was shortly taken advantage of by local anglers who quickly got their rods and reels ready, popped into their favourite tackle shop on the way down to Ushaka Beach for some fresh bait and had a good time until the storm hit.


(File Photo: Gallo Images)


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