Excellent fishing off Umdloti
We have been told of very good deep sea fishing off Umdloti over the past week.
Our northern stretches have been relatively productive recently, with anglers catching more couta by the day. The weather over the weekend did not pan out in the anglers’ favour, however most boats managed to launch during the week and had quite a few catches to brag about. Couta and dorado seem to have been all over the show, allowing many boats to go home with multiple catches. Most of these fish were caught on live baits, however some of the larger fish off the Cape Vidal area were caught on Rattler 150s on the 50m mark. Marlin have not been scarce and some lovely specimens have been landed, including a variety of these beautiful species as well as a few sailfish.
There were plenty of yellowfin tuna around between Richards Bay and Zinkwazi, which were caught almost entirely on lures.
Anglers off Ballito had a slightly different approach and have managed to boat a few dorado and tuna on live bait. Less is more when targeting these fish, so eliminating as many components on your trace will end up increasing your catch rate. A straight single hook onto a fluorocarbon leader or even a size 2 or 4 treble hook does extremely well.
Umdloti had an excellent run during the week which saw many anglers filling their hatches with fish, many of which were tuna, bonito and Natal snoek.
Blue Lagoon has seen some large snoek, but few of them on most days, with one or two days seeing massive numbers being taken on faster moving lures.
Durban has seen masses of smaller bonito shallower inshore and millions of smaller baitfish to go with them. The Basin area close to Limestone Reef seemed to hold many snoek and bonito over the last week. The best results have been seen on the outgoing tide in slightly off-coloured water. Tuna and dorado have both been caught in the deep off Durban, on live bait on the bait marks and on Konas or Rattlers off the ships. There are still plenty of dorado around and the size of these fish is definitely increasing. Fishing near the ships with a live bait will get a larger fish most times. All of the bait marks such as Caissons, The Barge and Containers have been holding some excellent tuna up to 35kg.
The Bluff had some good gamefish action last week, with most of the gamefish species caught mainly on feathers or Rattlers.
Green Point and Hibberdene saw the odd snoek and couta, lacking in numbers but making up for it in size. Wahoo catches have started to increase on Aliwal Shoal, having been caught on live bonito mainly. Unfortunately, big seas made weekend anglers change plans and the usual bunch were not able to see what the tuna were up to at Shelley Beach.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa
There were plenty of yellowfin tuna around between Richards Bay and Zinkwazi, which were caught almost entirely on lures.
Anglers off Ballito had a slightly different approach and have managed to boat a few dorado and tuna on live bait. Less is more when targeting these fish, so eliminating as many components on your trace will end up increasing your catch rate. A straight single hook onto a fluorocarbon leader or even a size 2 or 4 treble hook does extremely well.
Umdloti had an excellent run during the week which saw many anglers filling their hatches with fish, many of which were tuna, bonito and Natal snoek.
Blue Lagoon has seen some large snoek, but few of them on most days, with one or two days seeing massive numbers being taken on faster moving lures.
Durban has seen masses of smaller bonito shallower inshore and millions of smaller baitfish to go with them. The Basin area close to Limestone Reef seemed to hold many snoek and bonito over the last week. The best results have been seen on the outgoing tide in slightly off-coloured water. Tuna and dorado have both been caught in the deep off Durban, on live bait on the bait marks and on Konas or Rattlers off the ships. There are still plenty of dorado around and the size of these fish is definitely increasing. Fishing near the ships with a live bait will get a larger fish most times. All of the bait marks such as Caissons, The Barge and Containers have been holding some excellent tuna up to 35kg.
The Bluff had some good gamefish action last week, with most of the gamefish species caught mainly on feathers or Rattlers.
Green Point and Hibberdene saw the odd snoek and couta, lacking in numbers but making up for it in size. Wahoo catches have started to increase on Aliwal Shoal, having been caught on live bonito mainly. Unfortunately, big seas made weekend anglers change plans and the usual bunch were not able to see what the tuna were up to at Shelley Beach.
(File Photo: Caroll Hermann)
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa