Garrick success at Virginia

North - Kosi Bay and surroundings experienced some extremely good sandshark fishing over the last week, as well as the continuation of the honeycomb ray action along the Zululand stretch. Most anglers fishing for blackfin sharks also caught their fair share, mainly using bigger baits on slide traces. Most fish have been larger over the last few days and as a whole, last week produced many inedibles. Anglers in the Maphelane area managed a variety of edibles such as bonefish, stumpies and grunter. Anglers using artificials around the Cape Vidal area have had productive sessions with small kingfish and wave garrick, particularly on the high tide when using small variations of spoons such as the Pro Jets or Spanyid Maniacs. Most spoons available on the market these days are rigged with single J hooks, which leaves little work to the angler in terms of rigging. However, there are certain brands which are sold with treble hooks. These hooks are difficult to remove from the mouth of a fish and are also known to damage the mouth. If the spoons are being used for catch and release purposes, then anglers are urged to change the trebles out for a sharp strong single hook such as a Mustad O'Shaunessy Bait hook.
 
Zinkwazi and Ballito - Have both reported a healthy supply of grey sharks over the last week, which have been caught throughout the day and feed more aggressively in the evenings. The diamond rays have made their way down to Ballito, giving anglers a chance to stretch their arms a bit. The La Mercy stretch has been very productive and has shown off some very nice stumpies and pompano. Salt Rock Point saw a variety of species, the bulk of which were grey sharks which have been caught on mackerel slide baits.

Beachwood and Virginia - Some extremely large shad have been landed off the Beachwood and Virginia beaches, which have been released in anticipation of the reopening of the season on 1 December. Anglers spinning off these areas have also found themselves hooking into a fair number of garrick on small plugs and McArthy Paddletails in the 6" range. Much the same is the Blue Lagoon area with more garrick than in previous weeks. These fish have been feeding on live blacktail and pinkies, as well as plugs and dropshot. Large spoons in the 2oz variety have also been productive.

Durban - The beachfront will be receiving a lot of attention after the catches we have been seeing from this area. Blue rays, grunter, stumpies, brown skates and bonefish have swarmed to the beaches and have been caught daily. For these areas, most anglers can get away with using a lighter set-up as opposed to a 14' outfit. A Daiwa Saltist 4500h spinning reel matched to a 12'6" 4oz spinning rod will be a dream outfit for these medium sized fish.

Finally, a reminder that Durban Ski Boat Club will be hosting a jet-ski fishing competition next weekend.

(File Photo: Gallo Images)

Twitter - @SportswaveAndre @kingfisherdaiwa