Good kingfish action at Scottburgh

St Lucia - On the upper north coast anglers have had a bit of a tough time finding decent waters to fish, but with perseverance and determination there have still been good reports from areas such as Maphelane and St Lucia. The sea has been up, and with the large seas anglers have been forced to target either smaller species such as shad, stumpnose and bonefish in the bays, or go big and target larger species on heavy tackle casting over the banks and hoping for the bait to hold. Larger baits such as yellowtail head and bonito head have been getting more fish, mostly large blackfin sharks and a few Zambezi sharks. Sandsharks have made up the majority of the flatfish catches and have been caught on chokka slide baits or large chokka throw baits. Second to the sandsharks have been the diamond rays, which have taken shad cutlet baits and shad head.

Richards Bay - This area has had better fishing than the northern Zululand areas. It has also been very productive for anglers fishing in the harbour. Good catches of grunter have been reported as well as good perch and snapper salmon action. The surf side has also fished well enough to keep anglers busy most days of last week and should continue to produce good fish until the big swell rolls through. Some very nice diamonds of 60kg and above were seen off Richards Bay during the week, most of which were landed on spinning tackle. Be sure to stock up on harbour fishing tackle to make most of the flat water while the sea is up. Dean Reddy had an excellent time during the week, landing a magnificent sandshark of 89kg. This beast of a fish was landed on his new Daiwa Saltiga Dogfight 7000 loaded with 50lb Gatorbraid on a Daiwa Saltiga 5500 HMG Spinning rod.

Zinkwazi - This spot enjoyed a good flatfish run over the weekend, with some good sandsharks, brown skates and smaller honeycomb rays coming out, mostly on chokka and mackerel baits. Shad cutlets have worked well for the bigger fish, fished on Mustad Big Gun double hook traces. Ballito was relatively quiet and experienced some dirty water earlier on in the week. However, some anglers who spent time at the water managed some nice stumpies and cave bass in the gullies. It is nice to see a good number of juvenile rockcod being landed on smaller baits, but it is very important to release as many of these as possible to ensure a good future for the rockcod species. These are extremely slow growing fish and deserve all the respect possible when being handled.
 
Umhlanga - This spot saw quite a few shad being caught by the locals in the mornings on bait, a few of which were used as bait. These baits were jumped on and most anglers managed to land a few grey sharks of around 5-8kg. Good fun on spinning tackle and for the youngsters.

Blue Lagoon - Plenty of action in the late afternoon and for the spinning enthusiasts early in the mornings before work. Some nice juvenile kingfish on McArthy paddletails, as well as Kingfisher Bucktail jigs fished with a vigorous action. It is nice to see that all of these gamefish are being released to fight another day. The local anglers at the Durban beaches have reported few fish over the last week, but the good news is that with the sea predicted to be big over the next two weeks, the beachfront close to uShaka and Addington will be hotspots as they are relatively protected and fishing conditions are more favourable. Be sure to grab your spinning outfits and head down, as there should be some good fishing.

Scottburgh - Scottborough Point had anglers on edge with various kingies caught on spoon and drop-shot, on lighter spinning tackle and heavier tackle too. The larger fish are still around and actively feeding, as some light tackle anglers found out the hard way.
 
Transkei - Port St John's has seen good catches of a variety of edibles such as small kob, plenty of shad and also excellent numbers of big blacktail, wildeperd and eel-tail barbel. Do not write off this barbel as a good meal. Once skinned, filleted and baked or fried, the barbel will provide a tasty meal. Hole In The Wall has had a lot of reports of big blackfin sharks and raggies. The edibles have been wild too, being caught daily in large numbers. Crayfish and chokka baits have produced the goods on most days. Anglers have been using Mustad Demon circles in sizes 2-4/0 for these edibles and have had huge success. Bronze bream have been in the mix here.

(File Photo: Gallo Images)

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