Snoek off Durban Ski Boat Club
Sodwana Bay - This spot has produced good catches of Tuna around the 5-10kg mark, which have been caught mostly on Rattlers and Halcos, trawled between 30-50m deep. These "smaller" Yellowfin Tuna still put up a tremendous fight for their size, but unlike their bigger brothers and sisters of about 10kgs and up, they can still be bullied to the boat if Sharks are troubling the anglers. Depending on your tackle of course. Mapelane produced a good few Marlin yet again and most of these fish have fallen to a variety of the Pulsator Kona's on the 700m mark. Fairly decent by-catches of Tuna, Sailfish, Dorado and Wahoo have been common too. Umtunzini fished well with Couta and Tuna, the problem here being Sharks taking their fair share of fish, so heavy tackle is a must. A minimum of 30lb nylon, a strong reel such as a Daiwa Saltist BG50 or even SL50 and a rod with enough backbone to turn the head.
Durban - Natal Snoek seem to have erupted, not only on the common spots such as Blue Lagoon and Hyper, but off Vetch's Reef in the basin as well. This is something we do not experience often, but it should be taken advantage of while the fish are in the area. These fish have been taking baits intended for other species of fish, however the lack of bite-trace on small hooks left many anglers scratching through their tackle packs, looking for bigger hooks and wire. As the news got out, anglers flocked to the area and managed a good few Snoek on Strike Pro Magic Minnows and Sprat Spoons too. The Bluff area and the Cutting have been working well with Couta on live baits and Mackerel trawled slowly over the marks. It was nice to hear of a lot of big Snoek being boated at the Umkomaas area over the last week. The majority of these fish were landed on a standard Snoek trace with Red Eye fillet as bait. The Pink Dusters have worked well in the dirty water.
South Coast - Port Edward anglers were treated to a fair amount of Sailfish over the last week, caught mainly on live bait in 25-50m of water. Live Mozzies being the bait of choice here.
(File Photo:Gallo Images)
- Kingfisher
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre