Durban Harbour March 2014
Since April has been so quiet, I decided to write an article about March fishing in Durban Harbour.
Our tackle for this kind of sport is always 6-7ft sticks, 2000-2500 size reels, 8-10lb braid with leaders up to 15lb. Lures only - no bait.
Following on from a relatively exciting February with us having landed up to 30 fish and 5 species per session, our expectations for March were already relatively high.
First week March, a midweek afternoon session rendered a few fish off the Crocker Ski, namely 4 Perch, 3 GTs, two Pickhandles and a Flathead. We took a couple pics:
Little GT on Rapala:
Perch on Popper:
Better size GT on Popper:
Unfortunately, our March expectations mapped somewhat similarly to the barometer over the first two weekends of March as a series of fronts rolled in, typically each Wednesday or Thursday before the week-ends, leaving us with typically difficult conditions in which to fish. We still managed the odd fish here and there, but certainly unlike previous weeks.
For my birthday on the 13th, I decided to fish the late Wednesday afternoon. We were expecting some action as a front was on it’s way and the barometer steadily dropping ahead of the front. We had a few hits here and there, but nothing stuck. On a number of occasions, smaller Pickhandle Barracuda would leap out the water, attacking our surface lures. I missed a fairly big aggressive take on my Thai Stick, and as a birthday present, my faithful buddy (faithful because he just had to out-fish me on my birthday) Mo threw immediately after my miss and was smashed by this beautiful River Snapper. With a fair amount of rocky structure around, it was a splendid effort mot to lose this fish. Well done, Mo.
By the third week in March, our expectations had finally started to dissipate, and it was one of those really slow mornings. The fish were just not committing. We had a number of early boils and misses, bit there was a certain lack of aggression. Just before we decided to pack in, with the sun already fairly high in the sky, in a “why-not” kind of gesture, Justin decided to lob the X-Rap Walk around a bit. I was done fishing, and was ready to go home. “ON” comes the voice over my shoulder. “Ja - With another packet fish”, is the thought in my head until I hear that little reel screaming. Ah, must be a big Pickhandle, we agree as it breaks the surface briefly. The fish changes direction, and has to be forced hard to bring it over the extended anchor line. It breaks the surface as Justin forces it’s run. We still convinced it’s a big Pickhandle. After a number of minutes fighting, and a couple strong runs, we finally get it close enough to see that it is in fact a Garrick. What a surprise. Our first Garrick of 2014 in March! Yes – there are a number of resident Garrick in the bay.
The fish was very healthy, and swam away surprisingly strongly on release.
We also managed two torpedo scad on the way back:
So - It was left to the last weekend of March for some action finally to come. Friday evening, an after work session yielded two nice GTs, both on my March favourite lure – the StrikePro Walk, followed by a bite-off whilst trolling a 17cm Rapala around centre bank. Didn’t hear or feel a thing. Goodbye Mr Rap.
One of the little kingies:
We hit the water early Saturday, and on arrival we knew things were right. There was action everywhere around us. One of those mornings where you cannot get your stick and throw quick enough.......my very first throw I was smashed by a donkey Pickhandle on my second wind. It was still quite dark, and the action around us was hectic, so we didn’t take a photo, but the fish was over 70cm. Typically, I encountered a bit of a braid tangle after releasing that fish – you know that kind which you just cannot undo when the fish are going wild.....What felt like 20 minutes later, I was untangled and looked where to throw next. I spotted a chase to my right, threw in the area and bam – on again. This time, I could feel it was a kingy. Landed and released this nice little kingy:
One or two throws later, bam – again, a kingy. Landed and released this nice little kingy:
All went quiet for a while, but soon the chases came again – almost every throw around the chasing would result in a smash. It wasn’t long before we had a double up – Justin with a Pickhandle, and myself with another GT, both released.
Justin was a little distracted from fishing time having to take a photo of my fish every now and then, but eventually landed and released one kingy of his own:
Things soon quietened down as the sun made it’s appearance, giving us the first smoke and coffee break. It felt a little unusual following the quietness of the 3 weeks preceding. To wrap things up for the morning, Justin hooked into something huge on a 7cm rapala. Running straight towards a submerged tree some 120m from us, it rapidly relinquished his little spool of most of it’s 150m braid before parting under the pressure Justin had to apply. There was no stopping that fish on our tackle......
And so ended March for us, with thoughts of what that “one that got away” could have been. Our agreed conclusion is that it must have been one huge kingfish.
April starts.........
