ULTIMATE ANGLING - the Ultimate SA Fishing website
General Angling Topics => Saltwater Lure Angling => Topic started by: jball7204 on April 06, 2015, 08:20:22 AM
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It’s been a pretty strange summer with odd weather patterns on the KZN coast and lure angling never seeming to really produce the results it has in previous years. Added to that have been other commitments keeping us off the water for extended periods of time, but with the weather, ocean currents and water temperature not playing the game for large parts of the season, it appears we haven’t missed out on too much. What follows is a brief summary of what we have accomplished fishing very light tackle in the Durban Bay since November last year.
Saturday the 15th of November
We decided to have a prospective trip to our favourite spot (which is tops on our productivity list as far as spots go), to see whether the anticipated summer fishing spell was showing signs of an imminent launch.
Starting with topwater lures we noticed right away that the inquisitive boils behind lures which you usually get at first light in summer were a little absent. Continuing with a small Yozuri EBA popper I was eventually smashed by a decent fish, which started off by taking a bit of line on a couple of runs and then deciding to head straight towards the boat. I managed to get it high enough in the water to see it was a nice juvenile Barracuda, before it swam right under the middle of the boat at high speed. With an extended anchor rope on my left and my mate and skipper Chris with a line in the water on the right, I had no option but to put my rod in the water right in front of me, between my legs, and fight the fish with the rod submerged and him swimming off behind and under me. Unfortunately he bit me off within a few seconds of that maneuver, and so the first chance of the season went a begging and I lost my first lure on my first fish. I was glad I had snapped up as many of those poppers as I could find in Durban, as they are rather rare these days, but concede that I am a chop for not tying on wire at the end of the leader!!
There was no more surface or midwater action thereafter, so we went deep (dropshot) with 4 inch McCarthy Finesse Minnows in Chartreuse and Orca. We managed a few Sand Gurnard, which were fun for a while, but that is generally the end of that and we headed off home with a cup or two of coffee remaining.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2500)
Saturday the 22nd of November
We launched about an hour before sunrise as usual, but found no sign of any gamefish activity. What was very interesting though, is that there was a pod of dolphins deep in the Salisbury channel, as far as they could go in deeper water, and swimming right up to the side of the piers.
There was no action on the surface at all so we went deep, hooking and releasing a number of Sand Gurnard.
We then decided to pull some lures along the drop-off on the south side of the Centre Bank on the way back to the launch site, and after a few hundred meters started getting knocks on both the 7cm Rapala MaxRap and the Maria Fake Bait jerkbait. This could only mean Garfish were around.
Chris cut the motor and we started casting at the boils that were erupting around us, and he managed to quickly hook and land a Garfish. I grabbed my smaller setup with the Yozuri EBA popper and after knock after knock managed to connect with another Garfish. He did a bit of tailwalking and after some great leaps out of the water he came off unfortunately. They continued hitting our lures for 20 minutes or so, but after no further hookups we headed homeward.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2501)
Friday the 19th of December
After arriving and anchoring at one of the favourite drop-offs just at first light, we noticed a shoal of small Kingfish smashing bait on the surface. Chris cast, popped, hooked and landed a nice little Bigeye Kingy. The shoal disappeared in minutes, and there was no gamefish action after that.
As usual we then went deep, myself on a Chartreuse McCarthy Finesse Minnow, and Chris on the same but in Orca.
After a short while I got hit hard and pulled flat. Feeling some largish headshakes after the initial run I thought I was into a decent kingfish, but it flopped around, picked a straight line and slowly headed off towards a far bank, the reel buzzing monotonously. I put on as much pressure as I could as I knew I was fighting a losing battle on 6lb Nanofil, and what was most likely some species of flatfish eventually broke off.
We had a few more takes and knocks without any hookups after that and called it a day.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2502)
Monday the 29th of December
Ten days later and we were in the same spot, with absolutely nothing going on on the surface. I put on a chartreuse McCarthy Finesse Minnow and after a couple of throws manage to hook and land a juvenile Greater Barracuda just after sunrise.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2503)
We got a few Gurnard on the dropshot after that, before deciding to pull along the banks again, where a small but spirited Torpedo Scad grabbed a 7cm Rapala Max Rap.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2504)
Saturday the 21st of February
It was almost a full two months until we were on the water again. The bay was filthy, with debris all over the place. It looked as if a landfill site had dumped all of its trash into the harbour. We anchored for a while to watch whether the waves of junk would disappear with the current and the light breeze, which it did thankfully.
We managed 3 nice Bigeye Kingfish on Yozuri poppers. Whilst unhooking one of them, it decided to throw a bit of a fit on the boat and I ended up with the front hook in one of my knuckles. After painfully extracting the hooks from both of us whilst he was being completely unreasonable and flapping all about the place pulling my throbbing finger with him, he was freed and swam off happily. I had a coffee break.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2486)
After going slightly deeper we managed to hook 3 Pickhandle Barracuda on pink spoons – Iron Candy S Bend and the old small Iron Candy with flash (after silver was doing nothing), but only managed to boat two of them.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2487)
Saturday the 14th of March
The water was beautiful on this day - flat, clean, and a slow push heading to a neap high. The chosen drop-off was 20-30m away from where we anchored, and we casted stickbaits over it and brought them through the gauntlet. We had Barracuda leaping out the water at the lures, trying to hit them side-on in the dark. There were 3 or 4 jumps or smashes per retrieve, right on the drop-off but the fish were missing the lures in the dark. We slowed the retrieves down and almost immediately doubled-up on two nice Pickhandle Barracuda. The reels were screaming as the fish took line and we managed to boat and photograph both before releasing them. Chris went on with a third but it chucked the lure quite close to the boat. The window we had was 20 minutes and then it was over.
Chris managed a Sand Gurnard a little later when it was light but then all went quiet. We headed home, quite chuffed with the awesome action that those 20 minutes afforded us.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2489) (http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2490)
Sunday the 15th of March
The following day we headed down, hoping for the same sort of action and were met with a slight chop on the water, with the water itself being a bit green and cloudy. We were on a neap low. Chris caught and landed a decent Pickhandle on the same drop-off, this time on a Sensation Mini Pop. I had a few hits and misses on a Rapala XRap Walk, but decided to change to the new Rapala BX Waking Minnow simply to offer something different and also to give the lure a try.
The first two casts brought a couple of hits but no fish. I figured the action out and the next two casts resulted in 2 small Pickhandle boated. They were a bit on the skinny side for photographs but I was happy that I had success on a new lure on my first attempt. The lure is a bit chewed but being balsa, it will go strong for many more sessions.
Chris played with the dropshot and got 3 Gurnard on the Chartreuse Finesse Minnow, before we tried to pull a couple of lures back to the launch site. He then hooked and landed a nice Pickhandle while trawling a Maria Fake Bait lure.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2491)
Saturday the 21st of March
We were met with the highest water I have ever seen in the bay. At the launch site the water was so high we were basically launching the boat right at the top of the slipway. The water was almost over the top of the tyres and bricks and was a 20 knot south westerly away from washing onto the grass and into the carpark.
The water was filthy and full of debris and sediment. We hit a few submerged unidentifiable objects on the way to the chosen spot, and even suffered a nice plastic wrapping around the prop, which caused a bit of panic as we were at the mercy of the current while it was getting sorted out in the middle of a shipping channel.
After sorting the issues out Chris decided to try an 8cm Storm Chugbug on the same drop-off and was rewarded with a decent Pickhandle. The fish swallowed the lure so deep that by the time it was removed (and after at least 5 minutes of attempted resuscitation ) he had died. The caretaker at the club has always asked for some fish, but as we usually release everything we catch, we haven’t been able to sort him out. On this day he was donated a barracuda…
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2505)
Before we headed back we each caught a Bigeye Kingy on Yozuri EBA poppers worked rather quickly on the top.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2506)
On the way back to the club we pulled the usual lures and within a minute or two Chris hooked and landed another Bigeye Kingy on the Maria Fake Bait lure.
Sunday the 22nd of March
On our last outing before the oil spill that pretty much ruined everything in the harbour including birdlife, fish and multi-million rand yachts, we had an extremely high tide again.
The surface was glassy, with no wind at all, but there was not one square metre of the surface that did not contain one Styrofoam cup (whole or broken up), a plastic packet, someone’s shoe and a branch, plant or patch of Hyacinth.
Chucking a Yozuri EBA popper in amongst all the cr#$p, I hooked and landed a small Needlescale Queenfish, a Bigeye Kingy and a Torpedo Scad. It sounds like a lot of action, but this happened over the course of around 90 minutes, so pretty slow going.
(http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2507) (http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/MGalleryItem.php?id=2508)
The Bay is now suffering from a serious cooking oil spill so I guess the season is over for us. We will watch the progress of the cleaning up of the spill and hope that there is maybe one more shot at a gamefish or two before the water temperatures drop and we have to wait for summer 2016.
Hopefully not too many fish and birds are killed by ignorance and an error by MAN once again.
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(clap) Great report! Thanks for sharing. Any additional info on the cooking oil spill?
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http://www.enca.com/south-africa/race-contain-durban-oil-spill-ahead-spring-tide (http://www.enca.com/south-africa/race-contain-durban-oil-spill-ahead-spring-tide)
Thanks Charles, this is the latest. The Springs have been the whole weekend, so will have to investigate later this week...
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Flipping awesome post! :win: :+ cred:
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Ya Great report!! :win: :+ cred:
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nice report.... I hardly fished the bay this summer as it was no where good as last year, where we landed up to 40 fish a session and up to 4 kilos boys. my top fishing spots were dead most of the time.
lets hope this summer will be better :tite time to spin for the gamies from the surf
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Ja, if Guru is correct then Sunday is a pearler for an am spin from the beaches. I heard a rumuor of bonnies, garfish and yellowfin around between La Mercy and Tongaat...