Fishing Report – Durban – 25-30 April 2017

A busy long weekend and lots of trips. We had great weather on most days. On average the water temps were around 23.6deg.C, green inshore but nice and blue out in the deep. A fair amount of Yellowfin Tuna and Oceanic Bonito (Skipjack Tuna) on the smaller side were caught and what I would guess was probably our last Dorado for the season came out on Friday. We also saw some big Tuna on the sounder out in the deep on the thermocline. I think we can expect some nice Tuna catches if the conditions are right over the next 2 months and usually among these once can get a Sailfish as the water starts cooling down.

The worst thing happened on Tuesday with a Tuna estimated at around 25Kg was lost near the boat on light tackle when the hooks pulled after a 1.5hr fight. It is frustrating and disappointing when that happens after all the work has been done and no reward.

The highlight of the long weekend was a magnificent Sailfish caught on Saturday out in the deep and after a good fight it was released back into the ocean.

Some 6yr old girls had great fun on the backline with Mackerel and Sand Soldiers and a few nice Slinger were caught on other trips.

www.bluewatercharters.co.za

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Fishing Report – Durban – 22-04-2017

Fishing Report – Durban – 22-04-2017

The guys from Nissan in PMB booked an afternoon backline trip with us on Saturday, along with Mackerel and Shad some nice bottoms were also caught along with a nice Rockod. The water was warm and over 24deg.C and so one of the mackerel was sacrificed to be used as a live bait to see if anything big was lurking around. I must make note that this was done on very light tackle and it was not long before the reel was screaming and an hour later with an epic light tackle fight a superb Yellowfin Tuna of 16Kg was landed making this the highlight of the afternoon.

www.bluewatercharters.co.za

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Jozini Tiger Fishing Report - 22 April 2017

We had guests from the UK and were really blessed with some stunning weather. We started out at 06h00 in the morning and were greeted by a large group of hippos on the water about 100m after we launched. Besides the hippos we saw a lot of other animals around and the real treat was a family of giraffes drinking on the water’s edge and we managed to get a really close look.

We eventually started fishing after enjoying the nature around us and after about 45 minutes we had not had a single strike and decided 5 more minutes and we will move to a new spot, this never happened as shortly after the bites kept coming and coming and by 10h00 we had landed 16 fish including some nice sizes. We then headed back to the lodge for a great brunch.

Later on we headed out again for an afternoon session and the conditions were still great and we found a fish eagle sitting on an old stump really close to us. This time the fish started biting immediately and first cast got us a good fish and we ended the day with a total of 23 fish. I got a really big hit during this session but to my frustration my rod snapped and the fish was lost. In the last 30 minutes as the sun was setting down low we tried for a last fish to try get to 24 but the bite went quiet. All the fish we caught were safely released.

The sunsets at Jozini are always truly amazing. That evening the skies were so clear we could see the milky-way, Jupiter and all the star formations.

Next day we headed back to Durban and took a detour through the Umfolozi Game Reserve, a truly magnificent place. We saw 4 different herds of Elephant, one group was rolling around in the mud along the river bank having a whale of a time, we also Rhino, Buffalo, Baboons, Water Buck, Nyala, Impala, a Blue Duiker, Leopard Tortoise an Osprey Eagle and some Vultures amongst a host of other bird species. At one view site I was sitting at a wooden bench and it was just so amazing to be in such a wide open space, so silent with just the sound of nature.

www.adventurefishing.co.za

Offshore Fishing Report – Durban – 16-04-2017

Easter weekend brought us a cold front and some strong SW winds and so we were only able to do one of our trips. Inshore waters are now at 22 deg.C and deeper out just over 23 deg.C so the temperature is steadily dropping as we get into Autumn. There was a strong S-N current but heading out in the deeper water we managed this magnificent Yellowfin Tuna making an 11yr old young man very happy.

www.bluewatercharters.co.za

#gamefishing #fishing #charter #Durban

Offshore Fishing Report – Durban – 11-04-2017

We had some guests from Sweden today, sea conditions were great, water reasonably clear but the temperature is slowly dropping with today at 23.3deg.C.

The wind has turned again and coming from the SW but it was a very light wind today.

Fishing was good with some Dorado (Mahi Mahi) catches and some Oceanic Bonito (Skipjack Tuna), our guests only kept 1 Dorado and 1 Bonnie and the others were released.

www.bluwatercharters.co.za

#gamefishing #fishing #charter #Durban

Offshore Fishing Report – Durban – 09-04-2017

With it being school holidays we have had many children along on our charters and today was no exception. I always love the pure joy that oozes out of them when they catch a fish, it’s contagious and one ends up in a great mood feeling happy.

We had nice conditions today with water temps just under 24deg.C. Water is clear but not blue. Wind was up a bit from yesterday peaking at a 12knot NE and conditions were sunny.

Still lots of Oceanic Bonito (Skipjack Tuna) around today and we landed a good few putting some really contagious smiles on some young men’s faces.

I think that with the amount of Bonito around all we need is some clear cobalt blue water and we could have a good black marlin bite going.

www.bluwatercharters.co.za

#gamefishing #fishing #charter #Durban

Offshore Fishing Report – Durban – 08-04-2017

With our deckhand getting robbed on his way to work this morning we left later than planned, shame poor guy had his whole week’s wages stolen, very sad.

So departing at 06h30 we decided to give our customers an extra hour due to the delay and so ended up being out for 6hrs instead of 5hrs.

Light NE winds made for nice seas and water colour not to bad but not as blue as we like it. The water temps are starting to drop as we are in autumn already and were just under 24 deg.C.

The fishing turned out great today with a lot of fish, 2 Dorado (Mahi mahi) one of 7Kg and a nice Bull of 13Kg, on top of that we also got into a school of Oceanic Bonito (Skipjack Tuna) and landed 15 of these so everyone had great fun and sport today.

www.bluwatercharters.co.za

#gamefishing #fishing #charter #Durban

Offshore Fishing Report Durban - 05/04/2017

A short trip inshore for some young boys proved to be great fun on light spinning tackle and a great day out, sea conditions were Ok but the current was screaming and sinkers ice cold at the end of it all a nice Yellowfin Tuna was the pride of a young man along with some bottom fishing fun for everyone.
www.bluewatercharters.co.za

Jozini Tiger Fishing Report: 31 March-3 April 2017

We arrived at Pongola Game Reserve on the afternoon of 30^th March booked in at Nkwazi Lodge.

The plan was to target Tiger Fish spinning with artificial lures.

The water levels are still low, but better than my previous trip in October last year. At least they have had rain and the area is green and did not look like a fire had swept the area like it did in the peak of the drought last year.

For 4 days we fished morning and afternoon sessions spending about 8hrs on the water each day.

Sadly the water was the colour of coffee and we had no luck with the lures, even 4cm into the water and one could not see the lure and so we decided to switch to bait fishing on anchor instead.

The early mornings had a slight nip in the air, but by 8am it was hot and the afternoons were extremely hot with very high temperatures.

Between 3 of us over the 4 days we managed to land a total of 59 Tiger Fish and a fish that we were told is a sliver fish (Never seen this before), and probably lost another 259 fish or even more with so many on/offs we lost count, but this is very typical with Tiger Fishing especially when the smaller ones hit the baits.

Most the fish we caught were under 1Kg, but we did get a few over the 1kg mark with the biggest fish under 2Kg, having said that all the fish we caught weighed exactly 1.2Kg according to a faulty scale no matter the size of the fish.

I fished with my little 6”8” Shimano Crucial which gave good sport on some fish, am really amazed at the sensitivity of this blank.

 I was really hoping for at least one big Tiger and the adrenalin rush but it did not happen and that was rather disappointing.

Lots of jokes and rubbish talk always makes for a great day out to fish and chill.

I still love fishing at Jozini, even if we had to fish with bait, whilst fishing one gets to see and hear nature all around, we saw a herd of Elephants on 2 of our sessions, Buffalo, Hippos, Rhino, Crocodiles, many species of Buck, other smaller animals and a huge variety of birds.

At the end of everyday one is treated to the most gorgeous sunsets.

One can’t help getting completely relaxed and at peace in a place like this and leave being completely recharged.

I included some pics with fish jumping out the hands when taking the pic just for the facial expression and the pose which I thought are really natural and very funny and when looking at them we all had a really good laugh.

www.adventurefishing.co.za