Flyfishing report: Saltwater - Upper South Coast

Good day and welcome to the Upper South Coast Fly Fishing

Today it is cold and wet with drizzle on and off, so I guess just the right kind of weather to

remain indoors and do my fly-fishing report which if I am honest, I have been putting off

a while.

Anyway, over the past month or so I only fished once at Scottburgh in front of the caravan

park and worked my way south towards Park Rynnie. Conditions were nice and sunny with

an east wind of 15 to 20 kilometres an hour, fortunately from the northeast which makes

casting easy for me as a right-handed person. {no back casting} The area is lovely with lots

of holes, gullies and in places nice, protected water. It’s a shallow water area with water

depths between 30cm to roughly one metre, so an intermediate line and straight 7 kg.

leader perfect for the conditions. Fishing was slow and I only managed one Ladder Wrasse.

However, working my way between the gullies and rock pools I was so pleased to see the

marine life was good with so many small fingerlings, crabs, sea urchins and I videoed

what looked like a sea snake in a small gully which was later identified as a Floral Moray eel

I am77 and this is the first one I have ever seen one, so we never stop discovering and

learning.

Other than that Marius, a friend has fished the Warner Beach and Illovo River area and

caught Shad and Wave Garrick on fly.

I am sure that if we spend more time and effort along the beaches and rocky areas we will

find more fish and species.

Weather conditions have varied from time to time with beautiful sunny calm days or days

when the wind is trying to sand blast the skin off you and sea conditions have matched the

winds.

Conventional fishermen have been catching Shad and Garrick frequently all along the upper

south coast from Umgeni River mouth to Scottburgh and Brusher have been seen by spear

fishermen.

I have not fished Durban harbour mainly because of the threat of my Bakkie disappearing

whilst I am out on the water. I need to find a safe place to park it. Previously I used to park

and launch form Point Yacht CIub, so perhaps joining the club again will be worth the

expense. Regarding vehicle theft, someone tried to steal my bakkie last Thursday, but

fortunately, I have an antitheft/hiacking device which isolates all the electrics and

computer so they were not successful except for the cost of the repairs.

Jozini Dam which naturally is nowhere near the upper South Coast, but I include it with this

report because Marius Groenewald one of our members spent two weeks there in early

August fly fishing for Tiger fish and had great success with the largest Tiger measuring 68cm.

Fritz de Koker fished the south pier and had some success with Black Tail, Wrasse, Shad

and a few Needle Scale Queen Fish and a few nice Perch and small Kob at Umgeni River

mouth.

That's all for now folks with spring on the way l'm hoping for warmer weather and some

bigger fish.

Durban harbour

Rainbow wrasse water

Jozini tigerfish.