Durban Harbour

[Khani]

Fishing in the bay has really gone quite. I went out on friday evening with Novice and friends. I picked up 3 snappers and a grunter of about 45 cm and was bitten of on a live Blactail above the steel wire.

Other fish that came out were 2 x five fingers (one over a kilo), 1 stumpie, 1 rockod and 3 Sandfish (not sure of the right name) the biggest of which weighed 5 kg and Novice did get a huge eel.

On Saturday evening things were even worse, we got 4 nice blacktails and 1 perch of about a kg.

Again I had a live blacktail out, I noticed my line go taut like a crab had taken the bait, I started reeling slowly and was almost convinced I had a really large crab on the line, but to my and everyone else's amazement it was a huge cuttlefish, the skipper quickly netted it  for a closer view, and was subjected squirts of water directed at his face.

It was amazing to see a live cuttlefish up close and just as amazing to see it slowly swim away again. In 35 yrs of fishing this is only the 2nd cuttlefish I have caught and Judging by the remnants of the blacktail they have really strong beaks, because the only part of the blactail that was not eaten was the part just behind the head still attached to the hook. Its a pity we didn't get any photo's.

Does anyone know how big these cuttlefish grow

 

[Denfish]

Hi Khani

 

What spot do you fish at, at the harbour? We havent had much luck there. Caught a few Big eyes and not much else, we try bottoms and drop-shot. What is the best time to go there, best bait (I see you use livebait).

 

Thanks in advance

 

Dennis

 

[Khani]

Howzit Denfish,

Fishing in the Harbour has gone very quite, However snappers and perch are around with the occasional grunters.

we do have specific spots that we fish, but if fishing is bad then we move to another area.

We normally start fishing at dumper (coaling dump) then move directly across to the fresh produce terminal then to pier 105 and normally end up in the basin or the centre sand bank depending on the tide. When the NE is blowing then a drift from the end of T-Jetty into the basin is usally worth 1 or 2 decent fish. There are other areas that used to produce nice grunters and stumpies, like roundbush and the banks opposite container terminal but we have not fished these areas in ages.

My preferred bait in the bay is crackers, red eye and Sardine. I have separate outfit rigged with 30 lb line which I use for live bait, However with the live bait the only thing I have to show in about 7 or 8 outings is, 1 huge cuttlefish, 2 bustup and a monster eel. 

Hope this helps

Khani

 

 

[Denfish]

Thanks Khani

 

I have written the spots down and we will hopefully get some fish in the future. Going to take the kids out on saturday afternoon and maybe we will get something, for a change!

 

Cheers