There has always been the fear that one day I will have no fish catches to report, but when I started doing my fishing reports I promised myself that when that day comes I will report it just like I do with all my others, so here goes.
We launched from Durban Harbour at 05h00 and decided to head North and stay close in shore, so if the wind picked up to a gale we would be able to come back in with the wind.
The North Easterly wind was howling and got worse as the day progressed. The water surface temperature going out the harbour mouth was only 14.7 deg. C which is extremely cold for this time of year and should be around 22 deg. C or more, as the wind and swell was really ticking I decided to troll some feathers as we headed for the Umgeni river mouth.
We managed to pick up one small Needle Scaled Queen fish en-route which was so small (a little larger than the Williamson feather that it took) it did not even set of the drag off, which I suppose does count as a game fish but I have excluded it. When we got to the river mouth the water surface temperature was only 16.8 deg. C which is still very cold. We started throwing plugs for Garrick and we got one chase, and when the guys got tired of casting with the heavy plugs, I gave them lighter tackle to cast spoon for Queen Mackerel (Snoek) and we did get one fish on, but he came off, even my reliable waypoint 49 produced nothing. By this time we were in front of Virginia Airport and decided to get some live bait and we headed out to the barge where we got the highest water surface temperature reading of around 19 deg. C.
We even struggled to get Mackerel but managed to get 1 Common Mackerel (My favourite live bait) and 4 Sugar Mackerels. We the put three of the Mackerels out and started a slow troll back to port at around the 22m depth contour. We got a good hit on the Common Mackerel and even had the fish on for a while, but then he came loose and when we brought the line back to the boat there was a bite mark on the Mackerel from behind the gill plate to the tail, the hook was missed and the fish was dead, I suspect a King Fish of Garrick. One of the other lines bounced and when we reeled it the whole trace was gone and I suspect this was a Shark. We then put out the last 2 Mackerel and by this time we were going past the Umgeni River Mouth again where the water temperature dropped back down to under 16 deg. C and we had no further action after that, and when we reeled in the lines by the Durban Harbour Mouth all but one of our lives baits were dead and I am sure this was water temperature related.
The wind had really picked up by then and we also had one huge wave stand up and lurch the boat at a precarious angle which gave the guys a fright, but the boat is stable and was OK. When going in the Harbour Channel the water surface temperature dropped below 13 deg. C. I really find this strange and can only think it is water coming from the bay which gets a lot of rain water from the canal. I am also sure that these cold water temperatures are affecting the fish, but it is really frustrating to get no fish no matter what you try or how hard you try.