The south coast offers a huge variety of fishing from cock cod, salmon, bream of all kinds, shad and much more.
Most of these fish are here all year round and most of the time anglers dont catch them because they dont know how to target them. I will give you a discription on where and how to target the most abundant types of fish that are held in our waters, these being the rocky area fishes, and hopefully you will be able to experience the rush of catching a specific species that you have set out to target.
Let's begin by talking about the most common fish that every angler loves to catch, the kob/salmon.

KOB/SALMON

The majority of salmon are caught over sandy beaches where sand banks have formed causing waves to break and churn up any food that can be found. However they are also found around rocky outcrops and in sandy gullies between rocks. When fishing off beaches for kob look for deeper water on the edge of the bank where the waves are breaking. An excellent bait for kob is chokka or redeye sardine or both together. Try using a little floatation in your bait as this not only gives the bait some floatation but also craetes a foundation for the bait to hold onto the hook.The belly of the redeye is the best part of the fish as it holds the most oils which is very necessary when attracting kob to bite. Steel wire is definately not needed on the trace, only nylon of maximum 0.70mm in diametre and a 6/0 hook. The ideal trace for kob up to 5kgs is a 4/0 chemically sharpened hook and 0.55mm clear nylon of 70cm long. Hook line always shorter than your sinker line, regardless if you chose a running sinker or fixed sinker trace.

BRONZE BREAM

This has to be one of the most exciting fish to target amongst the rocks as they really do put up a strong fight right to the end. Although the bronzie can grow up to 5kgs most average around the 1.5 to 2kg mark and although this is a relatively big fish it has a very small mouth with rows of fairly sharp teeth used for grazing seaweed. However these teeth are not enough to need to use steel wire, luckily as these fish can be skitish and steel could put them off biting the bait. Bronzies are found in amongst rocks where blue water is mixing with white airated water caused from breaking waves. Although bronzies are seaweed eaters they can be enticed to take a prawn bait or any other white baits such as smashed up chokka, crayfish or cracker shrimp. When using pink prawn remember to remove the shell and cut it in half long ways down the back and turn it inside out around the hook. Ghost cotton is best to use or alternatively the new latex cotton. Stay away from the stretchy elastic shad cotton. Because of their small mouths a 1/0 chemically sherpened hook is adequite using 0.50mm clear nylon trace of 50cm long and a no 5 swivell. A fixed sinker line is best with the sinker line being 10cm longer than the hook line. Quite often a bronzie will will pick up the bait and move towards you giving you a meter or two of slack line. Be ready to wind up the slack and strike.

ROCK COD

As their name suggests, rock cod frequent the rocky areas from the surf line to great debths off shore. There are few baits that a rock cod wont take but one of the most popular is sardine. The more smelly and mushy the bait is the better. It is a good idea to smash up some chokka and add to the sardine bait, leaving a long tassle or two just to give the bait some movement , possibly enticing him out his hole to take the bait. Rock cod are very territorial and wont venture too far from their hole. Bare this in mind when landing them because once he has been taken out the water it will be many years before you will find another in that area. So if the rock cod is not big enough to get a decent meal off it, rather release him so he can fight another day. My hook of choice is a 4/0 chemically sharpened hook as rock cod have very large mouths, and my trace will be of 0.65 clear nylon only( definately no steel) with a very small power swivell, no 5 will do. This is so that there is less to get jammed into the rocks, esecially when the rock cod is hooked and swims into the protection of his hole. When handling these fish be very careful as they have super sharp gill plates that can cut through flesh very easily. Also it is not a good idea to slide your fingers into its gills as you will find it is very difficuilt to get your fingers out.

STONE BREAM

Here is a fish that is in abundance along the south coast and the whole family can enjoy catching. These silver/grey fish are often mis identified as galjoen and average about 750g but can often get up to 2kgs or more. These fish are seaweed eaters but will eat most fleshy baits that are presented to them. Cracker shrimps are the best bait but cannot be bought from tackle shops, however pink prawn is a close second.
Being seaweed eaters you can expect to find these fish amongst rocks. They prefer the shallow, white aerated water in gullies which offer lots of movement of water. I prefer the pushing tide just before high and often catch them in water as shallow as a foot deep. Very light tackle is necessary to catch stone bream in their numbers which makes it great for the kids. A rod of 7 to 9 ft that can throw a 1 to 2 ounce sinker with light reel line, preferably 8lb braid is ideal. this is where the drop shot outfits work well. The hook size of choice is very small, a no 6 will do as Stone bream have small mouths. The trace should consist of very light clear nylon of 0.35 in diameter. The length from the hook to swivel should be kept relatively short, about 30cm, as the water you'll be fishing should be fairly shallow. The sinker line should be just longer than the hook line and keep the sinker fixed and not running. The less cotton used to tie on the bait the better, as with cracker shrimp we use no cotton at all but are using the whole shrimp alive. A small amount of cotton will be necessary to hold on the tiny piece of pink prawn or sardine, both of which can be bought from Gremlins fishing tackle. Although these fish can be caught in large numbers it is not necessary to keep every fish that is caught as once filleted you will find that there is actually very little flesh on the fillets. A stone bream of over 40cm is worth filleting and the flesh is good tasting despite the smelly odour emitted from its stomach.

BARBEL

When all other fishing fails during daylight hours, one can turn to catching these awesome tasting and fun fish to catch, during the dark hours. Many anglers are too scared to taste eeltail sea barbel but the ones who have will almost all agree it resembles the texture and taste to that of kingklip. I do agree with most in saying that it is definately not easy to clean and fillet, but get past that fact and you'll be rewarded with tasty fillets of white flesh. We catch two types of barbel on the south coast, one being the fish tail (which is caught more frequently offshore from ski boats) and the other being the Eel tail which frequents the shallower rocky waters of the shore line. These fish have been known to take most fleshy baits such as crayfish, sardine, redeye, pink prawn and chokka. one of my favourite baits being redeye sardine belly with a split open pink prawn or crayfish on top. I also like to use a bit of foam on the hook to secure the bait better and to give the bait some floatation. The barble takes the bait rather aggresively and this bite can be felt as 3 or 4 hard knocks on the line. at this point reel up the slack line and strike hard. While fishing for barble in the dark there is a good possibility that rock cod and small flap nose hound sharks can be hooked too. Luckily the trace that is used will work for all three fish. A 4/0 chemically sharpened hook with clear nylon of 0.70mm thick with a no 4 power is plenty strong enough to handle these scavengers. Keep the length of the trace around 40cm long with the fixed sinker line slightly longer.Beware as unlike freshwater barble, sea barble have three poisonous spines, one on each fin. The poison in these spines can inflict severe pain and if spiked submerge the wound in boiling water and seek medical help immediately.


These are just a few of many other fish besides shad that can be targeted along the KZN south coast all year round and if you would like any more information feel free to visit Gremlins fishing tackle in Margate or call them on 039-317 3233.