Due to some unforeseen circumstances I only managed to get to the water at 9am, a bit later than the 5:30am I was hoping for. Although I had been tempted to head for Christmas Bay, in the end I decided it was too far and headed for Chain Rocks at Amamzintoti.
The tide was pulling out and I fished off the rocks into the deeper water and around any structure I could find. I fished with clousers, maxi dog’s breakfasts, salty buggers, crazy charlies and a few home tied flies with no luck.
Eventually at about 10:30 I hooked into something with a white salty bugger. Sadly after about 20 seconds and a good run it came off. It wasn’t a large fish but enough to give me some fun.
In rushing to get another cast out I managed to create the largest tangle I’ve ever seen in a fly line. Grrrr… After stupidly trying to rip it apart to get another cast in, I only made it worse. Eventually I had to go sit on the beach and untangle the line. After that no more takes.
While I was untangling my line I discovered that the shank of the hook had actually broken. I’m no scientist but I’m guessing this is why I lost the fish. There’s a lesson to be learned here…CHECK YOUR KIT. Oh, and don’t fish with a 2 year old salt water fly.
I then headed (out of interests sake) to the Durban harbour to see what its like since I last fished there 2 years ago. I see they’ve fenced off the concrete pier next to Point Yacht Club. We used to get some good fish off of there.
Anyway, it was 1pm and I decided to wade the banks since it was low tide. I wasn’t expecting anything, and did it more out of interests sake than anything else. Much to my surprise there was a lot of action going on, with some of the bait fish being chased. I’m not sure what was chasing them, but they weren’t interested in my fly. After giving up on them I tried with a brown prawn imitation for some sand gurnards, again with no luck. Lastly I tried to target some of the large mullet I could see in the shallows. I was sight casting to them but had no luck at all. Not even a follow. Damn those mullet.
So at the end of the day I sat down at Pirates Arm’s, had a few beers, and watched the last 5 overs of South Africa thrashing Australia. At least something good came of the day
Anyway, I’ll be back in the salt next weekend, and will hopefully land something this time