Since Sharon had been called in for some last minute lecturing I was free to wet a fly. Sadly my options were a little limited since I had things to do and therefore could only leave the house at around 9:30am.
I decided that my best option was to fish the harbour which can produce at any time of day. However as soon as I pulled into the harbour I quickly realised that the tides were against me. It was high tide and after consulting my cell phone I discovered that it had just started pulling.
In my personal experience high tide in the Durban harbour is best fished in the early morning or late afternoon, preferably as the sun is rising or setting. I’ve always been far more productive wading the banks in the midday heat with the sun overhead.
But I was down there and the rod was rigged so I walked out onto the new breakwater by the Royal Natal Yacht Club at started flicking the fly. There were a few bait fishermen around who I had a quick chat to and who’d produced nothing…not a good sign.
I tried everything from fast to slow retrieves. I fished the surface and I dragged flies along the bottom. I tried big flies and I tried small flies. But after an hour’s fishing I’d landed nothing and I’d seen nothing.
By this stage the water had pulled back quite a lot and so I started wading the banks hoping to spot tailing Grunter. The drop off was too far away, too deep and too close to potential sharks so I stuck to the middle of the bank. Sadly this too was unproductive.
So after an hour and a half’s fishing I decided that flogging dead water was only fun for so long. I packed up the kit, headed to the car and shot off home.
Productive? No. Fun? Always.