TACTICS
Tactics for taming yellowtail in KZN By Craig Stubbs
T
HE Cape yellowtail (Seriola Lalandi) is one of three Seriola species found in South African waters, with the other two being colloquially referred to as the greater amberjack and tropical amberjack. However, unlike the greater and tropical ambers which prefer warmer waters, yellowtail prefer colder water and are most abundant in the chilly Atlantic waters of the Cape where they are one of the Cape anglers’ most abundant and prime target species.
There is, however, a northward push of these fish, where mainly large adults in the 10kg-plus range make their way up past the Kei and into KwaZulu-Natal waters. Once here, they stamp their passports, hit the gym hard and give us a proper hiding due to their incredible strength and fighting endurance. This push of fish appears to coincide with the annual Sardine Run, but I’ve caught them pretty much all year round, with the exclusion of the hottest months of the year in local waters.This tells me that some of the fish that push up with the sards perhaps set up resi-
dence in local waters or stay for a few months at least. For the purposes of this article, I’ll try to impart some knowledge about the way we target them KZN style. Firstly, the where.Although the KZN north coast does see a few ’tail from time to time, the KZN south coast is the most prolific producer of these fish. I put this down to the fact that our water temps are very marginal for them, and the further north they push, the more uncomfortable they become. Yellowtail are a structure orientated species, seldom moving away from big-
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