Adam Reports In From The Backline – Winter Is Marching In #kzn #sardine #conditions

Adam Reports From The Backline- Winter Is Marching In: 14 degrees at the low end and a high of a paltry 19 degrees Celsius today! Luckily, we are up here in KZN at the moment, where we are still sub-tropical and we get the sun’s warm rays warming us through the chill of most days.

Winter

As with what normally happens after a big old cold front like that, it leaves absolute perfection in its wake. Surfers can hunt waves up and down the coast. Divers will be getting clean water courtesy of the SW, which brings the Agulhas Current right in close, where it can perform its cleaning duties wonderfully. And fishers can enjoy the still weather and calm seas. And the warmer water. The cold fronts warm the water as opposed to the warm fronts from the north that cause an ocean upwelling, and the water temperature drops inshore.

However, these chilly seas are sardine conditions. The fishies like the water at 19 degrees Celsius or so. So it is a combination of the cold fronts (low pressures) and the warm fronts (high pressures) plus the counter-current that work together to create the ideal water conditions for the sardines to make their way up along in the inside of the Agulhas all the way to Durban.

Plus, they need a decent winter south swell to help them along. And, observations that the sardines need a full moon to get moving have been proven plausible each year. Luckily, we have a full moon coming up, we are halfway to a good moon right now.

If all these things don’t synchronise and play nicely together, then the sardines stay way out deep at sea, where the public cannot see or get to them. This is falsely seen as a no-sardine run, but meanwhile, the sardines are just way too deep.

It is estimated that a mere sliver of the sardine population makes this crazy run up the coast. 10% is the number touted by the experts. For perspective, one of the big netting boats from out of Helena catches the equivalent of the entire sardine run in one night. Luckily, these big boats are not allowed past Port Elizabeth, and this is why Garry Hook in PE reckons that our sardine population is so healthy as opposed to the Mossel Bay shoal and the Cape shoal.

These populations do intermingle and socialise. Mainly around the Agulhas Banks. But their DNA shows clearly the three separate shoals. And there is another sardine way up north. He is the Grey Sardine and is also exactly in appearance as the southern populations. I have caught and eaten them in a very remote place 50 km south of Pemba, Cabo Delgado, Northern Mozambique. The locals were meshing them old style – on dhows and dugouts. There were so many baby marlin in attendance that one dugout fisherman caught 9 little blacks in one paddle!

These Grey Sardines have clearly adapted to the warm waters up that way and are even reported to be right up in the Gulf of Aden. And into the Red Sea. Maybe one day they might follow the couta right through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean!

I just wonder how long it’s gonna take for the Zambies to connect the dots and also make that crossing into the Med! I would have guessed that they would have been first?!

Sardines and Sightings

Join the Sardine News HOTLINE for 2025 and Neva Miss a Single Sardine! We first upload to YouTube, and then progressively up to the rest of the social platforms (Facey, X, etc) as the bandwidth allows.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN as a Member on YouTube, and receive all these perks too…

Member of WhatsApp Sardine News HOTLINE, access to restricted content on thesardine.co.za, LIVE Broadcasts from the Beach during the sardine run. And direct contact with the Sardine Spy network team.

You can also get around the season in a real fun way by checking out our annual Sardine Run Maps. This is a real groovy way to follow the progress of the sardines each year.

You can even download our app to your phone or device, accept notifications, and you will never miss a single sardine.

Here are the links to existing and past  Sardine Sighting Maps…

2025 Sardine Map

2024 Sardine Map

2023 Sardine Map

2022 Sardine Map

2021 Sardine Map

Channels

Brucifire Surf Retorts – highly entertaining  surf reporting

Master Watermen – news from way down deep

The Sardine News – neva miss a single  sardine

FishBazaruto – 1000 pounds plus

MYDO Tackle Talk – highly technical  sport fishing

Surf Launching Southern Africa – getting out there safely

Water Woes – log your municipalities transgressions here

MayDay Report by Alan at The Block

MayDay Report by Alan at The Block: HAPPY MAYDAY! The first day of May is filled with promise as a big south-west cold front is dropping the barometer hard right now. The BIG blow we expect could come at any time and Robbie down in Coffee Bay reckons yesterday was wild and wooly as it gets. Gale force gusts and pouring rain to boot.

Over to Alan in the calm before the storm…down the coast in Port Shepstone.

“Guys at The Block again
water colours not bad hey
not bad but there’s no fish coming out at the moment
all the fish and more fish and more fish and more
believe
the bit of a swirling action going on in the water
so I’m not sure but anyway
starting to improve
it’s really looking a little bit better
we’ll see what happens
there should be some snappers around one of these days
and maybe a shed or two enjoy your day
a few moments later..”

Thanks Alan!

Sardines and Sightings

Join the Sardine News HOTLINE for 2025 and Neva Miss a Single Sardine!

CLICK HERE TO JOIN as a Member on YouTube, giving all these perks

Member of WhatsApp Sardine News HOTLINE, access to restricted content on thesardine.co.za, LIVE from the Beach and direct contact with the Sardine Spy network.

Check out our annual Sardine Run Map too. This is a real groovy way to follow the progress of the sardines each year.

And download our app to your phone or device, accept notifications, and you will never miss a single sardine.

Here are the links to existing and past  Sardine Sighting Maps…

2025 Sardine Map

2024 Sardine Map

2023 Sardine Map

2022 Sardine Map

2021 Sardine Map

Channels

Brucifire Surf Retorts – highly entertaining  surf reporting

Master Watermen – news from way down deep

The Sardine News – neva miss a single  sardine

FishBazaruto – 1000 pounds plus

MYDO Tackle Talk – highly technical  sport fishing

Surf Launching Southern Africa – getting out there safely

Water Woes – log your municipalities transgressions here