Categories: Report

Another Zambezi Shark aka Bull Shark catch and release in the Umzimkulu Estuary

Another Zambezi Shark aka Bull Shark catch and release in the Umzimkulu Estuary: As the season draws to a rainy close, the crew on Happy Daze have been putting in the hard yards. Fishing through wind and rain, demonstrates the commitment it takes to get fish like these guys do.

Another Zambezi Shark aka Bull Shark catch and release in the Umzimkulu Estuary. On the happy ship Happy Daze with Greg Milward being the happy angler.

Fishing techniques

The neat little boat Happy Daze can take a few passengers. Right through the season, every afternoon after work, she can be seen trolling the channels. Or casting surface plugs. In all directions. And for miles. They cover so much water with this technique. And the surface strikes are what life is all about. Greenspot kingfish – so rare and hard to catch, are in full-pack attack mode this time of the year here.

Trolling produces kob, perch and kingfish. But it’s that surface strike that keeps us all coming back.

Lures vs Bait

Lures by far. A helluva lot more effort for sure, but if you want to catch decent fish, quit your bait habit. Aside from being stinky and dirty, there needs to be some consideration for sticking a big hook through a live bait just for your own pleasure and fun.

The surface strike is epic and I hope all of you get to experience an angry rock salmon come smashing your popper right in front of your disbelieving eyes. You’d better tackle up if you think you can argue with these fish. Check Matt Wainright’s epic struggle with a BIG one recently right HERE.

And down deep…the river has a few 10m holes…perfect for that Dirty Prawn bucktail especially built for and named after the river – the Umzimkulu Special, will have you bending too. This bucktail has a streak of orange built into its belly. And I think this is what does all the magic.

You can drop a plastic paddletail or jerktail down there too. And if you use a MYDO Silver Bullet as the jighead, you can merrily troll this rig out the back for kob and things.

You can kit out for estuary fishing like this right on The Sardine News website at https://thesardine.co.za/mydo. Or use the menu bar at the top of this page.

The Zambezi aka Bull Shark was caught on the troll this time. He came into that spread all excited, made a few charges, and got hooked in the tail! Obviously, the Happy Daze crew have built up an effective estuary spread design. That even gets a little pup Zambezi all excited.

Every fish caught on Happy Daze is released. Including this baby bull shark. Some seasons are better than others. But an average is way over 50 kingfish per season. With the other species bringing up the score to around a 100. Sometimes double that number in the better and longer seasons.

Umzimkulu Special Bucktail by Dirty Prawn

This is what the bull sharks are here to eat…juvenile all-sorts…

Greg Millward with his Greenspot Kingfish in the Umzimkulu

Ox eye tarpon by Chris Leppan

Chris fishing with Rory and Gavin on Happy Daze in the Umzimkulu yesterday.

And it’s Chris Lepan again with another Umzimkulu Estuary kob.

Early morning on the Umzimkulu River. This is bull shark territory.

Seasonal

Yip, this is totally seasonal. And the rain that has been pouring here at the Umzimkulu Marina in Port Shepstone recently, is a sign of things wrapping up for this year 2023. When the river comes down with strong rainfall soon enough – it becomes unfishable.

Except for barbels and eels! However, it’s not all lost. The perch and rock salmon stay behind in the brown. And down by the river mouth, the grunter persevere too. Some species of fish must have some serious night vision to be able to operate, let alone hunt, in that brown water. Luckily, in the very depths of the river, and down by the deep mouth area, there will still be salt water down below the fresh that’s on top.

During the odd year, the brown flushes out with a stop in the rain late October and November. As of today, the sun has just come out. The river is brown. But it wasn’t anything like a flood so we should be ok in about a week or so again.

With these first summer rains, the water has gone brown…and this is now real bull shark water at the Umzimkulu Marina.

Once the rains stop after April or so, the blue water from the ocean comes inside the river again and the tides dominate the flow, we are back in the game.

We are taking bookings for next year so if this is your kind of fishing, I am ready to help you with your ultimate KZN or Transkei Wild Coast estuary fishing holiday experience. Call me or WhatsApp +27793269671 anytime!

You can read and learn all about the MYDO Fishing and Lures right here. We can get you onto the perfect boat and out to sea or upriver with Umzimkulu Adrenalin. And you can stay with us here at The Umzimkulu Marina.

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