Possible final sardine report for 2017 – although you never know! Sometimes the sardines only come in September and later?!
Sardines have still been spotted along the backline, sporadically this last week of August 2017. With some huge fish harassing them. And now it turns into a fishing report! It’s not just dolphins anymore, there are all sorts of predators – yellowfin tuna,
And now this turns into a fishing report!
It’s not just dolphins anymore (still plentiful, whales too), there are all sorts of predators – yellowfin tuna, garrick and snoek that are on the take right now. As the almost great 2017 sardine run runs out, the fish are getting active. Visible in flashes along the backline, smashing at baitfish all over the place. Especially since it’s spawning time right now too. So – take a photo and just chuck em back, especially now when the populations are in this vulnerable state.
On the lower south coast – shad are still easy targets – the piers at Margate and Uvongo being useable and consistent. DAFF have been maintaining a presence.
Watch out an angry garrick doesn’t smash your shad spoon in the thick of a good bite. When the shad are on, the garrick literally swim along the shore break to ambush – sometimes right in front of your eyes! Three or four at once! Keep that big stick at hand!
The serious guys who fish the early hours, are difficult to keep tabs on, but speaking to a few of them, in the usual carparks they haunt – it’s been a slow but consistent season for kob off the beach. Pink plastics seem to be the go down in Port Edward, but at Port Shepstone, it’s still the milky white. There are surprisingly few anglers throwing plastics (just even for daytime fish) and many good sessions are going by without being noticed.
Jason Heyne’s weekly spearfishing report shows the same garrick and kob trend. But some big king mackerel up north, between Sodwana and Vidal, are also indicative that the sardine run is well and truly done and dusted.
Len Mathews sent in this pic of his mate fishing at Cape Vidal yesterday – a lovely couta caught on a Mydo Baitswimmer #3.
A lekka Sodwana couta caught with the help of a Mydo Baitswimmer #3 provided by Len Mathews
A special thanks to Fishing’s Finest in Pretoria for this year sponsoring the Sardine News Sardine Report for 2017. Check their cool site and store at http://fishingsfinest.co.za
As the Moka Pot finally starts to bleed rich black coffee this early morning, to the sound of the cold front – the driving rain, the wind through the trees – I reflect on my last fishing experience. Spending time down in our beloved Port St. Johns is always too short. Driving into town and driving out seems the same trip. Lost somewhere in the middle are the layers of imagery, sounds and scents that come out of PSJ each time. Lucky for cameras!
Beelining for the point, rods already ready with leaders and even lures tied days before, is how it always starts. Heart in mouth as the ocean comes into view alongside another favourite carpark. But no crowds this time. No traffic jam. Nobody. Looking up towards Cape Hermes and into the corner, a few fishermen are dotted along the usual spots. Looking quite active. But not in a frenzy for sure.
The frenzy is hard to describe. Kob frenzy. This what happened to me once upon a time…two years ago this time…
I grabbed a coffee with Brucifire, after breakfast, at the Jungle Monkey. I was going fishing anyway, but was super excited this crisp and clear Wild Coast morning. As I collected my fishing thoughts and things, owner Mike came up the ramp.
“I am just gonna go and catch a fish quick ok”.
Mike chuckled. Bruce cheered him on with a laugh too. I had been there a week with no results!
Bruce elected to stay. He was entertaining, and being entertained, by two genuine Ethiopian Rasta priests, that happened to be passing through.
The adrenalin, came like this. I have seen plenty sharks, casually lolling on the surface. But never a kob. Never mind a huge one. And so when I jumped from the car at favourite carpark, shouldered in pass the spectators to get a better look – there they were. But my brain could only process that these fins and fish were zambezis.
“Hey howz those sharks man!”
The guy next to me goes…
“Nooit bru, dey kob.”
From that second and onwards, is all a blur. I do remember every thought leaving my head, as the adrenalin surged. Time stopped. The world stopped. I managed to get back to my car to my favourite rod at that time, a 20lb braid packed Okuma Ceymar with a red and black Sensation Adventure 9 footer. I flew off the cliff down to the players area and found a spot. I let that Mydo SS Spoon fly right over the estuary – and then didn’t know what to do. Crank it? No ways. Slow on the sand? Ok. The fish had shown themselves to me, and I was gonna get one. But not with that spoon. It just made no sense in this scene. So after my second nerve wracking slow retrieve, I clambered back up the cliff to my trusty old VW mobile tackle box, and grabbed the biggest plastic and jig head I could find fastest. The plastic was a good 9 inches, split tail, and in light pink. Huge. The jig head was an easy choice – my very own Mydo Luck Shot, but this time in 2 ounce configuration, with a solid 9/0 hook – that stuck out from the plastic a good 20mm. The plastic sits way further back on the hook with a Mydo jig head, a huge advantage over regular jig heads. The hook was super sharp. And for extra effect, I placed a Mydo Bill plate, in shiny stainless steel, over the jig head. This adds more flash and action, and in as much as this all sounds like a Mydo ad, this is how I did it ok!
My first cast.
I first threw the rig into the deep channel to start with. I just wanted to get my swimming action right. On my second twitch off the sand, my rod went double. I love this outfit as it put on enough brakes to set the hook with the huge 9/0, but maintained enough tension through the famous kob head shake – by being so nice and soft in the front part. The little Okuma was filled with braid, and the fluorocarbon leader very carefully tied back in Port Shepstone already. Figure of eight system as described here.
It was a huge battle. And the kob showed itself quite soon into the fight. A magnificent performance right on the surface, in front of a riveted crowd up top. A guy was fighting a garrick alongside me and we had to switch places many times. My fish loved to drag me all the way up the slippery and loose rocks. To the top, and then all the way back down to the mouth. A pushing tide. Anglers everywhere. So much fun!
But it was a really difficult time for the fish too. Being on 20lb meant my rod had to do all the work. The leader was tied short too. I don’t like my knots in my rod eyes for exact situations like this – where a longer leader would have had knots being damaged each time the fish got close. But I was determined as this would do wonders for the Mydo PRO campaign. I ducked and dived and pulled and pushed my way up and down that strip for 45 minutes before I had him close.
A few of the local pros had gathered around me, and were being wonderful hosts, hauling me across the treacherous terrain when I needed it. The guy next to me eventually lost his garrick – a monster of over 25, I saw it a number of times. The split ring on his lure failed. Man was this guy broken. The kob had by now disappeared and nobody was throwing anymore. It was just me and this kob left.
And so It came to the gaff, which I never even saw. I had given up on a healthy release, especially with the shark factor here, but when that fish came close, a gaff flew past me at lightning speed and bang into the fish. And as the guy dragged the fish up the rocks, the hook fell out! It had been a solid hour of battle.
And so it came to be, that I hauled this kob up the cliff, and never set it free. The light tackle was the problem. But I fish light – so many more strikes. So much more fun. The penalty is this. Big fish get worked too much, and if you release them, they die. I should have had 50lb braid for sure.
I should have had 50lb braid for sure. I have been fishing heavy (40lb), in PSJ since this fish.
Which brings me to today’s story, and what has been on my mind.
This…
A pile of kob in PSJ lately. These fish are in their breeding cycle and spawn in our estuaries. They are extremely vulnerable and need protection, not exploitation, at this particular time.
Kob are subject to whims to feed which come from above, or the stars, or the moon. They just go dilly. Sometimes they congregate to spawn, and enter a feeding frenzy just thereafter to replace energy used. I was lucky enough to have had invested enough time casting from those very same rocks, to get the timing right for one of these magical moments.
And when I loaded the fish, which once again goes down at 25, because that was the limit of the scale we could find, one of the locals said to me…
“Hey stash that fish or you can’t take another one…”
I was taken aback. I told him that no way would I take another one?! What for? But as reality set back in, I had to think that this guy, who has been here and caught these kob his whole life, feeds his kids this way. Me and the locals have had long conversations about this, shoulder to shoulder, casting lures until we convinced ourselves to save it for the next session. They all get a few. And they are worth a packet. R1000 a fish easy. He reckons he gets 5 to 10 a year. Some of his mates get more than that. All on lures. Subsistence? Could be? Borderline.
And now we have these two guys, being photographed with far too many kob, all at once. You are only allowed one big one and smaller one really. These guys had the whole family. The smallest looks about 10. And the biggest look 25 or more. Story so far is that these guys had a military-style operation going, with trailers with tanks of livebait. Motorcades of 4×4’s. All the best kit. Not subsistence.
The pics were shot about a week ago. And has already been doing the rounds on the internet as most if you will have seen. These are the breeding stock of our kob population smack bang in the most vulnerable time in their lifecycle. Breeding time.
DAFF have the pics and have asked for assistance in this matter. They need to know how many anglers were involved. Where and when this was. They have a marine inspector on it right now. He is in PSJ, where the community is assisting him. In the meantime, mail any information to umzimkulu@gmail.com so we can pass it on.
Scholtz sardine run talk at Crocworld on 12 August
Local scuba diving operator Pieter Scholtz from Crystal Divers will deliver a talk titled the “greatest Shoal on Earth” focusing on this year’s sardine run at Crocworld Conservation Centre on Saturday 12 August.
“The talk will be a highlight of this year’s program and is regarding a topic which affects all of the locals living along the coast in one way or another. It is going to be fantastic to get insight into the journey of these little silver fish,” commented Crocworld Conservation Centre spokesperson Martin Rodrigues.
The sardine run of southern Africa occurs from May through July when millions of sardines – or more specifically the Southern African pilchard Sardinops sagax – spawn in the cool waters of the Agulhas Bank and move northward along the east coast of South Africa. Their sheer numbers create a feeding frenzy along the coastline. The run, containing millions of individual sardines, occurs when a current of cold water heads north from the Agulhas Bank up to Mozambique where it then leaves the coastline and goes further east into the Indian Ocean.
Scholtz’s talk will end with a multi-media presentation showcasing some of the highlights of the recent Sardine Run.
Tickets for the talk will cost R75 per adult and R35 for pensioners. Registration and welcoming will begin from 8:30am and the talk will commence at 9:00am. Tickets will entitle guests to complimentary teas and coffees, as well as access to the Crocworld Conservation Centre’s vast grounds and Izinyoni Indigenous Nursery. Lunch can be purchased from the onsite Le Rendez-Vous restaurant.
To avoid disappointment, tickets for the talk must be reserved in advance. For bookings, contact Crocworld Conservation Centre on 039 976 1103 or email crocworld. Account Details: Crocworld (Crookes Brothers Limited) Banking Details: FNB, Branch: Scottburgh, Branch Code: 220227, Account Number: 53640119111. Please e-mail proof of payment to crocworld
Down in Trafalgar, we managed to get this photograph, and an interview with the lifeguard on that beach – Philan “WaveOfHope” Sikobi, who was amongst the many locals who found the whale. This was on Tuesday. He was chased out of the water by a shark, as the blood from the whale spilled down into the shorebreak. The baby whale was full of lacerations – the photo shows only what is left after the locals hacked the animal to pieces.
Net characteristic lacerations clearly visible on baby dead whale. Philan could not take any other photos before the whale was cut up and retrieved by locals.
Sean: Hi Philan, what a story man, are you ok?
Philan: Yeah man it was scary. Stupid shark came in real close to me. Twice! It was the smell of blood. When they start cutting that whale up on the beach.
Sean: Was the whale bitten by sharks already when it came up the beach?
Philan: No, it looked fine excepting for the net wounds.
Sean: Philan, the photograph does not show much detail. You gonna have to describe the cuts and lacerations for us.
Philan: Well they were deep, right through, and very square in shape. But what’s confusing me is, the shark nets had been taken out of the water the day before. So the nets weren’t even in that morning. But you could see it was definitely a large net of some sort.
Sean: Was it alive when it hit the beach?
Philan: No it was pretty much dead.
Sean: What time was that?
Philan: Early morning.
Sean: Is there anything else, you could possibly imagine, that could have inflicted the lacerations as you saw them?
Philan: Well, I just don’t know what else? Must have been shark nets the day before or something like that?
And then on Wednesday, a whale was reportedly entangled with the shark nets at Illovo. I never knew anyone even swam or surfed at Illovo? Or why the nets were put back in? It’s the middle of the sardine season. with whales, dolphins and sharks patrolling up and down in search. The annual influx of meshers have been netting sardines up and down the KZN coast the entire past month?!
With so many technological options on offer to the Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board, why is it, that they forego these less invasive and harmful methods, and to choose to use gill nets. The Australian Government have started alernatives installations with fantastic results.
Gill nets operate 24/7 (Who needs protection from sharks at night time?), and kill indiscriminately, with a massive by-catch. Dolphins (the most I ever seen in one NSB land cruiser was 6), whales, turtles, rays, harmless sharks, gamefish, birds…
By installing sonar at the beach (read previous article here), which only operates when people are actually surfing or swimming, and by equipping ocean users with Shark Shields – the savings would be immense. Financially. The Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board are spending R80 million or more per year killing sharks?! It would be a fraction of that to buy Shark Shields for every beach – give them to the lifeguards to rent to the public.
But it’s the savings to the environment we are really after.
We just cannot let this continue one more day!
Shark nets out!
NOTE: well that was five years ago and there are still shark nets in the water?!
Caught in the shark nets. It happens all the time. Dolphins. Whales. Turtles. Even huge kob and couta. Fall victim to the indiscriminate slaughter with gill nets. Randomly executed by the Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board.
And this beautiful young black marlin is also now dead too. All for what? There are so many practical measures you can put in to effect, other than gill netting, to curb shark/human interactions. If you look closely, there is a bite mark amidships the marlin’s body. This is how more and more animals get caught up and die. Feeding on fish already trapped in the suffocating nets. These nets kill thousands each year. Meshed by professional crews with top notch killing equipment. Always with new boats, outboards and land cruisers. Petrol. In 1990, these guys had 44.4 km of gillnets covering 14% of the 326km coastline, between Richards Bay and Mzamba. Can you believe that?
Their annual average catch between 2009 and 2014 was a good 441 sharks killed per year. They kill an average of 26 Great Whites. And it’s very difficult to find out how many dolphins and other cetaceans are killed. Turtles. Fish…
And there are a host of players out there nowadays, selling all sorts of technological solutions, that can be applied at any beach. Any surf spot. At a fraction of the cost.
For many years, we have campaigned against shark nets. And there was light at the end of the tunnel with shark POD technology developed in co-operation with the bungling Natal Sharks Board. They stopped the distribution under their own directive in 2001. And stuck with the murderous gill nets.
Black marlin caught in shark nets off Durban. It takes four bungling government entities for this to happen. Thanks to Chris Leppan of Umhlanga, who put this on our desk.
Here is a list of the shark protection devices, that cost a marginal tiny amount of what it costs to kill sharks at a beach for one year. The beaches could ALL be equipped with these devices, and even given out freely for the public to use (with an ID Card of course). Or even rented. The money that the bloated Natal Sharks Board and the failing Ezimvelo uses, could absorb these costs from savings by pulling out the nets and meshing teams.
And a very cool video showing the results of extensive testing done with the infamous Great White Shark…by Shark Shield. It CLEARLY is the way to go.
There are many more products now using the exact same principles and technology that the Natal Parks Board could have harnessed all those years ago. There have been many attacks in this time. That, if they could have been avoided by implementing these breakthrough technologies, are squarely the fault of the Natal Sharks Board.
Sonar instead of shark nets
Then when we realised the beaurocratic mess the board was tied up in, we tried to help. We proposed rigging beaches with off the shelf sonar equipment rather. Fish finders. Feed this data back to a control station, and we can eliminate human shark encounters by monitoring for big animals and alerting the bather public with flag signals and alarms. It never went forward like the rest of the world did. They had this information more than a decade back and refused to use it.
Enter the Clever Buoy. Here is a special device that uses sonar technology and can easily detect sharks in order to operate early warning systems. The system is already deployed extensively and is a proven way to protect humans and sharks at the same time.
We presented the exact technology to the Natal Sharks Board over a decade ago. Extensive research and presentations. Went through many unfruitful meetings. Were eventually sidelined. And this technology too was lost to the Australians.
The latest chapter in the future of our marine life is that the KZN clown show are attempting to marry the two failing organisations – the Natal Parks Board, and Ezimvelo. The scandals within Ezimvelo are enough to run a soap opera with. And the fact that the abominable Natal Sharks Board, an illegal organisation that operates exactly like a fishery, gill nets, licenses, and all, is beyond me. Wood for the trees. But they also can’t keep up with their expenses.
Now we have DAFF taking Ezimvelos job too. The main players in the debacle are 1. the KZN Government to start with, 2. the Government Department doing the job of the 3. Government Organisation that is supposed to protect the sharks and the 4. Government Organisation that is supposed to kill the very same sharks – all in the same series!
Stay on this channel!
More articles with more facts about the Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board and their R60 million or more budget are right here…
