The ‘Cuda have made their annual pilgrimage to down south and some great catches are filtering through.
The first real action was by Happy Hooker who got two proper fish, nice and early on. Way down off Seaprk somewhere. Then the Niteshift got one in the same place the following weekend. Story and video here.
Matt Wainwright then got a live mackerel down the gullet of a nice fish. His fish came in at 15kgs.
But Dave Phillips off Durban has been having the most fun. On his ski. On his first submission he flashed us his first ‘Cuda of the season. A really nice fish seen below. Then a few fays later, Dave banged it out there for another ‘Cuda and three Natal Snoek! The Snoekies couldn’t resist Dave’s little Mydo SS Shad spoon.
Hopefully this weather will improve and we can expect some more ‘cuda action this April.
And then over to the spearos, who have also been seeing a few.
‘Couta in the news underwater too…report by Jason Heyne
The diving conditions have average this week with one or two day’s being excellent. Wahoo, ‘couta and snoek are the main fish on the menu this week and rumours have it that the garrick are off the kei. Well done Wickus on getting fish of the week a new HUC club record Queen Fish at 10.47kg. As always dive safe and straight spears
Send your catch photos and stories to The Sardine News and contribute to the collection of goings on fishing, surfing and diving wise up and down our coast. Click here to submit online, or email umzimkulu@gmail.com anytime.
Jason Heyne checks in with Spearo news weeklyreporting typical summer conditions and species.
Well the diving conditions this week have been tough. The sea came right today (Friday) after a few days of big swell . King and queen Mackerel are around with some big ambers out deep. Saturday the swell is minimal and the wind switches from a light south east in the morning to a light northeast in the afternoon. Sunday the swell picks up to 1.8m and the northeast freshens towards midday . Travis gets club merit fish of the week with his first cape knifejaw and Don gets fish of the week with a 17kg cracker. As always dive safe and straight spears.
Township Hyper is full of Mydos! As of this week, Township Hyper, just outside Durban, in Chatsworth, have loaded their shelves with The Mydo range.
All Mydos now come in a reusable transparent PVC and Velcro Lure Pouch, that never gets thrown away. They neaten your tackle box. You can find things so quick! They keep the boat much safer. The 450 micron PVC keeps the sharpest trebles out of the way. And they can keep just about anything splash proof and handy. They even take a cellphone! Car keys, ID and Passport…they come in many sizes.
But it’s what’s inside the Lure Pouches!
The MYDO Lanispoon in high grade 316 Stainless Steel
The Mydo SS Spoon spread has been refined and targeted to specific species and zones. There are the heavier jigging/casting SS Dogtooth, the SS Tuna, the SS Yellowtail, and the SS Couta. These are really adaptable, and one rod on the boat should always be loaded and ready to fire with one of these spoons in the chamber. The lateral line holes allow air through, for massive and accurate casts. Those tuna can pop up 100m away and you still have a shot. If you crank the spoon on the surface at full speed, it puts on a show that you can see for miles. Leaving a trail of bubbles and cavitation caused the very same strategically placed lateral line holes, these lures are the best teasers ever. Fish chase them right into your spread! The opposite end of the scale – the bait catching weapons by Mydo, start tiny at 55mm (SS Shad 550) and 9g. These feather lights are for your 8lb braid stick, or bass rod, and entice picky little bonito far more effectively. Their light and lively swimming action is much more realistic too. And when fishing over ledges and rocks, you are far less likely to snag. The SS Lanispoon is a potent double blader, that gets to 120mm (SS Lanispoon 1200) and 50g. For your 20lb super spinning outfit with casting braid, this spoon produces results. It’s sibling is the SS Kob, 65mm to 120mm, weights topping out at 65g or so. These spoons are heavier with a thicker blade. Night time is the right time, slooooow. The SS Snoek, the SS Garrick, and the super successful SS Tarpon make up the middle ground.
The Mydo Luck SHot is available at Township Hyper in Chatsworth, Durban
The Mydo Luck Shot heavy duty dropshot jig head is articulated at the join between hook and head. The plastic bait swings freely but stays upright. It’s this configuration that you can exploit fully by adjusting your retrieve. The two sizes weigh in at just under an ounce rigged for the #1, and just under 2 ounces for the #2. During your cast, the head and bait conform to each other and the rig really flies through the air. On hitting the water, start cranking and the Luck Shot throws up water like a plug, making the commotion gamefish love, Then it drags a pocket of air down into the water with it, much like a kona. This bubble reflects light in all directions, it’s wild. And then as the bubble dissipates, it leaves behind it a stream of smokey micro bubbles like a trail, for excited gamefish to follow. You get the most action from a split tail, more elongated plastic. There are so many available, and colour doesn’t really matter – so just go for a nice tough plastic that still has some texture with action. To fish mid-waterater, allow the Luck Shot to sink to required depth, and then start to retrieve with erratic twitches aas you accelerate and delecerate. The swimming action has to be seen to be believed. Which is a great plan – work the lure in the water in front of you, until you achieve the action you are after. If you just crank medium pace, or troll, it has a mind of it’s own and darts side to side and up and down randomly. You don’t even have to tell it what to do! The slow kob retrieve – let the Luck Shot hit the ground, and then jerk it up and off the sand…allow it to hit the bottom. Burying itself in the sand a bit. Jerk it up again. The sand flies up making a cloud in the water. That kob are looking for. Go very slow. Put a paddle tail on for this type of fishing rather. The hook, by nature of the luck shots’ articulated design, is set further back in the plastic – for a better hook up rate. Try it!
Perfect Couta Bait – The MYDO Baitswimmer # 4 rigged with a mackerel
The original Mydo – the and tried and tested Mydo Baitswimmer, is where all the above innovations spurned from. The concept of the head imparting action to the bait, is what the Mydo our patents are based on. As you troll the Mydo Baitswimmer, rigged with your favourite bait, the keel keeps the rig from spinning, and the aeronautical designed profiles and blades on the head, provide the side to side swimming action, via the pin. This is applied to the Luck Shots too. And unbelievably, when Brian Davey, the original inventor and designer of all things Mydo, applied the same aeronautical engineering principles, to his spoons too. The Baitswimmers come in many sizes. The #1 is a mere 40 grams, whilst the heaviest weighs in at a whopping 752g. These were designed for deep-dropping for broadbill, or trolling a big bonito in the spread. The heads in between these two extremes make up the spread of Baitswimmers. You can swim any bait perfectly. Even if you have just started! Fishing with bait provides far more finesse to your repertoire. Dragging artificials will get a fish or two, but fishing with bait, dead or alive, is where it’s at.
And a quick Mydo gallery of what is available at Township Hyper…
Cameron Johnstone the admin of Salt Fishing South Africa group on Facebook has compiled an excellent report on the great KZN nurdle disaster, which occurred recently.
MSC Shipping are squarely in the spotlight as they allowed this ecological tragedy to unfold unchecked. The nurdles, which are little plastic beads heading for industry, spilled out into the Durban harbour entrance, as the MSC ship ran aground in inclement weather. The ship was saved but when it drove into the harbour, it crashed into another ship, and the containers carrying the nurdles ruptured as they tumbled off the MSC ship and into the water. Literally nothing was done by MSC or port authorities or anyone, to curb the spill.
This has happened before elsewhere in the world, costing millions in clean-up operations. Here in Durban, the powers that be, and the perpetrators, simply do nothing. For days after the incident, the nurdles were allowed to spill out unchecked. As many as three containers full hit the water. Allegedly only one was recovered, and no-one is forthcoming with information at all.
Cameron’s report is detailed and accurate. In a spate of admirable investigative journalism, Cameron and friends uncovered the series of still photos, illustrating the incident in full colour. He deserves any support or assistance he can get. Right now the nurdles have spread up and down the KZN coast, into the Transkei, and even further way down deep into Cape waters.
Cameron and his efforts have resulted a cleanup operation to remove as many nurdles as possible, from the environment right now. This is where you can help. At this relatively early stage, we can hopefully make a difference in the overall percentage of nurdles spilled out into the ocean. They do float so – head on down to your local beach and start collecting! Keep them. Follow Cameron’s group for further instructions.
JP Bartholomew and his GT on fly is written by JP, after an incredible encounter up on the north coast of KZN, South Africa, a while back. Enjoy the well written and entertaining account below…made me want to got fishing straight away!
“My day started like no other day on the North Coast, it was Saturday 5th of September I started my morning on the Tongaat River Mouth / Zimbali stretch also known as Long Beach, plugging for Garrick. The sea was choppy, the tide was going out and there was a slight SW blowing, perfect for targeting garrick; which unfortunately bought my morning session to a close with no garrick attacking the plug. I left for home where myself and the family were staying. I thought to myself ‘this afternoon I’ll park at Salmon Bay and walk the Zimbali stretch from north to south but this time with my fly rod catching the pushing in tide’ with the hope of catching a garrick before the day was up.
So Saturday afternoon I parked at Salmon Bay with my gear which consisted of my Shimano tackle back pack together with my 8/9wt Explore rod fitted with My 8/9wt reel with intermediate line using a 22 kilo leader fitted with a Black and Grey Lead Ass Mullet fly with a 5/0 Mustard Hook. I started my assault along the Zimbali / Long Beach, heading south this time towards the Tongaat River mouth. The stretch I was doing had a lot of structure with some nice deep drop off’s which, with a pushing in tide, made it that much more exciting and challenging with a nice SW slightly blowing.
I wasn’t even 200 meters when I saw some action just off a rocky ledge which formed into a nice covered bay where I always saw mullet and karratine shoals hiding away from those predatoryal game fish like GT’s, Garrick etc… I started stripping line from my Explorer 12 Wt fitted with a Lead Ass Mullet fly with a 5/0 Mustard Hook and started my descent on the area of water where I saw the mullet jumping. Was it garrick feeding or some other species? Never the less I started casting my fly towards the rocks where all the action was happening. I slowly built up my casting distance to where I wanted my fly to land in the strike zone, hoping to pick up whatever was terrorising the mullet. I was into my 9th cast slowly retrieving the fly towards me, changing to an erratic fast action to try and catch the attention of the fish that was scattering the mullet.
Not much longer into my retrieve I felt a bump. Not sure if it was the hunter or the hunted bumping my fly. I continually cast straight into the strike zone again, happy with my cast, I retrieved quickly from the start… Bang bang I was picked up with such force I nearly had the rod pulled out of my hands. I actually didn’t realise what had just happened it was so quick. I knew straight away I was into a buster of a kingfish, which species I could not say at that point in time, as I hung on for dear life as not wanting to lose this fish that had attacked my fly so ferociously on my retrieve. This boykie was not letting up! He was pulling my line quickly, before I knew it I could see my 150m of backing starting to disappear in front of me.
Not being equipped with a heavier set up which would have been my 12 Wt, I knew it would be a do or die situation. Deep breaths and patience was going to be my strategy and I was hoping my equipment would hold up to the pressure this beast was applying on both myself and my rod and reel. I was slowly having some say in this fight, managing to retrieve some of my backing and slowly getting some of my line. My hands and back were starting to feel the pressure and I just kept thinking ‘no pain no gain’. This could be the fish of a lifetime for me, I just bit the bullet and kept at it.
Just as I was starting to get more and more line back what I was not hoping for happened; my 9wt Explorer locked on me, it seized, which meant I could no longer retrieve anymore line! What do I do? My equipment has failed, which was fully understandable as it was totally out of its depth with the size of whatever was on the other side of the line. Two options came to mind very quickly, give up which I wasn’t going to do or brace the moment and pull this boykie out by hand.
I quickly grabbed my line and wrapped it around my hand, thank goodness I had my Stealth hand gloves on. I started pulling slowly, moving backwards and at the same time retrieving my line wrapping it around my hand not wanting to pull too hard and risk the chance of losing this boykie, I had come too far for that. I slowly started to retrieve more and more moving up and down the beach, having a good work out at the same time. Finally the beast surfaced; it was a huge GT! My adrenaline picked up when I knew what it was and if I did land this beautiful specimen of an Ignobilis GT, it would be my best catch on fly, I was on cloud nine. Not on cloud nine yet I quickly got back into action wanting to get this boykie onto the beach as soon as possible as I was tired and I could see he was getting tired too but he still had a lot more kick in him. I just had to pick up my pace and keep up with him. I kept pulling at him slowly and wrapping more line around my hand and walking up and down the beach stretch; I had carved out a path with the continuous up and down while pulling him in and retrieving more line each time.
I finally started seeing more and more of the ignobilis which was a good sign that I was slowly getting closer to beaching him. Finally I was at a stage where I could feel myself starting to lose grip of the line and it was as if the man above looked down and threw me a lifeline; a wave appeared out of nowhere and helped bring this buster of an Ignobilis a little closer. I saw my son, who was with me, run into the retreating water and grab it with both hands, with the help of some of the bystanders. Finally seeing my trophy ignobilis safe on the beach, I fell backwards tired, shacking and with one very sore right hand. I just looked up and said thank you…..!! Trying to catch my breath and the bystanders shaking my hand and congratulating me, my son said “You did it, Dad, a whopper!”, as I laughed at him and thanked him for his contribution in helping me. Finally landing it safely 57min later, according to my son is how long I struggled and battled with this exceptional GT that gave me my best fight yet.
Getting my breath back I knew this boykie would be exhausted too. I had to get him back into the water as quickly as possible and revive him so he could return to the sea healthy, but first I wanted to tag him before returning him. I got my son to get my kit from my bag while I dragged him closer to the waters edge so that I could get the sea water to pass over his gills reviving him back slowly. I measured him quickly, measuring at a 106cm and then tagging him. My son and I got him into an upright position and carried him into deeper water holding him up so the water could pass through his gills even faster. 10min into reviving him I could feel him getting stronger, eventually his tail was starting to get movement back and in no time he was on his way back into the blue.
When we got back from our weekend up at Salt Rock that afternoon and finished unpacking and cleaning up, I sat down with my Length- to- Weight & Identification Guide to Southern African Angling Species Booklet by Chris De Vries, I went straight to the Ignobilis page to check out the size of the trophy GT I had caught Saturday afternoon. Running down the weight chart I finally got to see the size of the Ignobilis GT I had caught, which had seized my reel and gave me the fight of my life.There it was 106 cm and the weight was my best yet sitting at 23.2 kilos of solid muscle. Wow I was amazed, I had finally conquered my most sacred fish. Knowing deep down inside I had just conquered a piece of the Holy Grail and knowing that out there there are Ignobilis’s of up to 50 kilos and heavier waiting to fight and challenge any angler that crosses his path; the fighting passion that a Kingfish of that size can give a person is so pleasurable if set free to fight another day. So remember always let the big boys go to secure our breeding stocks for the younger generations to come and enjoy the moments that you so treasure, the memories of that big GT buster that didn’t get away on that special day where you got the privilege to earn a little piece of that sought after species of the Holy Grail.
JP Bartholomew and his GT on fly
Tigh Lines and let your fish roam free….
Cheers JP.”
Once again JP, many thanks for putting a huge smile on my face, as I read about you releasing such an amazing catch. And you caught it on fly? Kudos!
