Surfing Tofo shorebreak through the high tide is a great option when the waves aren’t that good at the points.
The rapidly shifting sand and currents in the bay have made for so many configurations over the years. Right now it’s pretty much an a-frame right in front of Nordin’s Lodge, between Wayani Pariango and Fatima’s.
Earlier this year, it formed up as a looooong right hander with barreling sections rivaling those normally found at Tofinho and Barra. It held the crowd well, everybody and his dog enjoyed the two weeks of cranking superbank type waves. This wave started way up top and peeled right past in front of the hotel – which was filled with spectators at the afternoon after-work session.
This month we have been visited by the spirited Plomaritis family, who took the prevailing seasonal raging onshores with grace and dvd’s, and were rewarded neatly enough, with some great sessions at The Dragon and here out front at Praia do Tofo.
The Sardine can set you up with a unique surfing adventure anywhere along the Southern African seaboard. Get in touch to chat about your requirements. (Let’s go by boat!)
Clint Marx of LM Surveys gave The Sardine a call and asked about the feasibility of getting a boat from Barra to Pomene, 110kms north of us, for a survey job. Very feasible, was the quick answer. And so we were chartered to assist Clint with a survey in Pomene.
Our team of Captain Paul Cook, 1st Engineer, and navigation and GIS champion, Captain Robin Beatty, and me, boat Elvis, have done this trip, and so preparations were underway.
Our chosen little big boat was a Cobra Cat 500, with twin Yamaha 60’s. That hadn’t run in 8 years?! So quick to work and Paul started uncovering the multitude of  problems available, when a boat is not winterised. The steering was jammed, the chokes inoperable, the trims full of air, the remotes sticky and stuck, the coils unearthed…it never seemed to end as we just about overhauled the motors completely.
Survey in Pomene: departing at the beautiful Barra Reef Divers launch
After 4 or 5 sea trials, we had the motors starting great and pulling top revs. Which made us good for 22 knots at spark advance – our most economical speed. Which two hours after launch at Barra, put us at the start of the Sylvia Shoal, and lines out.
It wasn’t a few minutes when the MYDO Livebaitswimmer rigged with a brand new mini sardine went down to a marauding Tropical Yellowtail. And the another one a few minutes later. This meant we had enough fish to eat at camp for the next few days, and so on we crtised at 20 knots, influenced by a slight chop. Meeting our ground crew who by road, made the same time as us, at the top of the ever awe-inspiring Pomene Point.
There is a natural sand harbour in front of our permanent camp at Pomene, perfect for parking boats in…easily navigated at higher tides.
The next day, whilst waiting for Clint to arrive, we hit out the 17kms to Bassas da Zambia. Miles and miles of more reef…very similair to The Sylvia Shoal. 5 Metres in places. 7kms out to sea. Snorkeling with the current over undragged coral didn’t last long as fish came into view. Many fish. Two Green Jobfish were soon in the hatch. Then a shark ate our bonnie. And a sailfish speared a hole almost right through our live Rainbow Runner. But in my excitement, I set the drag up to high straight away, the fish did not like that at all,and swam off indignant.
Our guest chef in the camp, Rio Domingo, took to catching our live bait for us, and brought up a host of cool little fishies, most of which swam away without hooks in them.
When Clint arrived that night, we moved to Pomene Lodge, where we would be based the next week or so. Hot water showers! Woohoo!
Mobilising the boat took a whole day but then we were cruising the magnificent estuary scanning away before sunset.
After a few days missioning with weather, engines and equipment, the job was done. Clint had to leave for more work but not before, he was amply treated to a serious surf session up at the point, with a draining tide and offshore wind, that produced lips a foot thick. And barrells big enough to live in. Enough said.
And so we were left with a boat and some time on our hands whilst waiting for more fuel and a good sea. With which we were able to explore and survey the rest of the huge estuarine system. Packed with Mangroves, and crystal clear water – what a day! It also happened to be the day of the solar eclipse, more about that here.
Solar eclipse at Pomene Lodge by “Buddy”
The next was deemed fit for travel, and at 4am, we repeated the ritual, and headed back out to sea. Again we stopped at The Sylvia Shoal, stuck out a whiting on a MYDO, and as we came up the side of the undersea mountain, a lovely swallowtail rockcod chomped it and we had fish for dinner, once more.
A quick two hours had us back on the beach at Barra, where Russell and his crew from Barra Reef Divers put us back on the trailer and into the pub. A few great plates of food at Neptunes Beach Bar, and three exhausted sailors put in for Tofo, and some serious R&R (not rum and raspberry!).
Thank you Clint and The Sardine team!
We can do this trip for anyone interested, anytime…buzz me on umzimkulu@gmail.com
Now that the bite has slowed down here on the lower south coast of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa – could this be the final word on this years huge king mackerel run?
Well this fish could be. The fish of the season so far too…taken off Umkomaas on a ski! Weighed in between 45 and a possible 55kg’s.
This King Mackerel first weighed 50.2kg’s, but on a subsequent weighing, only came in at 45 or so. Goes to show. With fish shedding as much as 10% of their weight lying in the boat, this fish could have been actually safely over 50kg’s.
It was also one of the very last fish recorded so far. At the Port Edward deep-sea competition, not even one couta was weighed in. The competition was won with a 30kg yellowfin tuna. Bonito and bait was everywhere – but unbelievably, not even one king mackerel.
As the season nears the end – about late July-ish, the chances of more of these amazing class of fish being caught bigger than the one featured, are very slim. They have disappeared from down here.
But, as we have been taught as of late, that anything can happen?! Who would have guessed in a million years that these huge fish would come and hang out here off Port Shepstone and Port Edward, season after season like this. I mean, yes, we have caught 30kg+ fish before, but only after 30 years of trying!
It took me 30 years of fishing to finally catch a fish like this…off Hibberdene quite a few years back.Many theories are being offered up.
One is by the resourceful and acclaimed scientist Pat Garrat, whom I saw in the early 1990’s, release his paper on “The end of a species”. He was citing research and contemporary situations at that time, pertaining to the slinger and the red steenbras. The two species had been studied by Pat and his associates, and observation with major impact were being made.
Polla Fourie, a commercial fisher at the same symposium, had been lobbying to have the restriction on red steenbras lifted or eased, as he was catching such good fish. Pat Garrat was opposing this claim and request, with research done with isolated slinger populations, on the north coast. As a population was depleted, the mean size increased.
Pat was citing lions and elephants and all manners of animals under threat. The last lion is the biggest and most wily. The last elephant. The last shark. As the less experienced and perhaps slower shoal sized fish are removed, the bigger ones get bigger. Survival of the fittest. And the biggest.
The other theory I have heard lately, is that perhaps these big fish have decided to just live in this area, what with all the bait and up coming sardine run to keep them interested. Some of these fish were taken in August, way down into the Transkei.
Craig Pretorious down in Port Edward, was chatting to some ORI staff who speculate that maybe these big fish come here to be put out to pasture? Like a couta old age home?
The photo does not do the fish of this size any justice at all. Although it does look like angler Roger Davidson could stick his entire head into that fish’s mouth! This fish went 47kg’s gutted! Last year, on a jet ski, off Hibberdene.
Well…
These fish were survivors through all the nets, lines and traps set for them over the last twenty to thirty years, as they traverse the Indian Ocean, growing at about 2kgs per year. They must have all hatched together, perhaps on the south coast (couta spawn way up in the tropics and their fry is brought on down to us. Then it heads it’s way back into the tropics. Couta are very seldom found in water below 23 degrees. Although they are recorded as in the past being prevalent in False Bay, Cape Town, where they were known as Katonkel. Mossell Bay officially recorded couta catches back in the days – it makes sense that as the overall population shrinks, the outer perimeters of it’s roaming waters are shrivelling).
But King Mackerel, in order to spawn, aggregate in specific areas to facilitate this. And so perhaps, the south coast over the last few years, has been a great place for spawning for these mature fish. The water hasn’t been that polluted or brown around here for quite some time through the drought of the last few years, almost a decade now. Loads of baitfish including sardines.
Fish behavior after spawning is dictated to by the energy spent during the spawn. Couta have to chow down and fast. And this is is when and where those chance encounters between recreational anglers and spawning sessions happen.
Fish are known to choose their spawning time over seasons to coincide with lunar movement and activity. So much so, that in Belize, when the snapper proffer their clouds of caviar, the whale sharks know exactly when to be there to take their(lions) share of the hopeful offspring.
So it’s that moon after all!
Getting technical…
Starting with some etymology, we have some latin humour. Scomberomorus comes roundabouts from the Latin word, scomber = mackerel + Greek, moros = silly, stupid (Ref. 45335).
So, the silly mackeral then?!
In South Africa: king mackerel, couta, cuda, but throughout their distribution…
India: konem in Telugu, vanjaram in Tamil, anjal in Tulu
Iran: shir mahi
Israel: Palamida
Philippines: tanigue
Indonesia: ikan tenggiri
Sri Lanka: Thora
Somalia: Yuumbi
Fiji: walu
Thailand: pl? xinthr?
So it is well established that king mackerel grow at about 2kgs per year. Maturing sexually in 3 years or so. Although a 14-year-old fish can weigh up to 35kg’s – there seem to be many variables affecting these statistics, including different populations of the same species. Interestingly, during tagging to establish this integer, researchers got hold of a live 178cm fish (Northern Oz)!
Research in Queensland Oz, reveals that their fish seldom travel more than 100 kilometres, but fish on the other side of the sub-continent, travel 1000’s of kilometres. We know our fish disappear entirely from August through November. It was always a great achievement down on the coast, to get the first couta of the season. I remember getting one off Umtentweni on the 16th November one year in the early nineties. But since then it has become gradually more and more rare to even get a couta in December.
So we know our fish head back up into the tropics – but where? My last ten years up in Mozambique never saw a fish over 20kg’s. The only crocodile couta I know of being caught anywhere, is on the KZN Coast and into the Transkei. So how far up do they travel? These fish are 15 to 20 years old or more. How have they avoided all the traps set for them?
Maybe they head up to Mozambique and across the channel to Madagascar? Or to the attolls and deep underwater mountains? These fish have to eat a lot to keep going. They need steady supplies of ribbonfish, mackerel, sardines, anchovies, bonito etc…maybe they just go up towards Sodwana and Kosi area and hang out there. That area is also known to have produced some really big couta before. (And lately)
As we move northwards, along the African coastline, the couta are mercilessly targeted for their great eating and protein producing flesh. Known as Sierra in Mozambique, endless flotillas of two man row boats and one man kayaks, target sierra all day every day. Right up and down the coastline. These subsistence fishermen have become great anglers, often bringing back marlin and sailfish with them, but very rarely, big couta.
Turning left into the Red Sea, a favourite haunt for juvenile couta, where again they are targeted commercially, some managed to find their way through the Suez Canal, and into the Meditaranean.
They colonized the eastern Med where they found endless supplied of cutlass fish (our walla walla), and very few if any predators.
Check this video of the size fish they catch in the ideal nursery conditions of Hurghada in the Red Sea off Eastern Egypt.
Lucky Egyptians also catch couta on the northen Egyptian coastline, as do the Israeli sportfishing contingent. Unfortunately, many, many fish catching and processing and exporting business’ operate in this area. Taking boatloads of fish out every year. But the couta seem to have adapted well and have been breeding and growing very successfully.
David Kosta and his mates have been successfully bringing home trophy sized king mackerel…in the Med.
Scomberomerous Commersoni – ‘couta, king mackeral, tanguiguie, spanish, narrow barred…but this one was caught in the Med!
Click here for the full story of David Kosta and his successes using deep swimming MYDO Baitswimmers for huge Amberjack and Couta.
So this population seems to be alive and well and sort of cut off to the rest by the Suez Canal. Interesting situation. Hope these colonists can hold onto power! But at what expense to the residents of the Med. Having a huge aggressive predatory fish come along into a peaceful neighbourhood can have disastrous results. Check out what the Nile Perch did to clean old Lake Victoria. They ate all the chiclids and other nice fishies, leaving plankton like creatures to bloom and discolour the waters as they have.
Ok, but moving on and passing by India, the couta is again an important source of protein and therefore valuable enough to be chase to the horizons by dozens of commercial operations. South East Asia is about the mid point of the couta’s distribution around the Indian Ocean coastlines. They are hammered here too. It’s only when the fish get past Indonesia and trickle on down both east and western coasltlines of Australia, do they find any real respite or protection.
They are also found swimming as far north as China and Japan. Highly sought after table fish.
The waters couta patrol are from near the edge of continental shelf to shallower waters. 5 To 25 metres. Drop-offs, shallow or gently sloping reef and lagoon waters are the right places to hunt for them. Solitary hunters they swim in shallow water along coastal reefs, bays, and around headlands. They undertake lengthy migrations up and down certain coastlines, but permanent resident populations also exist. Up until they are about 5 to 8kgs, they swim and migrate in shoals.
Couta feed primarily on small fishes like sardines, anchovies, mackerel, bonito and squids.
Eggs and larvae are pelagic. Couta spawn around reefs, in ideal warm water conditions. Eggs have an oil droplet that keeps them at the surface. The oxygen and abundant plankton nourish them. The larvae develop and move towards estuarine and calmer waters. You can see baby couta circling Paradise Island in the Bazaruto Archipelego and are caught in the nets deployed off Inhassoro and Vilancoulos, daily and throughout the year.
Female Couta become sexually mature at about two and a half years of age or around 80Â cm.
“Depending on temperature regime, the spawning season may be more or less extended. In Australian waters, each female spawns several times over the season, about 2 to 6 days apart (Ref. 30196), depending on the locality. Spanish mackerel spawn off the reef slopes and edges, and they form spawning aggregations in specific areas.” – From http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Species/Spanish-Mackerel/Pages/default.aspx
Scomberomerous Coomersoni growth rate…
Now imagine the weight of a 178cm fish!
Ok, so what isit that brings this run of huge king mackerel about?
It could have been a spawning aggregation of fish that survived all these years together. 15 to 20 Years! And given that they spawn over 6 days or so, and then go on a feeding frenzy to replenish stores of energy, they come on the bite like crazy, every week or so, when they are about.
It’s that moon to blame again then, or is it?
According to Tides4Fishing.com, the time when Marc Lange and Koos Viviers caught these fish – nine in one day – high activity was forecast – albeit an hour or two after Marc and Koos got into the fish. It was the 19th May 2016.
The Almanac type predictions were similar all week that week, they all predicted higher than average fish activity, early to mid morning. The day before however, Marc and Brian Lange, had spent the afternoon and into the evening, til midnight, fishing the exact same spot for couta, with livebait, and caught nothing. Not a strike. Then Marc relaunched in the morning – keen bugger he is, and got into these 9 fish. At the end of the day, just as the tide was dictating for them to get back into the Umzimkulu mouth, a huge couta came screaming in at Marc’s last live shad. His instinct, after loading nine fish, was to pull the shad out of harms way. They packed up and went home. It took 3 hours to hook and load all the fish. They never lost one – nine strikes, nine fish.
A few days later…Mark Snyman, William Robertson and Lance Dunn came in with this catch…on the 28 May 2016. One week later. 10 Nautical miles due south of Marc and Koos’s catch.
The Tides4Fishing Almaniacal prediction was for very high fishing activity but very early that morning. So far so good, two out of two predictions were bang on.
If those fish spawned just before the good fishing that was experienced, – then we can learn when to fish for these crocodile couta. When the moon is directly overhead, or underfoot – those are meant to be the right times.
Where do they simply disappear to? Where do they come from?
These outsized King Mackerel were caught on the 4 May 2014. Way down south and even beyond Port Edward.
Louis Posthumous, his son Shawn and Neil Allchin caught these fish when the Almanac said fishing would be good early that morning.
And in a final twist, and a possible clue – Ettienne Thiebauts paddling off Cape Vidal, hauled in a confirmed 46 kg king mackerel, on Friday 17 June 2016.
46kg king mackerel at Cape Vidal by Etienne Thiebauts
The fishing was forecast good for around 10 am in the morning, kak through the day, and one more hit of chance at 3pm in the afternoon.
One thing is for sure, we will be eagerly awaiting this run again next year.
Now, let’s see who will be the first to tag and release one of these majestic fish?!
References and acknowledgements:
McPherson, G.R., 1992. Age and growth of the narrow-barred Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson Lacepède, 1800) in north-eastern Queensland waters. Aust. J. Mar. Freshwat. Res. 43(5):1269-1282.
Small stream trout fishing in Lydenburg (Mpumulanga, South Africa) is an exciting winter prospect. River caught trout are known to be far more voracious and cunning than their bigger dam raised counterparts. River trout are free range hunters that patrol the shallow flowing waters using their camouflage and stealth – to ambush prey.
Waking up early, very early – coffee and rusks to get you on the go. The sun – nowhere, but first light helps you make your way carefully, down to the river. Rushing waters and waking birds guiding you all the way.
Sneaking up to the river bank, ever aware, you imagine you can see the trout you are after, swimming in the clear current, just downstream. Stripping out some line, you carefully approach, your camo gear helping you stay hidden. Quiet steps. And you cast. A small, gentle, but accurate cast  – you only need a few metres most times. Your 2 or 3 weight fly rod, with floating line, and a short five foot or so fluorocarbon leader, is a cinch to operate. Your neat little Red-eye Damsel fly – deployed for the ambush. Mimicking a Dragon Fly Nymph.
Encouraging your offer to drift towards your prey, you start to twitch it as you retrieve your line against the flow of the lightening stream. As the fly reaches the small pool you thought you saw the fish in…
Bang! An explosion in the water right in front of you and your rod tip is violently jerked downstream and you set the hook! The sun is rising, the birds are cheering, and the fish are biting.
Dreams are coming true!
This is the time of the year, for this type of trout fishing action.
Trout fishing in Lydenburg…at Highland Run Fly-fishing Estate
In the Mpumalanga Drakensberg, 17 kilometres out of Lydenburg, is Highland Run Fly-fishing Estate. Tucked away tightly up into the Drakensberg mountains. With the trout filled Spekboom River flowing right through it. 5.1 Kilometres of pristine, crystal clear trout stream.
The nature-centric development of three lodges, on a grand piece of mountain range, available via shared ownership, is great opportunity, to realise stories like the above. It includes shared ownership of the land around the houses – so you are also contributing to the conservation of the area, by investing. And then reap the rewards of ownership in a unique and worthwhile project like Highland Run, by Dream Resorts, in Bryanston, Johannesburg.
Catching Kingies from the beach with JP Bartholomew
“It has been absolutely marvellous having guest writer (and seriously hot angler) JP Bartholomew (pictured) share his remarkeable catches with us here on thesardine.co.za. Many thanks JP and please keep ’em coming! Â -Shonalanga”
Over to you JP…
Every angler dreams of tussling with that aggressive and dirty fighter,the (Caranx ignobilis) – the Giant Kingfish -and I ‘m no different. However, although the Giant Kingfish is top of the list,there are many other Kingfish species that are almost as exciting to catch. My quest for special prized Kingfish began fresh one morning in May when I knew the big boys were coming down for the biggest event of the year – the annual Sardine Run!
I headed down to my favourite stretch of beach at Umdloti South around 07:30am. The fishing conditions were perfect – it was a few days after Full Moon and with a slight south westerly wind blowing with a pushing in tide. I was using my new Explorer 9-wt Classic 2 fitted with a Orion 9wt, Snowbee Intermediate line and a 40lb flouro leader. The heavy leader sinks quickly,ensuring my fly reaches the strike zone quicker and a lot less easier to be cut off by your kingfish at the end of your line.
After tying on a brown brush fly I tried my first spot where two reefs separate and there’s a nice deep channel – perfect for Kingies. I had no luck there, so I moved on, casting as I walked the stretch of beach. My second spot featured a good drop off where there’s a fairly deep gulley and I knew baitfish would be hanging around. Over the previous weeks, I had seen kingfish come in and smash the baitfish trapped in the gulley.
I stripped off line to get a good cast into the all-important strike zone , then allowed the fly to sink before starting my retrieve with a medium-fast to fast action. If there was a kingfish in the area I was hoping it would see the fly imitating a small fleeing baitfish and would hopefully smash it , but not to be – all quiet.
On my walk to the next spot, I changed the brown brush fly to a red and black brush fly fitted with a 4/0 Mustad hook. I was hoping that this would be the fly that breaks the camels back. When I reached Reef Bay I started stripping off line ,determined I would have success. In this bay there is a lot of scattered rocks structure and kingfish hang around the area hoping to ambush unsuspecting baitfish.
On my sixth or seventh cast I let the leader sink slowly before starting to retrieve my line. On my second pull the line went tight and the water boiled in front of me in the shore break. I was On !
Judging by the continuous head shakes I was pretty sure I’d hooked into a decent kingie on the end of my line. He was stripping off line very quickly and before I knew it I was into my backing. Kingies are dirty fighters so I had to turn this fish around and keep him off the reef, otherwise, he would definitely cut me off. I was lucky the tide was still coming in and the water fairly shallow , so I kept my rod high and the line tight and gradually began to turn him and get the better of him.
As I started retrieving some line back I could see the silver shape of the fish in front of me. Despite him making the odd run, trying to get into deeper water where he would try to cut me off,he was coming closer and started to use the shore break to bring him in and tire him out.
At last I could see the size and species of kingfish – it was a whopper of a Black Tip Kingfish – at least 6- 7 kilos ! Finally, a nice size wave helped bring him in closer to allow me to beach him. I was thrilled – my biggest BlackTip Kingfish on fly. I quickly measured the fish ,and with a length of 81 cm I reckoned was about 7.8kg. I quickly forgot my tiredness and looked around for another angler to take a picture of me holding this amazing specimen, all the while aware that he was also tired and needed to get him back into the water as soon as possible. Fortunately an elderly gentleman walking his dog saw me fighting my fish and was eager to see my catch he took the picture for me before I safely returned the kingfish back to the ocean.
With the right conditions and a few days after a full moon ,you are bound to into something interesting – and hopefully big – on this stretch of beach. Many other species of kingfish can also be caught at Umdloti South; I’ve caught GT’s, Brazzy’s and Bigeyed kingfish and then, of course there are the Kob and Giant Blue Shad and Grunter as well as many others if you’re prepared to put in the time and effort.
Always remember that any fish which has endured a long fight needs to be revived by getting to get sea water to flow over his gills before it’s released back into the water. Ensure you take that special photo of your catch and quickly release it and let your fish roam free. Each new fishing trip,each cast ,each fish caught Becomes a unique once in a lifetime Experience…….!!!
Enjoy the reading and remember LET GO LET GROW……!!
Cheers JP.
The bottom Picture is the Red and Black Brush Fly I was using when i caught the Black Tip Kingfish.
“And the accompanying gallery, if your not already squirming to go fishing…” – S
“JP has been invited down to the Umzimkulu Marina this weekend to take on the gamefish action in the river mouth and estuary – watch this space!”
![sean-kuta-32kg-010306-028-768x1024[1]](https://thesardine.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/sean-kuta-32kg-010306-028-768x10241.jpg)
