Diamond skate caught and released at The Block in Port Shepstone
The Block in Port Shepstone was wild this morning with a powerful and very fast moving SE swell hammering through. But the high tide meant that the the anglers fishing from The Block had their baits in the juicy water just behind the powerful breakers.
Next thing one of the trio’s rod bent double as a powerful sea creature headed for Umtentweni with his bait and hooks firmly inside his mouth. The angler held on tight with his reasonably heavy looking tackle and proceeded to do battle. Which lasted a good 20 exciting minutes – until the stalemate that The Block can present, came to be.
The wall that used be the harbour entrance has long since toppled leaving a formiddable barrier encased in sharpness that your line has to avoid at all costs. But the fish had found his spot, just behind the last standing, huge concrete brick. And there it stayed, any efforts to pull him back to the shallows where it was safer to land and release a fish. But no ways was this guy gonna move so when it surfaced identifying itself as a flat fish, pulling hard with a wave was his only chance.
A chance the guy took and the skate flipped over into the wild water gulleys between The Block and the old wall. Waves wash in here with dangerous force and the terrain is sharp and unrelenting. Old building material and rubble.
Which proved to be the skates undoing as a proper set pulled through and washed the flat fish right up into the bricks where his unusual form factor had him wedged in and in reach.
A great fight.
The fish measured 95cm and was caught by Franz Brand, somehow fishing for Toyota!?
An Instagram feed journal of the activities of The Sardine News activities…Baby Black Marlin shoal off Bazaruto
A few days ago, Capt. Duarte Rato reported on all the baby Black marlin been caught off the Bazaruto Archipelago, into this new year. These are amazingly beautiful fish – which put on a great show and fight on appropriate gear, be it conventional, spinning or on the fly.
Here´s a very short clip of one of these rat´s being released aboard VAMIZI, it just shows you on beautiful these little creatures are. Amazingly these small fish come right into the inshore reef´s and are caught in depths as shallow as 15 meters of green water.
As you can see in the rad little clip…
fishbazaruto.com‘s Captain Duarte Rato educates one of a proliferation of baby black marlin off Bazaruto this year – how to jump real good for the camera, just prior to release. More on thesardine co.za #thesardine #fishbazaruto
And here we have JP Bartholomew entertaining us again with tales of fly fishing Umdloti, just north of where JP lives…
A final break in the weather and I wanted to get some flyfishing in and especially to see how my right arm was doing after battling with Tennis Elbow which I had been battling with for the last couple of month’s.I hit the Umdloti stretch with my 8/9wt Explorer fitted with a Explorer Orion 9wt Reel with intermediate line using a 22lb fluorocarbon leader.The water was flat with a slight South westerly wind blowing and as always fishing on a pushing in tide.The water was a nice green/blue in colour which was perfect not clean and not dirty the stretch was mine with the odd Holidaymaker Anglers trying there luck. A lot of scattered reef along the shorebreak and open gullies made it that more interesting to fly fish. Don’t you just ever get that feeling that today is just going to be an exciting morning for you not expecting anything big but just hopping for a epic morning’s session and you just wanna get going? Well this time I had a awesome morning’s fly fishing.
I had set up my fly set up and looked for a fly best suited to try the water’s I was going to be fishing that would attract any rock or sand dwellers in the near vicinity of where I would target the are I would cast towards.I decided to go with a Black Clouser which would stand out and throw more of a dark silhouette and attract some nice Specimen to it.I started peeling off line to begin my assault, I managed to get close to some structure and felt some nice bums on my retrieve but no hook ups so I a slower retrieve and not long a went on tight getting a few little head shakes I was just not quite sure what it was definitely not a small kingie of sorts, finally got it to surface and I had a little beauty of a Kob I quickly got a pic for my photo gallery and removed the fly and slowly released it back into the water stokked I was on the scoreboard I continued to cast around the same structure as well as bouncing my fly off a small sand bank to my left and slowly allowing it to sink and then slowly bouncing it off the bottom to get a reaction I tried the same retrieve a few times before I went on again.
My rod went tight and this fella was giving me stick which felt so good hoping to see what I had picked up a few more runs I slowly started retrieving the line back and slowly got it to the surface it was a nice size Stone Bream. I quickly got my buddy to take a pic for the gallery and removed the fly and slowly released it back to fight another day epic seeing how much activity happens when you fish a pushing in tide and the conditions are right and the fish species are roaming around looking for anything which gets knocked off the rocks or when the waves churned up the sand throwing up all sorts of crustaceans and small sprats allowing anything in tvicinityity to feed freely on them.
After a few more casts I finally moved on to a different spot as the water was pushing a little more with more white water breaking over the rocks hoping to try target for a kingfish or two hopefully.I had a couple of casts into the white water before going tight a a nice quick peel on my line zig zaggingfrom left to right very unasual fight after a few minutes I managed to get close to it so I could identify the fish I had hooked into – Eisssh my first a Concertina fish nice size too happy with my catch I just had to get the pic in quickly and release it back as soon as possible which I did.I carried on for a while hoping for a bigger pick up as the gulley filled up nicely and the waves were still brakeing over the rocks it was still fish able for a few more casts.I slowly started moving out slightly more backwards so I could have a few more casts in front of me towards the bay that had build up in front while I was busy fishing but to no avail.
Fly fishing Umdloti with JP Bartholomew and his Concertina Fish
I moved out and walked more down towards the bigger bays and try for some small Geeeeeet’s hopefully I kept to the Black Clouser why change your fly when you’ve been having such good results with it. I slowly started peeling off line to begin my casting I spotted a nice little gully which came off from a sand bank and dropped off into a nice deepish pool of running white water which is always a exciting spot to target kingfish ambushing sprats or smaller Mullet in the turbulenced water.It wasn’t long before I got smoked by something that just felt like another Concertina fish and yip it was another I safely removed the fly and released it back, carring on and casting into the channel I got a chase and it it my fly but missed the hook up I could only have been a small kingie so I kept at casting in the direction of the chase I got hoping it would give Me another go.No luck after a few more casts nothing was happening so I moved further down where to more of a sandy bay with a scattered reef to see what species I could hook my fly into and attract what ever is lurking along the sandy channels.
Well this would be my final session before my turn around and start to make my way back to my car. Looking to see where would be the best option to start I saw a sandy spot just starting to get water washing over the bank that could only be to My advantage with the water stirring up the sand and exposing small Crustaceans, Sealice , Sand Shrimp….etc and all I had to do is cast my fly towards the turmoil and white water rolling around.
I gave myself 20min to cast and hopefully catch my last fish before before heading home for some family time….!! Well I started casting onto the bank and dropping my fly down and using a slow retrieve hoping something would see it amongst the sand and white water trying to get away and smash my fly. I just kept at it eventually I felt a bump then another bump and a miss then got a proper pick up and quickly held my line and lifted up my rod to strike I was on Dad finally I got my Species that was playing catch me if you can but with perseverance I hooked the cheeky bugger not knowing what it was it was a feisty fella gave Me a nice little rev retrieving some line back I could see what looked to me like a little Grunter which landed up being My first Grunter on fly completely stokked at my little Spotted Grunter I took the Pic and released it back and got back to casting hoping for a bigger Boykie if there was one there must be more surely.
I changed my fly to a Brown Brush Fly to try impersonat a Brown Shrimp I casted for may be 15min then totally got Smashed I really thought I had the Daddy Grunter but landed up being a nice size Stone Bream unfortunately I had to take the Pic of My Boykie Stone lying on the sand quickly removed the fly and released it back safely I got straight back into the channel and kept at it hoping just hoping for that Big Cock Grunter.Boom I was on again and what ever hit me it was peeling line and going for it , it was stripping Me nicely best fight I had all morning.I finally started getting my line back I thought I had a little kingie on but I had hooked a nice size Wave Garrick epic I placed the fella on the sand took the Pic and released it back into the water and watched it swim of into the blue.
Well I called it a morning a gr8 one at that and started heading back to my car and just enjoyed the playback’s in My head on the morning I just had , well maybe I’ll get My kingie the next time round…Homeward bound.
Tight line’s
Happy New Year My Friends have a epic weekend all the BEST FOR 2017…..GOD BLESS….!!!
Cheers JP.
Once again JP, many thanks for sharing your fishing experiences with us. It’s really motivating, educational and appreciated! – Sean
Chris Leppan and his 40kg Zambezi in the Umzimkulu
Read all about it – Chris Leppan and his 40kg Zambezi in the Umzimkulu. Last week, fishing right in front of the Umzimkulu Marina.
Chris has become an absolute expert light tackle spinning enthusiast racking up phenomenal catches in the Umzimkulu River in Port Shepstone, over the past few years.
And now this…
Pictured here with sport angling partner Rory Lawlor, aboard one of the smaller attack boats in their fleet, the pair of them are subduing an epic 40kg estimated catch – a Zambezi Shark! The shark was released healthily, and speculation is rife that this fish was part of the same litter being encountered a few years ago, and that the sharks growth rate seems to be about 5 to 8kgs per year! About 20 to 30cm per year.
So the smaller fish we were catching a few years ago, in 2014 and 2015, seem to be growing up fast and healthy, and at about 200cm, will take to the ocean and seek residence on a convenient and healthy string of reefs somewhere up or down the coast from Port Shepstone. Zambezi’s are born alive btw, in a litter of up to 12 pups. They develop fully in the womb and pop out ready to bite and eat immediately. In a lucky estuary near you!
A great catch on light tackle – more details regards Chris methodology coming soon.
Greg Millward is the other member of the team, and excellent spinning angler, and together they have dispelled any and all lazy man’s rumours that there are no fish to be caught in the Umzimkulu. In fact, the fishing is actually excellent in the river, especially this time of year, as shoals of bigeye kingfish and smaller kob maraud up and down the channels.
Fishing off the Umzimkulu Marina bank, guests have been having a ball right now with grunter, bigeye kingfish and perch being taken regularly.
For more information regards the fishing the Umzimkulu River, email umzimkulu@gmail.com, or call +27 79 326 9671 (WhatsApp is best).
It’s a dream for many of us to visit The Great Barrier Reef and chase the legendary huge marlin the place is famous for. Well, Captain Duarte Rato was over in Oz lately and managed some amazing figures for fish.
Enjoy the gallery and the good read – by Duarte on location near Cooktown.
Duarte travels the oceans with his lucky clients, to all the marlin corners of the globe. Including but not limited to The Azores, Madeira, The Ascension Islands…and now The Great Barrier Reef.
In this two part series, Duarte relates in detail, each days fishing. The tactics and techniques, the encounters, the tackle – and the areas they fished in.
Based in Vilanculos, the closest town to the fabled island of Bazaruto, Duarte has been taking charters for decades. He grew up in these waters and knows the Bazaruto Archipelago backwards.
Duarte focuses on grander marlin, but along the way many fish are caught and most released. Check out his website on http://fishbazaruto.com to get in touch.
The website is also features The Captain’s Blog – a full record of every trip Duarte has been on, with incredible photos to compliment the entertaining fishing reports.
Going back years it becomes clear why Duarte delivers such good results.