Category: Report

Another Beautiful KZN Day Unfolds by Adam Kamdar

Another Beautiful KZN Day Unfolds by Adam Kamdar: and the good times just keep rolling in! Whilst the rest of the country is under threat of doom from the SA Weather Service people bandying the words “cut-off low” about as if they were playthings, here in KZN we have escaped the alarmist rhetoric. And are experiencing first-class Natal weather.

Surfing

It is cranking again in Durban town. Between the piers at all the beaches there are waves marching in squarely from the east. Being saluted in by another timely offshore breeze that threatens to hang about all morning?! Eventually swinging around to an east wind, today is a surfing day of note.

Fishing

Fish also love the aerating effect any decent swell has on the ocean. And many gamefish move right in shallow when the waves are up. To hunt in amongst the white water patches – this is spectacular spearfishing time and you never know who you might bump into in the shallows. Big kob and GTs are amongst the big wave enthusiasts.

Garrick and snoek! What champions these fish are they get us from one couta season to the next. Any point or shallow reef will out you in with a chance at these shallow swimming fish too.

Diving

Well The Bear has been uncharacteristically quiet and this can only be due to the brown water hanging around on the coast still. The only chance of a dive would be to find a blue patch in amongst the brown sections moving up and down the coast.

It is deffos more fishing time than diving time. But the lovely SW forecast for tomorrow will sweep the ocean clean all over again.

Synoptic

Let’s hope the SAWS people are not tempting fate by calling a “cut-off low”. For there are two little low pressures looking to team up off KZN and the Eastern Cape at the moment. These little guys are flanked by two mighty high pressures. Which have been keeping our area of the globe quite stable since they have formed up and started working together. Pushing the queue of ever-incoming cold fronts way down south and out of the way.

This is the reason we are getting the nice east swell, which is currently coming in at 9 seconds or so. It has travelled miles to get into such good shape and form. And is at the exact right angle to sneak into the Durban town waves. If the high pressures were not there, the swell be from the SW and the waves would go straight past Durban.

Sardines and Sighting Maps

It has been a fantastic sardine run this memorable 2024. And all the action has been logged right here on The Sardine News. This year’s map has been viewed 189,000 times and keeps growing.

Which led us to decide to keep the map live. And keep adding unique marine animal sightings and events. That occurs non-stop all year round. This year we started to log more whale and dolphin sightings. And we even had a shipwreck! And a freaking tornado! And recently a capsized KZNSB boat!

These events will from now on be included in the Sardine News Sightings Map for 2024. And on the 1 January 2025, we shall start all over again.

Here are the links to existing and past Sardine Sighting Maps. Great for a windy day like today to research. With instructions to install The Sardine News right on your phone or desktop.

2024 Sardine Map

2023 Sardine Map

2022 Sardine Map

2021 Sardine Map

Channels

Brucifire Surf Retorts – highly entertaining  surf reporting

Master Watermen – news from way down deep

The Sardine News – neva miss a single  sardine

FishBazaruto – 1000 pounds plus

MYDO Tackle Talk – highly technical  sport fishing

Surf Launching Southern Africa – getting out there safely

Water Woes – complain about your municipality here

Websites

umzimkulu.co.za – self-catering right on the Umzimkulu River
umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za –  will get you right out and onto the edge
thesardine.co.za – never miss a single sardine
masterwatermen.co.za – news from deep down
fishbazaruto.com – your dreams are out there
mydofishinglures.co.za – for international orders

Lekka Week Ahead for KZN by Adam Kamdar in Durban

Lekka Week Ahead for KZN by Adam Kamdar in Durban: The high-pressure systems we have been counting on to keep the rain away are doing their job. And a fantastically mild weather week ahead can be expected. For KZN and the Eastern Cape.

Over to Adam to greet the day in…

Durban Beach Gallery

Today is quite lekker in Durban already. There is a light breeze from the south to start with, and as usual, it ends up with an east angle later.

As a side note, the weather is quite the opposite regarding the onshore winds up in Mozambique. Up there, it starts with an onshore just about every single day. It is quite blustery in the early sun. Then, by about 9 a.m., it just starts backing off, leaving day after day peachy as ever.

The big marlin season is going on up in Vilankulos right now. Plenty fish in the 600 range being release daily. Captain Duarte Rato is pulling a stint on the Great Barrier Reef at the moment but when he returns his usual Bazaruto reports will be back on air.

For us down in the more temperate south, it’s all about garrick and snoek right now. With some lovely kob catches being made recently. If you are out deeper you are sure to encounter yellowfin and amberjack too. The spearos found fish on deeper Number One this weekend with 8m viz on top and down to 5m viz on the bottom.

Summer is marching in fast – our next big attraction – the couta aka king mackerel, will just start featuring on the north coast as their annual migration brings them all the way down to the Transkei in the sardine season.

Gear up for these dynamic gamefish right here https://thesardine.co.za/mydo.

Sardines and Sighting Maps

It has been a fantastic sardine run this memorable 2024. And all the action has been logged right here on The Sardine News. This year’s map has been viewed 189,000 times and keeps growing.

Which led us to decide to keep the map live. And keep adding unique marine animal sightings and events. That occurs non-stop all year round. This year we started to log more whale and dolphin sightings. And we even had a shipwreck! And a freaking tornado! And recently a capsized KZNSB boat!

These events will from now on be included in the Sardine News Sightings Map for 2024. And on the 1 January 2025, we shall start all over again.

Here are the links to existing and past Sardine Sighting Maps. Great for a windy day like today to research. With instructions to install The Sardine News right on your phone or desktop.

2024 Sardine Map

2023 Sardine Map

2022 Sardine Map

2021 Sardine Map

Channels

Brucifire Surf Retorts – highly entertaining  surf reporting

Master Watermen – news from way down deep

The Sardine News – neva miss a single  sardine

FishBazaruto – 1000 pounds plus

MYDO Tackle Talk – highly technical  sport fishing

Surf Launching Southern Africa – getting out there safely

Water Woes – complain about your municipality here

Websites

umzimkulu.co.za – self-catering right on the Umzimkulu River
umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za –  will get you right out and onto the edge
thesardine.co.za – never miss a single sardine
masterwatermen.co.za – news from deep down
fishbazaruto.com – your dreams are out there
mydofishinglures.co.za – for international orders

Another day of Cooking Waves in Durban KZN by Adam Kamdar 25 October 2024 7am

Another day of Cooking Waves in Durban KZN by Adam Kamdar 25 October 2024 7am: And the waves just keep rolling in!

Over to Adam with a birds-eye view of the entire scene…

If you take a careful gander at the synpotic chart for today (below), you might spot the good news. Two vaste high-pressure systems are joining forces and pushing the three impending cold fronts down to the south and out of range.

We will still get the south swell. And we might get a decent puff of south wind (will be a bit sideshore). But the main takeaway is that we are in for a couple weeks of good weather!

High pressure’s are anti-rain and the ocean will have a chance to clean up after the recent downpours. The swell will also clean up and the ocean should be in great shape by Monday or so.

That’s not to say that the weekend won’t be a cracker. It’s just that the sea has taken an absolute hammering lately and needs time to recover. To clean up. To smooth out.

Durban Today

Fishing

However, some fish relish these off-clean conditions. Like Natal Snoek. Grunter. Kob. And even shad. Some monster shad coming out lately. All having to be released since we are out of season right now. Check back later for an epic battle between a huge shad and a huge shore break. All masterfully handled by fishing guide Alan on The Sandspit yesterday. And all on video!

Other movies in the pipeline include our latest iteration of a marine drone to carry our underwater cameras around on. Now we gonna be able to chase those garrick and kingfish when they come and make baitballs out here in front of the lodge.

The lodge, funnily enough, the Umzimkulu Marina in Sheppy, is almost completely empty this weekend! After being fully booked last weekend, we are certainly going to enjoy the quiet time. But if you feel like catching kob on live mullet and prawn, you know who to call for a close-by fishing getaway. Just an hour from Durban, come for the day. Or for the night.

More information at https://umzimkulu.co.za, https://umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za or https://thesardine.co.za. Or simply drop me (Sean) a line or a message on +27793269671 or on umzimkulu@gmail.com.