Category: Rock n Surf

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Possible final sardine report for 2017

Possible final sardine report for 2017

Possible final sardine report for 2017

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 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

Fishings Finest
Fishings Finest
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Four Fish Trading in Nelspruit stock The Mydo

Four Fish Trading in Nelspruit for all your fishing tackle requirements

Four Fish Trading in Nelspruit stock The Mydo

Years of experience and connections in the fishing business, have led to the opening of Four Fish Trading in Nelspruit. Open for a few months now, the store is jam-packed with stock, including The Mydo range of fishing lures. Read all about them right here (https://thesardine.co.za/mydo/), and pop in to Mohamed to get your own.

Life jackets and all the safety equipment you may need. Solid advice too.Next time you are in Nelspruit - check it out, the all new Four Fish TradingEstuary, Rock and Surf, Deep sea and PapgooiMydos and Rapalas - a great combination when chasing marlin bait

Rock and Surf, Deep Sea, Estuary, Freshwater…it’s all covered at Four Fish Trading. With a comprehensive range in each genre.

Four Fish Trading in Nelspruit
Four Fish Trading in Nelspruit

Being right on the route to Mozambique makes Four Fish a convenient stop for tackle on the way to your favourite fishing spot.

Check out their Facebook page here…

https://web.facebook.com/Four-Fish-Trading-757157894444943/?ref=br_rs

And like them to follow news and catches and all sorts fishing…

A happy Four Fish Trading customer
A happy Four Fish Trading customer
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Catching blacktail

Captain Blacktail

Catching blacktail

Trolling gulleys and walking beaches, light scratching stick in hand, a few sardines…blacktail fishing!

It’s called scratching for a reason – angling for blacktail is a great escape for when things are all quiet on the big baits. And they make a great live bait too.

All you need is a christmas tree trace decorated with two or three or four tiny little hooks, a little bit of sardine and squid, with which to make up juicy little mixed grills, and a little sinker to hold it down. Chuck the rig into the white water and do your best to keep from tangling with the rocks.

Blacktail bite hard and are easy to hook. They put on a great show, and a big one like the one featured will make you think you have a big shad. They swim and hunt with the shad and the angry little fish have even been caught jumping on lures meant for shad. They also happen out deeper, but mainly, sticking right in the shallows puts you in the game.

You can find black tail all over the place, up and down our eastern seaboard. The Transkei Wild Coast and surrounds would literally be a blacktail guarantee. Staying with us down at The Umzimkulu Marina puts you in with a shout, only a short distance north or south. The KZN lower south coast has many, literally endless, rocky headlands strewn with gulleys and boulders and all sorts of features that the ‘tail love.

Jonny van Biljon hoists his outsized blacktail, caught recently, on his honeymoon!
Jonny van Biljon hoists his outsized blacktail, caught recently, on his honeymoon!

Get in touch on umzimkulu@gmail.com for any of your south coast fishing requirements.

Click here for more about The Umzimkulu Marina…http://umzimkulu.co.za

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A long KZN south coast fishing weekend at the Umzimkulu Marina

Spinning sticks at the ready as Gizmo patrols for anything that moves

A long KZN south coast fishing weekend at the Umzimkulu Marina

These long weekends are just great and this one was filled with enthusiastic anglers from all over the globe. It started on Friday early morning with a 5kg kob taken off The Block on a paddletail. This set the tone for the long fishing weekend to come, and soon the Sandspit was lined with anglers. Who stayed all weekend!

Back up the river, at the Umzimkulu Estuary, Steve from England was over the moon with his pair of sharp-toothed catfish and a perch. Mark and crew were stoked with their perch, grunter and a kingfish.

But the bottom fishing team on the Niteshift had most of the fun with a big musselcracker, a bunch of bright orange cardinal snapper, and tales of huge yellowtail busting them up time after time. Took and entire day though, as the mid morning low tide kept them out there.

Matt Wainwright brought his highly maneuvrable little RIB down for the weekend, and in two sessions had to deal with some serious easterly surf, a feisty hammerhead shark and a couple of yellowfin tuna!

Captain Matt Wainwright scanning for tuna off Port Shepstone over the weekend
Captain Matt Wainwright scanning for tuna off Port Shepstone over the weekend

Overall the ocean seems to be coming alive all over the place after all the rain and brown water.

The only thing out of place, was the lack of mackerel in the usual spots, but we did find a few red eye sardines finally.

Spinning sticks at the ready as Gizmo patrols for anything that moves

Check out http://umzimkulu.co.za for some great KZN south coast fishing options.

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A brace of couta at Hibberdene by the Posthumous brothers

The Posthumous brothers with their ultimate brace of couta. Ask these brothers about ways to catch couta!

Flashback to 17 June 2007: A brace of couta at Hibberdene by the Posthumous brothers

A brace of couta at Hibberdene by the Posthumous brothers: The sardines had come at last.

Trucks, cars, bikes, planes…were buzzing up and down the lower south coast of KZN Natal like bees. Every man and his dog was on the chase. The scent of sardine hung in the air and it was making people a bit crazy.

The Posthumous brothers with their ultimate brace of couta. Ask these brothers about ways to catch couta!
The Posthumous brothers with their ultimate brace of couta. Ask these brothers about ways to catch couta!

But not the Posthumous brothers Louis and Dawdie.

They were completely focused on their umpteenth sardine run. But they weren’t after sardines. They had their big sticks ready to fly with perfectly maintained and serviced ancient Penn reels. These are two of the best anglers I have ever met. Total dedication. Perfect equipment. From bay to bay the two brothers hunted. Headland to headland. Lookout to lookout.

Eventually the trail led further up the coast to Hibberdene, and the Posthumous brothers were onto it. They parked their car in the old carpark, and scrambled. Guns loaded. Hibberdene is a great spot for an ambush and as the two brothers got to a place in the rocks they could cast from. A bait ball of sardines boiled on the backline.

These guys cast. Huge casts, and perfectly aimed every time. Time after time. They were fishing their own couta spoons. The same ones they use so successfully off the ski-boat. Moulded at home. Hand tied with wire. Double everything. Heavy duty. Huge hooks. For heavy duty fish.

Oh yes, and very shiny! Using secret methods to get the metal glass smooth and ultra-reflective.

The two brothers let fly at the same time. The twin white metal missiles went straight for the early morning sun and the sardines boiling the surface up. The pair of spoons landed on the glassy ocean and bounced, and dropped into the clear backline water.

They both hooked up. Simultaneously!

Two big and angry crocodile couta!

The fish screamed off together threatening to burn each other off.

For 40 minutes they each fought their quiet battles.

Both winning – they pulled their twin fish up the beach!

A brace of couta at Hibberdene by the Posthumous brothers.

(BTW, I sure I hope I got this story all exactly right, it was a long time ago!)

Check out our YouTube Channel right HERE.

The Sardine News

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