There is no point posting any sightings of the humpback whales on their sojourn up the east coast of Africa- there are just so many of them!
Travelling north in random patterns and formations, the whales are having a blast, jumping clean out of the water often times.
As far as the sardines are concerned, it’s only the red eye version of the sardine, to report. Shoals moving north were being hustled by dolphins and gamefish…a similar scene to normal sardines but on a very small scale.
The water has cooled over the last two weeks, to about 19 degrees some times and places, which is great for the sardines, if they decide to come this way!
There are very many quality video clips of waves coming in from around the country – here we have Dave de Fillipi easing into the first real winter swell on the south coast. Although Davey makes it looks easy on this wave, it hasn’t been. It’s a strong SE swell with a wobble in it, making for some insane wedging sections and awesome closeouts.
Saint Michaels has been firing, aswell as Uvongo, Margate and Southbroom.
Catch ‘n cook: Kingfish ace out…GT caught by Brian Lange
Launching on a whim earlier this year out of the Umzimkulu, and therefore ace out – “I’m just going fishing in the river…”, Brian Lange came back with this monster GT (Giant Trevally / Giant Kingfish) caught on a live bonito on the backline off Port Shepstone. It was too difficult to release fishing on his own and we needed fish for the fridge, so it came home and fed everyone.
Marinaded chunks grilled on coals for not too long are delicious, and shallow fried battered slices will get the kids crazy for it. It’s easy to flavour the batter with your favourite herbs and spices. Don’t cook for too long!
However, the GT is normally released – in fact most of the kingfish species are best thrown back, some also carry ciguatera poisoning.
What we shouldn’t tell you though, is that the Bluefin Kingfish is the one to eat. Succulent, full flavoured…it just melts in your mouth. Luckily they are hard to catch and hard to find, mainly further north. They swim in shoals and so are susceptible to over fishing by netting, sometimes in the fish markets up north, someone brings in a bakkie load. They get quite big, a 10kg bluefin is one helluva fish. And here is a real treat, an underwater video clip of two beautiful adult Bluefin Kingfish…enjoy…
And then finally…the biggest Giant Kingfish I have ever seen was this one we caught off Tofo in Mozambique. It was estimated at 60kg plus, it was a full 6ft long and had eyes like golf balls. I was on Meida van Wyk’s boat fishing with his son Richie, who just had enough battery for this one photograph. It was a smooth release – the kingfish chowed a 5kg live bonito and the brand new heavy tackle outfit gave a good performance bringing the fish healthy to the boat in an hour or so.
Estimated 60kg GT released in southern Mozambique.
Shaun Posthumous and Mark Perreira turned up the drag on these two gas bottle sized yellowfin tuna last week. Weighing in at 30 and 31kg’s, these fish are representative of the good sized fish being taken on the south coast lately – a result of the tackling up trend going on.
Since the shark epidemic on Protea Reef came about, anglers have all been losing good fish to the zambesi’s, the whalers, the hammers, the blackfin, the tigers…etc. The only way has been to tackle up, from the TLD’s to 30’s at least, with heavy line…80lb does fine!
Now imagine all this tackling up occurred long time ago…and imagine the fish that would have come out. Many TLD’s have been stripped and many huge fish taken by the sharks, using lighter 50lb and less tackle. Although the yellowfin move offshore when they reach sexual maturity at 35kg’s, there are still the huge amberjack, yellowtail and kingfish to deal with…their mean size being caught has also been going up with the sales of Stella reels and their counterparts. Full of 80lb braid!
Follow the link above to a fantastic compilation of tidal data, presented for fishing! The link above takes you to the Durban data set, but you can check it out for all over the world!
Says tonight is on!
There are also 3D renderings of the earth and it’s status regards sunrise and sunset. Really cool…click below…
