Estuary Fishing Time by Adam Kamdar 2 September 2024 #tarpon #kingfish #kob #perch #rocksalmon

Estuary Fishing Time by Adam Kamdar 2 September 2024 #tarpon #kingfish #kob #perch #rocksalmon

Estuary Fishing Time by Adam Kamdar 2 September 2024: It’s that time of the year again! The end of the dry season. The water is crystal clear and warm from the ocean’s tidal influx. Baitfish abound. As do gamefish.

Over to Adam…

The gallery below follows on from this video…

Chris Leppan (the South Coast version) has been spending seasons working out how to catch Mangrove Jack, on the troll. — Chris Leppan (the South Coast version) has been spending seasons working out how to catch Mangrove Jack aka Rock Salmon, on the troll.

Chris Leppan (the South Coast version) has been spending seasons working out how to catch Mangrove Jack aka Rock Salmon, on the troll.

Ox Eye Tarpon

They are all here! Even the highly sought-after Ox Eye Tarpon has come down from the top. To spawn in the saltwater of the estuary here. And to venture out to sea through the surf zone seeking other estuaries to terrorise. Matt Wainright tangled with two over the weekend. And we saw them free-jumping after bait all day long. Difficult to hook. Hard mouths. Just like their American cousins. But not quite as big. Our fish here in the Umzimkulu average between 2 and 4 kilos thankfully. Almost manageable. Enjoy some tarpon action…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JRTwKrieE?rel=0

Greenspot Kingfish

These guys have been in the estuary since May and are still marauding the channels at full speed all day long. We were surrounded by them on Saturday but the guests were a bit slow and n ever got a cast in at them. You need to have lightning quick reactions and perfectly prepared gear to be able to take on these guys.

GTs

Some really big fish have been caught in the estuary here. The biggest being 29kgs (that I heard of). A local fly fishermen got an absolutely marvelous fish out at about 8kgs released (let’s give him 2 extra kilos for releasing it and say 10 kgs). But our biggest has been young Mackenzie Nel, at about 6 or 7kgs. She caught this fish all on her own from rigging to casting to hookup and finally the net. You can see that epic battle right here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En5DsocENCg?rel=0

Rock Salmon

The big daddy of the estuary. Teeth motivated by lockjaw. High speed ambush predators. Angry. Territorial. Eager for an argument. This guy is the reason you simply cannot bring your favourite light-tackle outfit. You will be annihilated. Embaressed. Mercillessly.

You gonna need 40 to 50lb braid to pull these guys away from the mangroves. Watch this video to see why…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVrD0twkyfE?rel=0

Those are small rods Matt is riding with, but they have 40lb braid on them. Still not enough!

Kob

The biggest in the river that I ever heard of was 23kg’s by Sean van Tonder. On a tiny hook fishing for anything inside the mouth. On the south bank. He reckons it pulled for 45 minutes and when it finally came up, Sean got the fright of his life at the immense fish.

We get shoals of smaller kob in here intermittently. Watch this video for a laugh…

Spotted Grunter

These fish are reliable. Reliably hard to catch. But I have proof of their existence in certain places at certain times. Watch…

You would never believe the fish that swim in and out the mouth at high tide. Estuary fishing time for sure!

Garrick

Another reason why you just simply cannot bring light tackle. Anyway, a 7.5 kg one came out just out front of the lodge last week.

Contact

Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com for your estuary fishing time package.

Sardine Maps

Having intel to make the right decisions can save you hours and hours of frivolous sardine hunting. We have taken great care to log the activity of each sardine run since 2021. These records are available for anyone to look at.

If you study the maps year to year, you will see that right now we are only just in the middle of good sardine conditions. And that in previous years catches were made right into the summer months.

Sardine Map 2024

Sardine Map 2023

Sardine Map 2021