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Fishing Report August 2023: Transkei, KZN South Coast, Bazaruto

Fishing Report August 2023: Transkei, KZN South Coast, Bazaruto

Welcome back to the Sardine News comprehensive Southern African fishing report. As we move through winter, the big cold fronts start taking strain after their recent big efforts. And the east winds start to come back along the eastern seaboard. With vengeance! This is a very blowy time of the year. Water temperatures fluctuate with each change in the direction of the wind.

That’s not to say, however, that the summer mornings are not just crazy beautiful these days. Before either of the two competing winds get up, there is still invariably some offshore blowing the ocean smooth in the early sunlight.

Starting in Mdumbi…

Believably, there is still some sardine activity to report from Mdumbi recently. That ocean is alive and well right now. Whales and dolphins. Terns and gannets. There are shad on the points and in the pools. Not as many as usual but they are there. With the Garrick and Kob right on their caudals.

The Mdumbi Estuary at sunset is a sight to behold. Those waters carry some mean fish!

The estuary has been a tad quiet, except at the right times. You just got to dial in and figure out where and when to fish. And what with. Trophy rock salmon, kob, garrick and grunter are to be found in most of the Transkei estuaries right now.

Port St Johns

Looking out over the old path that the Umzimvubu River used to follow. Prior to the flood.

The river has still lost its way and is showing zero sign of finding its way back to the Cape Hermes lighthouse. As a result, the fishing is mainly all happening all the way across at Ferry Point. On this day, there were cars of anglers driving all over the place. Stacked with tackle. But not one guy was fishing at the hotspot!? Maybe the DAFF kids were doing their rounds?

Because also absent the morning we checked it out, were the jiggers…if anybody here doesn’t know what is going on down in PSJ with the illegal jigging, watch this video.

In the river, there was the usual fleet of cool little estuary fishing boats looking for the Kob. Grunter. And Garrick. Not many Shad to report at all.

KZN South Coast

There are still some sardines around, as can be seen by the photo below. Nets going in at the Amanzimtoti area recently.

Sardine netters operating in August down on the KZN South Coast

Quite a bit of swell and wind have made for some challenging conditions. Conditions, however, that the fish really like. Good Kob are being taken regularly. You got to put in the hard yards and fish at night. But throwing a paddle tail during the day, in the right channel, might get you a Kob too.

There are very few Garrick catches going on. Those jiggers are having the effect we all know they would. Shad have also been quite hard to find this year.

Most estuaries in KZN are closed by now. Just not enough rain. Water is very cold in most spots too. We need some summer influence for the estuaries to come alive again.

Bazaruto

Captain Duarte Rato, right up north over the border in Mozambique, has been fishing the winter Bazaruto waters hard. Here is his most recent report…

Captain Duarte Rato reporting in from the blue warm waters of Bazaruto Island.

And a quick 2023 sailfish season video…

But ok, howling SW wind today, after a lovely crisp summer morning. The swell should be tamed as this wind dominates…and tomorrow is looking to be an absolute pearler!

This report is sponsored by MYDO Fishing Lures. Where you can buy species and area-specific combination fishing packs.