Loads of sardine activity at Mdumbi 12 July 2023

Loads of sardine activity at Mdumbi

Loads of sardine activity at Mdumbi: well it certainly ain’t over – this year’s sardine run has had a few interruptions. But so far it’s been a great early sardine appearance this 2023.

Sardine activity at Mdumbi

It’s actually quite a serious amount of sardine activity down here in the mid Transkei at this very moment. Where The Sardine News team have set up office for a while.

From up here on the hill at the fabulous Freedom O Clock you can see everything – gannets are circling and cycling through the air taking turns to dive bomb into the Shoals. So many whales. Sharks and Gamefish.

And dolphins…back with a vengeance after missing some of the action earlier in the season. They had formed a super pod back then and we’re traveling north when the sardines surprised us in the south again.

Garrick time

It’s all about the Garrick these days. Sure you can fish for kob and shad. But man oh man have we been having an absolute blast down here in the Kei with the Garrick.

We were ‘back to the backing’ so many times as the strong and healthy fish put up their best fight. Which in most cases was no match for the high tech tackle and braid we use nowadays.

Out of two sessions, 10 strikes, 7 fish, 5 released. All on lures. And here’s the best part – we absolutely annihilated the jiggers all around us. For as soon as they saw us go vas, they lined the banks left and right. And proceeded with that ugly and pathetic motion of winding down and swooping up. Zero skill required. Ten trebles in a row. Disgusting behaviour.

And here’s the kicker…

We were fishing with single hook lures. Bucktails. Mydos. Flutter jigs. And you will never believe that not one of the fish we caught that session, were hooked in the mouth.

Top of head was most place. Dorsal too. This is my theory…we just got to go to Angola quick to get it.

A certain tiger fish, one that I hope I never, ever meet again, explained it to me in exactly one second. In that single second he came at my spoon, as I was lifting it out if the water. A metre long was this particular tiger. He took the lure down with him, it pulled, came out, the lure came up out of the water and fell back in. We’re now into a full half second. He turns and grabs it as it hits the water. Somehow misses clean. Turns again and smashes the lure head on and he finally he somehow got the hook in the top of the head and smoked me.

Firstly… that’s what the Garrick do too. But our erratic lure retrieval (that drives the fish to attack) makes it really difficult for them to get ahold of the lure.

Second…we hooked each and every fish top side. Which is impossible when jigging. Unless the fish was swimming upside down…these fish hooked up whilst attacking the lure.

Conclusion

The jiggers this session, caught nothing. We obliterated them. They were so visibly embarrassed when we took a few clips of their patheticly ugly fishing technique, they left the beach.

Use lures. Fish ethically. And victory is oh so the sweeter.

Full story…”The jig goes on…in Sassa Town”… coming shortly.

Don’t forget to check out the Sardine Sightings Map for 2023. So you never miss a single sardine. Get to it through the menu above.