Yoco Cardswipe Machine to the rescue

The Yoco Cardswipe Machine available here in South Africa, has really come to the rescue.

Our little online store here on The Sardine News, carries many products that have really tight margins. So the other day, when I sold a product for R1300, and the banksters took R138, I stopped all online card transactions on The Sardine News. Back to good old safe and reliable EFTs. No risk. So cheap. Totally reliable – so many proof of payments and variations of that theme. You can very easily be sure your money has been paid to you – its right there!

But I still need a credit card clearing system on the site. And on some of my trips out in the field, I needed card transactions to work too. Some of my fishing charter clients are real credit card monsters. Most times the card belongs to a business and is paying for everything. Wherever we go. And in many places I take my clients, there ain’t no card machines!

So, I bought my own!

Yoco Cardswipe Machine

It is called a Yoco Cardswipe Machine to me. And man-oh-man is this little piece of hardware useful. Because, that right there is the solution, it’s not just hardware! It interfaces to your phone via an easily installed (Play Store) app to give you a full suite of business and POS tools. Wherever you are in range of cellphone signal. This app then connects to the cloud and again delivers all the business data from your transactioning, into a portal style Dashboard. Reports and all. Right on your desktop!

Facts and figures

And for the same transaction as spoken of above – R1300 odd, this would be my figures, at 2.95%, the highest rate (it goes down as your turnover grows)…

R1300 x 2.95% = R38.35.

So this then works out at exactly R100 cheaper than its local competitor. And try an international one. Try the biggest actually. And feel the pain.

The following screenshot summarises the Yoco Cardswipe Machine offer:

Selling online

For those that might not know, we run all our online projects with a thing called WordPress. It is a beautiful mass of code that can make things really easy. Or difficult! It is called a Content Management system (or CMS), and helps with e-commerce too. (More about all that here)

And guess what? The Yoco Cardswipe Machine software and system, plugs right in! Into WordPress, as an e-commerce payment gateway. Right next to PayPal, PayFast and all the others you might be tangled with as an e-commerce store owner.

At 2.95% which improves with turnover.

And a special facility for transactions under R50. They are only charged R1.71 including Vat! Great plan for subscriptions!

How to get your Yoco Cardswipe Machine going

It is so very easy. And if you sign up with the link below, you will receive free telephonic support from me.

https://www.yoco.co.za/r/YUTSFRL

The machine only costs R500! I paid R1800 last year!

Call me Sean on +27793269671 or email umzimkulu@gmail.com anytime to chat further about the Yoco Cardswipe Machine.

The Sardine News is on Facebook right HERE, we run an action-packed YouTube channel HERE. Sign up to our weekly newsletter for even more fun and games.

If any of you out there need some assistance taking things online, give us a shout here at The Sardine News. In conjunction with our associated company – Tiger Lily Consulting (Pty) Ltd, we offer all kinds of web services and products.

That might really suit you.

Fishin’s Cool 2020 Fishing School is on at the Umzimkulu Marina

Fishin’s Cool at Fishing School has fired up again, this July, 2020. We are following all the rules and have therefore limited slots available. At this stage, we are offering Fishin’s Cool from 9am to 4pm, every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Just down from Durban in KZN, South Africa, on the South Coast.

And we have this action-packed video with which to announce Fishing School 2020 with…please don’t forget to Like and Subscribe!

With the clean, clear water of winter moving into the Umzimkulu Estuary, come the kingfish. And the Garrick. The Kob. And the Grunter. To join the resident hunters already inside the bridge. Like the perch and the formidable rock salmon.

What a fantastico spot to run a fishing school!

From the vantage point of the Umzimkulu Marina, and utilising our little fleet of boats, we can strike inland up to the reefs under the main N2 bridge. We can fish the channels and the deep hole, on the way there and back. Or we can head south and towards the ocean. Following either of the twin channels that skirt the huge mudbank in the middle of the wide river. And into the basin, where the oceans energised saltwater comes right in. Bringing all sorts with it!

This is the seascape on offer at the meeting place of the mighty Umzimkulu River, and the mighty Indian Ocean.

Curriculum

This year, we have broken the syllabus down into a set of curriculums based on fish by specie. The ecology and conservation of each species is detailed. With positive steps that can be taken by individuals or groups, for each one.

Our fishing teaching has also changed to accomodate the ethics and values required when fishing in our sensitive environments. We use circle hooks mainly. And all our fish are released, unless in extenuating circumstances. We carry a tagging kit on board, and we use it a lot. We are affiliated with the Oceanographic Research Institutes tagging program.

Equipment and tackle

We provide everything but sure, if your kid has a rod, please let him bring it along. We also have available, on the Umzimkulu Marina online store, all the tackle you or your kid will require.

In fact, the MYDO Fishing Lure factory is on the premises! Check them out online right here.

This gallery, is all of fish, taken at the Umzimkulu Marina, this year only (2020). And there are many more we never photographed at all too!

Please get in touch with Sean on +27793269671 or email umzimkulu@gmail.com to book a few slots of Fishins Cool for your kid(s).

You can read more about the school at it product page right here…

Fishin’s Cool Fishing School Day Camp

Post and SEO by The Sardine News and TLC SEO Agency.

Sardine Run from a spearo’s POV: video by Breathless

Featured image by Ryan Daly.

The Sardine Run from a spearo’s POV: video by Breathless. In as much as this year has been really good (so far anyway ha ha), during all the many years gone by, where pundits have mourned the lack of sardines on the beach – what they don’t realise, is that the sardine run actually takes place beyond the backline.

For real. They only come into the channels, then the shorebreak, and finally the beach – when all the stars line up. But out behind the breakers, that’s where it all actually goes down.

Breathless is a new Vlog on the old YouTube and they are doing a fantastic job! This video is filled with action right from the outset. Launching out through under the bridge at Hibberdene. KZN South Coast. Being dragged into the shorebreak by tractor, negotiating the surf launch – and finally – sardines!

And sharks!

And gamefish. The first of which was a sardine crammed snoek who just never paid any attention and caught a spear for it. Then the sharks come into the scene. With one particularly cheeky looking guy – see if you can spot him in amongst all the other more peaceful players. This is the one that will bite you by mistake. Or maybe even on purpose. But the video is a great study in overall and general shark behaviour during the sardine run. It is probably, to me anyway, about 95% of the zambies, blacktips and coppers, are cool. But, and this is a big but, that 5% are testosterone addled zombies and do not play by the rules. Those are the ones you got to keep actively looking for. They swim different. And their fins point down. That’s the one to watch.

As for tigers, whites and makos – well luckily there ain’t none of them in this line-up. Nor that real punk – the oceanic white tip. And the really stupid blue shark. It seems there are a lot less of these open ocean travelers getting in amongst the sardines these days. Because back when I first jumped in with fins and a mask (holding tightly onto Darrell Hattinghs coat tails – late 80s), we had these morons to deal with a lot more. Perhaps this is ANOTHER contributing factor to the abundance of sardines this year – that all those commercial ships way out deep during lockdown, were actually, as said by Greg Christy, catching sharks and tuna. By the shipload. Lets chalk up yet another theory amongst the many sardine theories floating about these days. The truth is out there! (thank you Prof Simon).

But ok, enjoy the really cool video by Breathless, and don’t forget to Like and Subscribe to their channel. It’s one trillion times better than ANYTHING on TV (box of lies).

And there you have it. If you hear someone complaining that the sardines never swam up the beach this year – tell them to swim out a couple hundred metres and see what happens!

Breathless. Keep up the damn good work pal!

And Ryan Daly, thank you for your amazing chronicling by camera…this Sardine Run 2020. What a sardine run actually looks like.

Keep in touch with us at The Sardine News on Facebook right here. We run an action-packed YouTube channel right here.

Mr. Ant Nel teaching us a kingfish lesson in the Umzimkulu!

Those of us who know Mr. Ant Nel (Port Edward fame) as school teacher to a bunch of the marauding south coast kids – also know how well he can fish.

And so it was so cool to receive a call from Ant asking if he can come and hunt our fish in the Umzimkulu Estuary, with his mate Piet. He had seen some YouTube videos! Ha ha ha! After some convincing, that never worked, to use our boat – Ant dragged behind him, his super stealth river cruiser that makes no sound! Its a battery-powered little RIB that can go anywhere. As attested to by the near low-tide launch at the Umzimkulu Marina…which is impossible with a normal craft!

This style of fishing is the future and I just cannot understand why we don’t yet adapt our outboards to electricity even right now. You can just stick an electric motor straight onto the driveshaft, replacing the petrol engine in its entirety. More about that later then. Well, Ant and Piet certainly have this electric fishing methodology taped and not one drop of gasoline was spilt during the making of this fishing trip!

Anyway, after an eventless launch in the mud shorebreak, off the two of them went.

It was only after a few hours, that I saw the stealth river cruiser drifting down the north bank channel – rock salmon alley – and I started to wonder what stories the Port Edward swampies had to tell.

It was with a weird kind of glee shining off the two avid swampies that I met them at the jetty – Ants cellphone vibrating with the energy coming out of it!

Kingfish!

It sure looks like a blacktip to me, but it sure is missing its black tip?! There are so many kingfish species these days that I just can’t keep up but this is one beautiful kingfish that is happily swimming back out to sea right now, to tell his mates of the dangers, of lurking in the Umzimkulu Estuary!

Thank you for the lesson Mr. Nel!

From ALL of us! Freshman Kingfish right up front of the queue!

You can read all about the Umzimkulu Marina fishing options, and self-catering accommodation at this link…

http://umzimkulu.co.za

We run a YouTube Channel filled with contemporary fishing, surfing and diving videos at this link…please subscribe!

http://youtube.com/umzimkulu1/

We are on Facebook at…

http://facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/

By The Sardine News