Jason Heyne cheks in with his weekly spearfishing report…
Well the diving conditions haven’t been the greatest this week with dirty water and proper north east winds. Big daga salmon, garrick and snoek are around with the odd yellow tail making an appearance. Saturday a moderate south West blows all day with the swell running at 1.7m. Sunday a light south East blows in the morning switching to a light south West in the afternoon with the swell running at 1.5m. Well done Drew on getting fish of the week a decent size daga salmon. Sunday morning looks like the best time for a dive.. As always dive safe and straight spears
Years of experience and connections in the fishing business, have led to the opening of Four Fish Trading in Nelspruit. Open for a few months now, the store is jam-packed with stock, including The Mydo range of fishing lures. Read all about them right here (https://thesardine.co.za/mydo/), and pop in to Mohamed to get your own.
Rock and Surf, Deep Sea, Estuary, Freshwater…it’s all covered at Four Fish Trading. With a comprehensive range in each genre.
Four Fish Trading in Nelspruit
Being right on the route to Mozambique makes Four Fish a convenient stop for tackle on the way to your favourite fishing spot.
Scholtz sardine run talk at Crocworld on 12 August
Local scuba diving operator Pieter Scholtz from Crystal Divers will deliver a talk titled the “greatest Shoal on Earth” focusing on this year’s sardine run at Crocworld Conservation Centre on Saturday 12 August.
“The talk will be a highlight of this year’s program and is regarding a topic which affects all of the locals living along the coast in one way or another. It is going to be fantastic to get insight into the journey of these little silver fish,” commented Crocworld Conservation Centre spokesperson Martin Rodrigues.
The sardine run of southern Africa occurs from May through July when millions of sardines – or more specifically the Southern African pilchard Sardinops sagax – spawn in the cool waters of the Agulhas Bank and move northward along the east coast of South Africa. Their sheer numbers create a feeding frenzy along the coastline. The run, containing millions of individual sardines, occurs when a current of cold water heads north from the Agulhas Bank up to Mozambique where it then leaves the coastline and goes further east into the Indian Ocean.
Scholtz’s talk will end with a multi-media presentation showcasing some of the highlights of the recent Sardine Run.
Tickets for the talk will cost R75 per adult and R35 for pensioners. Registration and welcoming will begin from 8:30am and the talk will commence at 9:00am. Tickets will entitle guests to complimentary teas and coffees, as well as access to the Crocworld Conservation Centre’s vast grounds and Izinyoni Indigenous Nursery. Lunch can be purchased from the onsite Le Rendez-Vous restaurant.
To avoid disappointment, tickets for the talk must be reserved in advance. For bookings, contact Crocworld Conservation Centre on 039 976 1103 or email crocworld. Account Details: Crocworld (Crookes Brothers Limited) Banking Details: FNB, Branch: Scottburgh, Branch Code: 220227, Account Number: 53640119111. Please e-mail proof of payment to crocworld
Down in Trafalgar, we managed to get this photograph, and an interview with the lifeguard on that beach – Philan “WaveOfHope” Sikobi, who was amongst the many locals who found the whale. This was on Tuesday. He was chased out of the water by a shark, as the blood from the whale spilled down into the shorebreak. The baby whale was full of lacerations – the photo shows only what is left after the locals hacked the animal to pieces.
Net characteristic lacerations clearly visible on baby dead whale. Philan could not take any other photos before the whale was cut up and retrieved by locals.
Sean: Hi Philan, what a story man, are you ok?
Philan: Yeah man it was scary. Stupid shark came in real close to me. Twice! It was the smell of blood. When they start cutting that whale up on the beach.
Sean: Was the whale bitten by sharks already when it came up the beach?
Philan: No, it looked fine excepting for the net wounds.
Sean: Philan, the photograph does not show much detail. You gonna have to describe the cuts and lacerations for us.
Philan: Well they were deep, right through, and very square in shape. But what’s confusing me is, the shark nets had been taken out of the water the day before. So the nets weren’t even in that morning. But you could see it was definitely a large net of some sort.
Sean: Was it alive when it hit the beach?
Philan: No it was pretty much dead.
Sean: What time was that?
Philan: Early morning.
Sean: Is there anything else, you could possibly imagine, that could have inflicted the lacerations as you saw them?
Philan: Well, I just don’t know what else? Must have been shark nets the day before or something like that?
And then on Wednesday, a whale was reportedly entangled with the shark nets at Illovo. I never knew anyone even swam or surfed at Illovo? Or why the nets were put back in? It’s the middle of the sardine season. with whales, dolphins and sharks patrolling up and down in search. The annual influx of meshers have been netting sardines up and down the KZN coast the entire past month?!
With so many technological options on offer to the Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board, why is it, that they forego these less invasive and harmful methods, and to choose to use gill nets. The Australian Government have started alernatives installations with fantastic results.
Gill nets operate 24/7 (Who needs protection from sharks at night time?), and kill indiscriminately, with a massive by-catch. Dolphins (the most I ever seen in one NSB land cruiser was 6), whales, turtles, rays, harmless sharks, gamefish, birds…
By installing sonar at the beach (read previous article here), which only operates when people are actually surfing or swimming, and by equipping ocean users with Shark Shields – the savings would be immense. Financially. The Kwazulu Natal Sharks Board are spending R80 million or more per year killing sharks?! It would be a fraction of that to buy Shark Shields for every beach – give them to the lifeguards to rent to the public.
But it’s the savings to the environment we are really after.
We just cannot let this continue one more day!
Shark nets out!
NOTE: well that was five years ago and there are still shark nets in the water?!
Jason Heyne checks in with the good news that the winter gamefish are upon us. Winter gamefish action means big fish, so be on the lookout for your trophy daga salmon or couta. – Xona
Besides the weekend the diving conditions this week have been below average. Big daga salmon are around with big winter couta making an arrival. There was some sardine netting this week but nothing like last week. Saturday a light north wind blows switching to a moderate south West late in the day and the swell runs at 1.2m. Sunday a moderate south West blows with a 2m swell running. So Saturday is go day for a dive. As always dive safe and straight spears
