Search Results for: spearfishing

Verified sardine sighting at Coffee Bay April 2021

This verified sardine sighting came to us via Jason Heyne of The Master Watermen website. The Master Watermen website can be found at https://masterwatermen.co.za and is updated weekly with a roundup of spearfishing action going on up and down the KZN Coastline.

As you can well have heard in the report above, these sardines were found in a pocket of extremely cold water. That came in to the coastline off Coffee Bay in the Transkei, for a few days in mid-April this 2021 season. So bearing in mind, that the cold waters are where the sardines live normally, and its water below 19 degrees that gets them into the shallows – that the spate of warm water that brushed our coastline recently, is not such good news for early sardines.

This lick of warm water did however bring with it the king mackerel and the odd billfish that are finding their way into camera lenses all over the place. The Master Watermen site team is busy compiling such encounters into their next dive report. Which promises to be another jam-packed source of information right from where it counts – underwater!

You can catch up with the Master Watermen website at https://masterwatermen.co.za or you can read up on their latest report right here:

Bus 22kg Poensie . Bear Report 30-04-2021

And, yes. That is the first garrick of the season. Shot this last week!

So between these guys up north with their intimate network of spies spread out far and wide, to Brucifire and his penguins in Jeffreys Bay, the Sardine News correspondents in the deep ‘Kei, all dialled into The Sardine Newsroom here in Port Shepstone, we have got you covered. With bona fide sardine sighting patrollers, this sardine run 2021.

A quick gallery of typical Master Watermen pics…

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By The Sardine News

Mdloti SHARK ATTACK this afternoon. All the details!

Mdloti SHARK ATTACK this afternoon. All the details! Well some sharks pick on the wrong people. And today at Mdloti, on the northern KZN coast, this happened!

Jason Heyne of the Master Watermen spearfishing website, has just posted the video and pod cast. Of his mate Jarid Norman, having the sharks teeth pulled out of his skull! Plus a real entertaining interview!

Yip!

Check it out right here and now!

Well it is just so uber-cool that Jarid survived. Things could have been very miserable this very evening. But. They are not! And all we can do is learn more from these encounters.

I am really not sure what the lesson in this one could be for us – maybe this one is for the shark! Jarid is reputed to be one tough S.O.B.

Evidently!

The Master Watermen website is barely a year old and is growing daily. Jason is doing a superlative job creating weekly dive reports. And in-depth (ha ha) tutorials on the very many aspects of spearfishing that need to be mastered. Some news items break too, and man-oh-man it’s real cool to be able to be light-hearted about what could have been really bad.

The lesson then, for all of us, is, SPEND MORE TIME IN THE WATER! Before it’s time up!

Much better to be eaten by a shark than by a taxi.

And then a few real cool parting shots…featuring some really real people…

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31534163

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2019/04/17/shark-attack-survivors-emerge-as-unlikely-allies-in-conservation-efforts

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2014/09/shark-attack-survivors-unite-to-save-sharks

These links refers to shark attack victims, who have sided with the sharks!

Yes, these guys, they have gotten over the incident. Realised that it was not the animals fault (more likely their fault). And learned all about how cool these apex predators are.

Lions of the oceans!

An encounter with a shark should surely hold the same awe and fascination levels that a big male lion does.

It is to me!

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Post by The Sardine News.

Free rock salmon and other fishing intel by the Master Watermen

Free rock salmon and other fishing intel by the Master Watermen: if you really want to see what is going on under the surface – jump right in and take a look!

Or, you can click on over to the Master Watermen. Our very own local spearfishing website for the KZN coastline…

https://masterwatermen.co.za

Where Jason Heyne and his merry band of underwater lurkers will tell you EXACTLY what is going on. The spearos have their finger on every pulse. They know where the warm blue is. They know which way to go. They know the weather systems backwards. Their network is extremely dialled in. Codewords and all.

And.

They know what fish are around.

By checking in with the Master Watermen, all kinds of information can be learned.

Rock Salmon

When the wet season delivers its payload, the saltwater estuary species disappear. Completely. The rivers run so hard that the rock salmon, kingfish and the like, take the free ride out to sea. Perch stay. And many freshwater species come down with the floodwaters. Barbel and eels take over in that orange-brown.

The spearos know all about this. Check these fish…

Rock salmon are not only estuary bound. No ways! In fact, they are open ocean spawners. But they just love estuaries. And so, as soon as the estuaries become salty again, and the mouths are still open, they are going to move back in.

This weekend!

Couta

The spearos start shooting couta in November. Every year. And this year, Justin Campbell and Jonno Gouws took note. And on their skis, each got a couta over 20kgs. On the 27 November!

So the information we can take from this is that we start fishing too late for couta!

Every year.

And as of right now, this moment…well from Vidal to Port Edward, spearos are shooting couta. Time to go catch them!

This was on Digby Smiths boat – this very morning – earlier. Off Port Shepstone on the KZN South Coast.

Snoek

The tastiest fish in the sea are featuring strong in The Bear’s reports on the Master Watermen site. Shoals are being encountered and some good ambushes and sorties feature in this, Jason’s most recent report.

Check the shark pay a visit to Jason’s show, near the end of the clip.

Comments

And it’s not jusy the website and video reports that hold the intel. Check the comments too. Here is a diamond piece of information from down in False Bay. It should give you the shivers, as it did me!

This was found in the Comments section of one of Jason’s recent YouTube videos…a few days back!

From Paleis Heuwel

1 week agoHey you guys better be ready for a possible early sardine run, we are seeing massive schools of em build up around the false bay, sharks, orca and yellow tail all congregating at the moment!

How about that for some fantastically good all round news!

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Shopping online with the Fishing Pro Shop

Shopping online with the Fishing Pro Shop: The Batman Flu really actually got me shopping online. I first bought a solar panel. Then some motors. I ordered charge controllers. They all came to my gate!

Having had just completed the Fishing Pro Shop online store project – an e-commerce store carrying some of their huge range of stock – we were just in time for this consumer behavioural shift. People are buying online. A helluva lot! And it really was the Batman Flu that did it. Pushed many, many people over the line, and into cyber shopping.

But ok, for sure, the Fishing Pro Shop is a sterling example of a content driven website. The website is jam-packed with information!

Firstly, every product that features on the website, has a thorough accompanying review. Written by the ous!

Secondly, fishing news is ported in from The Sardine News, FishBazaruto, the Umzimkulu Marina and many more places in and around southern Africa.

You can spend hours and hours, days and days, on this website whilst absorbing quality fishing information that will help you improve and enjoy your time on the water more and more. However, if you are that guy that wants to talk face to face, the team at the Fishing Pro Shop in Graeme Rd, Pretoria, are standing by for a visit from you.

Or an email!

johan@fishingproshop.co.za is a direct line into the middle of the operation!

So, pop on over to https://fishingproshop.co.za and get yourself right into the mix.

Post by The Sardine News for Tiger Lily Consulting (Pty) Ltd who are online marketing specialists and can help you transition your show to cyberspace.

Preparing for the 2nd wave – of sardines 2020!

Preparing for the 2nd wave – of sardines 2020! And special thanks to Ryan Daly for the featured image once again!

Each time I go on a sardine patrol way down south here on the KZN Lower South Coast- the signs are all there. Birds diving. Strong groundswell. Mean southerly winds. Cold water.

And although the aloes have stopped flowering – more sardines are being reported from way down in the Transkei right now. And given that last year nets were thrown in October even up in Durban, then we can probably bet a few shekels on the second coming of the sardines 2020.

The weekend coming up looks like the wind and weather is finally going to give us a break – and so it may also be a good sardine weekend.

Or not!

Either way, once the sardines start to disappear. Or when they feature only sporadically, the gamefish seem to wake up. The garrick and kob are busy being raped during their spawning pattern in Port St. Johns, and the survivors, if any, will be heading back into the surf zone and out to sea. Hungry as hell. This is the time when you could maybe take out and kill one or two. But NOT whilst spawning and at their most vulnerable.

A few boats have reported a few Natal Snoek and the spearfishermen are having a great run. Its every year this time that the spearos outfish the anglers by far. But that is not the case all year round. The water is beautifully clean and calm this time of the year. Ad then when the rains come, its no more diving for months at a time. Spearfishing is really hard work, compared to sitting there with a rod in your hand – all dry and comfortable.

Anway, so sardines aside, the harder this wind blows, the onshores of August, September and October – the better the summer gamefish season will be. Well, billfish for sure. And lets bet some more shekels on the couta coming back this year. They hid behind the Batman Flu really well this previous season!

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