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Umzimkulu Marina: August 2014 family fishing offer

Umzimkulu Marina: August 2014 family fishing offer

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The Niteshift and The Umzimkulu…standing by at the ready, to take you fishing, surfing or cruising…call Sean on 079 326 9671

For the month of August, we are running a Family Fishing special offer. R200 per adult per night get’s you in and a kid under 16 free…plus a host of free activities and discounts for deep sea fishing and salmon fishing. August so far…

“We’re having a great time down here on the Umzimkulu River, as quiet as this August month gets. The river water is crystal palace and the river is teeming with fry – all shapes and sizes. You can also see prawns walking around on the bottom, and grunter have been tailing across the sandbank on the north side. The river valley is finally warming up and conditions for fishing the estuary are at a high. Live bait is everywhere, bring your cast net or yozuris, and some heavy tackle. Those big momma kob have to be curious enough to cruise in and out of the deepened mouth at night time…or even the daytime.

The waves out front, in the mouth have been absolutely flawless, but with no takers so far. It’s peeling down from way out back….where the sand has filled to connect to the inside bank – waves peeling for 100 metres or more! Clean water so you can see the stupid thing coming!

Shad are still dominating most anglers’ attention, filling the huge void left by the complete lack of sardines, who are apparently being harvested by the thousands of tonnes, off Cape St. Francis and adjacent ports. I mean, there are only so many available in a year, so if they get taken before they even get past Coffee Bay – then what’s the point? Obviously the fat cats that be put more value on a tonne of dead sardines, than on a tonne of tourists here to see the sardines alive?!

Luckily Garrick and Daga Salmon are also dead on time. Smaller kob in the 5 to 12 kg range are the rage right now…the bigger ones ought to show up soon enough…but the smallies are keeping people up very late (or early) as the fish readily devour a paddletail or jerkbait in the Witch’s hours.

Geelbek Salmon have gone on the boil off Durban, but our catches down south here have been limited to 8 or 10. Since the quota has come into play, that’s great fun for an hour or two, and we are back home. But we are having to travel far and wide searching for the elusive fish.”

So call us on 079 326 9671 if you would like to experience this great fishing spot in our quietest month. The R200 per night special includes one child under 16 free of charge. There are also discounts on fishing trips and other activities. The Umzimkulu Marina Family Fishing Offer expires 31 August 2014…

Click here for more information…

 

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Shad bait up by Craig Sinclair

Shad bait up by Craig Sinclair

Craig Sinclair aka Baconovich, takes us through a simple yet effective shad bait on a single hook trace. A double hook trace also features in this instructional fishing video.

Shad, or elf, or taylor, or bluefish – come thick and fast this time of the year – just before the supposed arrival of the supposed sardines. They provide great entertainment and thousands of anglers hit the bays and points up and down the KZN South Coast, also known as the Hibiscus Coast (luckily not the “sardine coast”).

Bigger gamefish like garrick / leervis, salmon / kob, Queen Mackeral  /  Natal Snoek, Brusher / White Musselcracker…have also been known to gulp down a shad bait on the drift, presented like Craig’s bait in the video. 3/0 or 4/0 hooks mean you stand a chance again these chance encountered trophy fish.

Enjoy the video…

 

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Gamefishing in the Umzimkulu River April 2014

Gamefishing in the Umzimkulu River April 2014

With a spate of great catches, the Umzimkulu River has come alive with crystal clear water bubbling with live bait and predator fish. And it’s been fishing with artificials that’s been producing most of the variety. Bigeye Kingfish, Oxe-eye Tarpon, Rock Salmon and a few that got away…caught and released on imitation rapalas and Mydo Luck Shots dressed with tiny paddletails. Both in white.

And check this out…

Although a bit on the small side...that bite can only be made by a Zambezi
Although a bit on the small side…that bite can only be made by a Zambezi
Marc Lange demonstrates how...
Marc Lange demonstrates how it happened…

Marius Awcamp has encountered more sharks fishing down at Spiller’s Wharf, and check the pic of a perch bitten in half, by what can only be a Zambezi, found floating down the river. A shore angler had hooked the perch and whilst fighting it, the shark came in and grabbed it. They both held on – the perch stuck in the middle, until the line broke – the shark must have swallowed down his half and left the other?! Another angler’s big kingfish was taken at the Block by a “big dark shape”, the same “big dark shape”  having being seen lurking around the river mouth area a few days before the incident.

Ian Logie has been getting his bag of fish each time, and lost a big garrick as it twisted his line around his anchor rope, just before dark a few nights back. Marius lost a big salmon right at the slipway at Spillers…and on the whole it’s been great. It would be even greater if so many anglers would just take their rubbish away with them and not leave the banks and fishing spots littered with plastic, bottles and all sorts.

Note: Due to technical problems encountered over the last month, a few thesardine.co.za posts have been replaced by this more comprehensive roundup…

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On a barge ride full of tourists from Mantis ‘n Moon Backpackers in Umzumbe, we stuck two lures out and in the darkening evening the imitation rapala screamed and in the distance we could just make out a violently jumping very fast and acrobatic fish. Garrick was the first guess, until the unmistakable flurry of a tarpon tail walking came clear. Oxe-eye Tarpon. The real deal (Megolops cyprinoides)! We had caught a small one years before, on a jig fly…and heard of a few being caught down under the bridge on flies…but had no idea they got this big in the Umzimkulu at all. And at about 4kg’s, it would have become the new Oxe-eye Tarpon world champion – the current record stands at 2.99kg’s! Anyway, after a magnificent fight we released it healthily after a few photographs and a good bye kiss. After checking things out a bit further, and finding that although the biggest one weighed officially was 3kg’s, some 18kg specimens have been reported. But this is the crunch line. In Zimbabwe! This raised all sorts of eyebrows, as all of a sudden it dawned upon us, that these tarpon live in the river! They do not go into the sea, they go upriver, and down. They love the brown water, they love fresh water, and they spawn in saltwater! They are very, very hard to catch and to exploit, without nets. They are tough as nails, and aggressively eat anything! They might even survive the holocaust! They can even survive stagnant water by gulping air into their lung-like bladders?! Talk about a superfish. And in Australia it is rated as a higher prize fighter than marlin and barramundi (Australian National Sportfish Association) !!! Right here in the Umzimkulu River. As luck would have it…a camera rolled and the following fun video was produced…

Then it was the Big Eye Kingfish (Caranx sexfasciatus) that made a few guest appearances. They are suckers for small white plastics and plugs and during the fish-off between the Mydo Luckshot against the World’s best lures, couldn’t resist the small white imitation rapalas…once again, the camera rolled and we have another video on the Umzimkulu Marina Youtube playlist…

But the fish of the week for me was my first Rock Salmon (Lutjanus argentimaculatus) on the new MYDO Luck Shot…an articulated dropshot head based on the MYDO Baitswimmer patented designs. Look out for them in a tackle shop near you…

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Early morning Rock Salmon on MYDO Luck Shot and Gummy worm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here it is…the tiniest MYDO Luck Shot as designed for bass but readily catches saltwater gamefish in the ocean and in estuaries.

The MYDO Luck Shot proto type used to catch the Rock Salmon pictured...slow retrieve Catalina style...
The MYDO Luck Shot proto type used to catch the Rock Salmon pictured…slow retrieve Catalina style…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Join us on the Umzimkulu River in Port Shepstone this fishing season or festive season – fishing trips, parties, luncheons – all arranged call +27 79 326 9671 or umzimkulu@gmail.com

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Paul Cook and Uncle Skomolo

Paul Cook and Randy Stevens helped us catch about 30 livebaits which we took to Protea Reef off Shelley Beach this afternoon. Expecting everything we got nothing, until we anchored in 50metres straight off Port Shepstone.
Soon rods were buckling under the pressure of Amberjack. After boating one, my Dad hooked a monster which finally broke the trace after circling the boat for half an hour! The one that definitely got away.
Then Paul Cook, down from Inhambane, Mozambique, pulled his first ever Black Steenbras…Skomolo…Poenskop…Musselcracker… and it was home time…

Randy Stevens fed our favourite Skua bird, with live maasbanker on the way home…

Download the video…

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Jimmy Bonefish!

Jimmy Bonefish!

Anyone who has fished the point at Tofinho, in Inhambane, Mozaambique, will have been impressed by Jimmy Bonefish’s skills. Fishing with a rod and a handline, he consistently produces  the best catches…sometimes hauling in two fish at once. I have seen Jimmy coming back from fishing at night with 2 queenfish, 2 kingfish and a huge couta!
Subsistence fishing rock n surf must be one of the biggest challenges available as far as career choices go. But Jimmy handles it with aplomb. Targeting big gamefish at night, off a 20ft high point made of razor sharp rock! On his own!

Jimmy Bonefish with another potential world record bonefish, that frequent his local fishing spot at Tofinho
Jimmy Bonefish with another potential world record bonefish, that frequent his local fishing spot at Tofinho often

These huge bonefish weigh around 10kg’s are are readily encountered, and caught, in the surf zone, all around the Tofinho headland.

Other subsistence guys fish off the cliffs right into broken and foaming white water, where they pull out smaller bones by the bunch. Perfect live baits for kingfish and other mean backline predators. These guys only have handlines.

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