December 2023 Fishing Report for KZN
December 2023 Fishing Report for KZN: shad, shad, and more shad! Which also means garrick, kob and all kinds of big gamefish in the surf zone.
Shad Season is OPEN
And, you can get fishing licenses online! This is big news in a country whose post office is a derelict shell of what it was 20 years ago. The post office stopped paying rent to its many satellite offices that were filling their vital role. And so where could you buy a fishing license? And then you’d go to the beach to have some dummy enforcing fishing licenses that you can’t even get?!
Kob
“Wherever the shad are biting during the day – that’s where the kob will be at night” – Louis Posthumous
It’s been a helluva year for catching big kob in the surf zone. Some are released. Some just aren’t. If you have a huge refrigerator and a huge family, then great, start the endless job of processing that big fish. It will turn you off catching another one for sure.
Rather just release those breeding fish. At about 8 or 9 years old, the kob, scientifically known as Argyrosomus japonicus, reaches sexual maturity. This is equal to about a 8 or 9 kg fish. So a 20kg fish, theoretically 20 years old, has had 10 seasons to throw some kob parties in the Umtamvuna. A 40kg fish (they get bigger!), will have had 30 seasons of breeding.
Upon these many revelations, the law was changed. And as such, tries to protect the big breeders. The thinking is that, at smaller sizes, these fish shoal in numbers. So to harvest a small percentage of these bigger numbers, would be a lot less detrimental than allowing the slaughter of the less populous breeding stock.
Let the big ones go!
Garrick
If the shad and other bait are prevalent, then the garrick will stick around. They do not like dirty water (unlike the kob). Sometimes the water stays clean through December and January in some KZN places. And there are still garrick coming out at Vidal and St. Lucia, way north. That have to traverse us on their way home to the Cape.
Again, it’s the shad that are the main attraction and oftentimes you will be catching shad in the shore break and the next thing the garrick come in and destroy the whole show. Spectacular to see garrick smashing like this.
But down south in the clean water…garrick are out and about and looking for a fight! Kathryn Els show us how…yesterday!
Dorado
The current hasn’t really kicked in yet. But there are fish about. There is a dorado fishing competition on down south at the moment. Boats are allowed to launch up and down. With the goings-on held down in Ramsgate. A very well-run event.
Sailfish
These widespread fish do follow seasons and patterns like most fish. But they are the ones most likely to just pitch up out of nowhere. Fuklk of surprises, but they definitely are here for the same reasons that the dorado are here. The halocline with it;s structural characteristics. And the shoals and shaols of mackerel, shad, maasbanker and red-eyes that also like this place this time of the year.
King Mackerel
No fireworks as of yet but give those spearos a patch of clean water and they will find out for sure if the couta have pitched up for this same baitball party. Last year and the year before, November produced some crocodiles. This year so far has been quiet.
Catch the first couta of the season, send the pics and story to me, and you will get R500 to spend in the MYDO store.
If you feel like targeting these trophies, get in touch and we can arrange species specific holidays for you. For this coming up season, stay with us at The Umzimkulu Marina where Umzimkulu Adrenalin can get you out to the couta.
Check out our MYDO YouTube Channel right HERE.
