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A long KZN south coast fishing weekend at the Umzimkulu Marina

Spinning sticks at the ready as Gizmo patrols for anything that moves

A long KZN south coast fishing weekend at the Umzimkulu Marina

These long weekends are just great and this one was filled with enthusiastic anglers from all over the globe. It started on Friday early morning with a 5kg kob taken off The Block on a paddletail. This set the tone for the long fishing weekend to come, and soon the Sandspit was lined with anglers. Who stayed all weekend!

Back up the river, at the Umzimkulu Estuary, Steve from England was over the moon with his pair of sharp-toothed catfish and a perch. Mark and crew were stoked with their perch, grunter and a kingfish.

But the bottom fishing team on the Niteshift had most of the fun with a big musselcracker, a bunch of bright orange cardinal snapper, and tales of huge yellowtail busting them up time after time. Took and entire day though, as the mid morning low tide kept them out there.

Matt Wainwright brought his highly maneuvrable little RIB down for the weekend, and in two sessions had to deal with some serious easterly surf, a feisty hammerhead shark and a couple of yellowfin tuna!

Captain Matt Wainwright scanning for tuna off Port Shepstone over the weekend
Captain Matt Wainwright scanning for tuna off Port Shepstone over the weekend

Overall the ocean seems to be coming alive all over the place after all the rain and brown water.

The only thing out of place, was the lack of mackerel in the usual spots, but we did find a few red eye sardines finally.

Check out http://umzimkulu.co.za for some great KZN south coast fishing options.

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Fishing Umkomaas with Mannies and Mydos

The MYDO Luck Shot Mini #1 rigged with a Blue/Purple/Black/Mauve/Silver Fork Tail from MacCarthy - Great for fishing Umkomaas

Fishing Umkomaas with Mannies and Mydos

Umkomaas is a real fun little town with diveys and dive operations up and down the main drag. Jumping in and blowing bubbles at sharks seems all the rage.

But it’s the fishing that built the quaint village back in the days. Many legendary names have cruised the streets of the closest town to the Aliwal Shoal, one of a long family of spectacular reefs that skirt the East African coastline. Aliwal benefits from some protection and the results are there to see for anyone, above or below the water. Great fishing for pelagic game fish is to be had.

A great little spoon in three sizes
A great little spoon in three sizes

And anything you may need to know about fishing The Aliwal Shoal, the Umkomaas River, or the beaches and points up and down – you can find out at Mannie’s, right in the centre of Umkomaas.

 

Manny and Tracy hold a wealth of experience and local knowledge so pop in to dial in and tackle up!

And Mannies has recently started stocking The Mydo range of lures. Spoons, dropshots and the like – perfect for shadding around the gulleys out front or hunting the big kob off the beach at night time.

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Deep sea fishing Barra

Survey in Pomene: departing at the beautiful Barra Reef Divers launch

Deep sea fishing Barra

Deep sea fishing Barra waters can be a bundle of fun. It is very user friendly and features a few launch options. At Neptunes Bar on the ocean side of the Whitesands peninsula, is a great launch spot used by Barra Reef Divers. And when the little shorbreak turns nasty, tow on down to Whitesands and drop your boat into completely calm waters. Just watch the tides as they come in fast and high in this place. A 4 metre tide scale is something to reckon with!

On days when the sea is moody, fishing in the shipping channels in the Inhambane Bay is great – a huge Estuary 40x as big as the Knysna lagoon!

When you do get out into the Lee of the Barra Point, you find yourself at the mouth of this huge estuary system. And it teems with life.

Bait is easy to come by with your favourite jig fly stick producing all sorts of mackerel and scad looking fishies. We even catch pencil squid in the shallows here, and king mackerel come right in here, to prey on the endless volley of bait balls.

Moving directly north puts you on a great long sand shelf dotted with reef along the way. 8m to 15m is jam packed with sonar feedback from the soundings. Tuna and couta come right in here too, sometimes you can see the bottom whilst fighting a fish. We got a black marlin in the 8m water recently.

The yellowfin patrol a bit deeper out. They love the 23m contour, which usually lines up with the first ridge of reef off Barra. The second ridge is an extension of Tofo’s headland and runs deeper off Barra light house where it drops off from 30m to 80m like a cliff. Our Amberjack spot. We also got our biggest GT on this ridge. 60+.

Wahoo and billfish are found along this ledge too. It’s ideal hunting territory for those gangsters out there.

The Charter Project is an organisation to that provides logistical support to anglers, divers, surfers, ships, yachts and contractors who need to have boat, crew and accommodation resources arranged, throughout Southern Africa. Chandling, transfers, survey operations, salvage are some of our recent projects…

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Cape Verde Blue Marlin bite continues…

Cape Verde Blue Marlin bite continues…

And another knee-weakening set of photographs professionally shot by Captain Duarte Rato as he sits out his spell being tortured by Blue Marlin day after day…taking guests marlin fishing off Cape Verde… “Hi Sean, Bru, fishing everyday just got to me and was absolutely too exhausted every night to send you photos and reports…been having a good time brother and absolutely epic fishing! Here´s a few photos from the last week…. Cheers, Duarte”

Thanks Duarte! For more information on Captain Duarte Rato and his exploits…click here

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