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
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.
Chris Leppan and his 40kg Zambezi in the Umzimkulu
Read all about it – Chris Leppan and his 40kg Zambezi in the Umzimkulu. Last week, fishing right in front of the Umzimkulu Marina.
Chris has become an absolute expert light tackle spinning enthusiast racking up phenomenal catches in the Umzimkulu River in Port Shepstone, over the past few years.
And now this…
Pictured here with sport angling partner Rory Lawlor, aboard one of the smaller attack boats in their fleet, the pair of them are subduing an epic 40kg estimated catch – a Zambezi Shark! The shark was released healthily, and speculation is rife that this fish was part of the same litter being encountered a few years ago, and that the sharks growth rate seems to be about 5 to 8kgs per year! About 20 to 30cm per year.
So the smaller fish we were catching a few years ago, in 2014 and 2015, seem to be growing up fast and healthy, and at about 200cm, will take to the ocean and seek residence on a convenient and healthy string of reefs somewhere up or down the coast from Port Shepstone. Zambezi’s are born alive btw, in a litter of up to 12 pups. They develop fully in the womb and pop out ready to bite and eat immediately. In a lucky estuary near you!
A great catch on light tackle – more details regards Chris methodology coming soon.
Greg Millward is the other member of the team, and excellent spinning angler, and together they have dispelled any and all lazy man’s rumours that there are no fish to be caught in the Umzimkulu. In fact, the fishing is actually excellent in the river, especially this time of year, as shoals of bigeye kingfish and smaller kob maraud up and down the channels.
Fishing off the Umzimkulu Marina bank, guests have been having a ball right now with grunter, bigeye kingfish and perch being taken regularly.
For more information regards the fishing the Umzimkulu River, email umzimkulu@gmail.com, or call +27 79 326 9671 (WhatsApp is best).
Brandon Parsons headed down the KZN South Coast this weekend, taking a break from the usual monster shark fishing he partakes in, when fishing the Cape, as he usually does. There are sharks here, especially Zambezi’s (Bull Sharks), and the Umzimkulu River is full of them, never mind The Sandspit and the mouth area, but we were after gamefish on lure or live-bait…this time round.
When the Umzimkulu River opens and closes intermittently as it does at this time of the year, it has a marked effect on the fishing in the immediate surrounds. When it first closes, the river seems to undergo a change in character – an occasion marked by an increase in fish activity. Mullet jumping like crazy. Then they go quiet a few days, as the game fish trapped inside make a mockery of their huge advantages and smash the poor mullet and other baitfish and juveniles like there is no tomorrow. We had a bait ball of mullet out front of the lodge, in full view of all our guests, hang around for three days! They have nowhere to run and hide and the gamefish become quite complacent about things – showing themselves and even getting caught sometimes!
But it ain’t easy, and many a big thinking punter has left scratching his head.
However, if it works out that you get a good crew, who are committed, and know the ropes and work as hard as required, we average one really nice fish, every four man hours, in the Umzimkulu. That’s not quite National Garrick Day, but really, a garrick or kob or kingfish in the estuary is just so much more fun! And there is more to offer fishing these inter tidal waters. Lets not forget the Oxe-Eye Tarpon, the Kob, the Grunter, the Kingfish, the Rays, the Perch, huge Vundus and Palings (paaaaarlings), prehistoric monster crabs, prawns of all shapes and armourments, baitfish…and some surprises! We even hooked a turtle on a lure back a few weekends!
So this is one of those moments that every four man hours of serious fishing this estuary, is proven to produce:
Game fishing in the protection of the estuary and the Umzimkulu Conservancy’s sheer cliff of natural forest on the north bank up from the golf course, sure beats standing on the beach in a howling onshore. This was the wind situation on this day, but as you can see, Brandon and I enjoyed pristine conditions, catching Kingfish, three kilometres up the river!
Thats not all we have at The Umzimkulu Marina, the deep-sea fishing is also fantastico, with Protea Reef being a short 20 minute ride out. Unfortunately, the river launch really though, is difficult at best. So, to get around this, we have put together an arrangement that allows us to utilise one of the Shelley Beach fleet of boats, when necessary.
Check back soon for details of these customizable fishing holiday packages to the KZN South Coast of South Africa, put together by The Sardine.
It’s been a great year for fledgling daga salmon up and down our entire coastline. I have seen them at this size (featured photograph) being taken in Maputo Bay and all the down into the Cape.
Kob fishing is the saltwater bass fishing it seems as they readily jump on a plastic bait, if well presented, and fished at the right time. They even look a bit like bass, fight like bass…but taste a lot better than bass!
These fish were caught on bait but there is a shot coming in later of another kob on a Mydo Luck Shot.
Stay posted!
Chief Mydo tester Brian Lange featuring with two nice kob caught deep in the Transkei somewhere.
We do these boat trips on our 28ft retired commercial cat with roof and chairs – as often as possible, and have a long time working relationship some of the backpacker establishments around the southern KZN. They had called double agent Ryan Poisson up, to fetch a willing bunch of worldly young representatives, all amped for the seafood feast and afternoon cruise on the Umzimkulu River, in Port Shepstone. No-one guessed at a Zambezi Shark taken on Rapala.
And so we found ourselves strumming along with two Strike Pro Rapala imitation lures (we have run out of MYDO Luck Shots but there is a new batch in the oven), on two rods borrowed off the Niteshift, rigged for Snoek (Queen Mackeral) with long wire traces (luckily, as it turns out). Conversation always turns to sharks on the boat eventually, and today was no different with the Swedes showing lots of interest in the stories we always start telling at this stage. After years and years of speculation and random but few sightings, it was long though that the sharks were long gone from their old haunt of the 20th century when locals could shoot at marauding bull sharks (Zambezi) and Hammerheads from off of the old combined railway/road bridge that crossed at modern day Spiller’s Wharf.
Then local guide on the river, Marius Awcamp got his beautiful little baby Zambezi fishing off the wharf at Spiller’s, in March this year. Click here for that story… This was the first confirmed shark catch in the river for many, many years. Others had been hooked and just bit through the trace each time, or snapped the line after a long fight. But after an hour or so of trolling, food was ready and with no strikes but plenty chirps from the United Nations of Fishing Experts, food got collected from the delicious Bela’s Mozambican Restaurant, right on the water at Spillers Wharf, and we headed up to the deep hole underneath Royston’s Hall. Touching up the mud bank we could cast right into the hole and work it’s edges, in the hope of an angry Rock Salmon, determined Kob or stupid Flagtail or just something. Conversation was fairly centred on our fishing abilities and then shark stories…and we were being offered all sorts of advice and even rewards if a fish got caught, least of all a shark. But it was a fantastic afternoon and the sighting of a huge Oxe-Eye Tarpon, a metre long, tailwalking right in front of us, that kept the lures going. We were motivated, Elvis Wabody (Mozambique) and I combined to throw 100 times until eventually – THUD – something substantial, turning out to be the first Zambezi I have caught on a lure, struck.
A fantastic fight, and the fish soon showed itself to be a healthy little Bull Shark pup, and submitted for a clean and entertaining release…
