Tag: KZN south coast

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Champagne Breakfast at St. Helen’s Rock, KZN, Port Shepstone

St Helen's Rock 2021 Expedition

Champagne Breakfast at St. Helen’s Rock, KZN, Port Shepstone

Champagne Breakfast at St. Helen’s Rock, KZN, Port Shepstone: Sian and her friends visiting the south coast down from Jhb had pre-booked a ride with us quite some time before. But we had a surprise in store. For Sian and her enthusiastic crew.

St. Helen’s Rock expedition video

They were going on an ancient tradition this time round – a river ride from Port Shepstone harbour – up to St. Helen’s Rock. 14 Kilometres of winding river and deep nature. Starting early and not without the usual confusion and chaos of a big crew, we were soon racing with the tide and current. In order to get under the low-level bridge but up the first rapid, or Berm ONE as it is affectionately known, we had to time it just right. Berm TWO was easier but took a while as we skirted sandbank and reef to get in and around the corner. But then it’s plain sailing and we cruise past the pump station and onto the bend that hosts St. Helen’s majestic piece of Africa.

The champagne was soon flowing and the breakfast was spluttering on the skottel. There is a helluva lot of exploring to do up at St. Helen’s Rock. Just about where the Umzimkulwana and the Umzimkulu come snaking out of the Oribi Gorge. We are actually able to go even further up into the Oribi Gorge. But that is going to be for the next boundary-pushing adventure. We did bring a kayak and next time we will bring even more, to enable even more exploring of this historic site.

Blazing an old trail upriver and into the historical hinterland at St. Helen's Rock
Beautiful smile!
Yes it was rather icy cold at this stage. But we had coffee and rusks.
St. Helen's Rock in KZN, South Africa
Your Captains are good to go this winter season. St. Helen's Rock in the background

History

There was certainly trade and business going on here back when this was the commercial junction from Durban to all of southern Natal and beyond. This exact spot! There are ruins everywhere. And rumours of a complete village settlement on the north bank still need to be verified. There is the wreck of a beautiful European looking boat half-buried into the mountain bank. There are railway tracks and even sidings strewn about by the floods, at the confluence of the two mighty rivers – the Umzimkulu (comes from the Berg) and the Umzimkulwana (comes from Lake Eland).

This wreck we encountered whilst surveying the upper reaches of the Umzimkulu Estuary
This wreck we encountered whilst surveying the upper reaches of the Umzimkulu Estuary

And just wait ’til you hear what St. Helen did to get that beautiful big old rock named after her.

Forthcoming attraction!

Let’s gooooooo!

So please get in touch anytime on umzimkulu@gmail.com or call me up on +27793269671 although WhatsApp really works best. If you like this type of adventure. Rates are roughly R100 per person per hour. And we can cater and bring loaded coolers.

BTW we run on solar power and electric engines. SILENT! And you are welcome to bring a fly-rod.

There is a lot more to see and do on The Sardine News website at https://thesardine.co.za and the MasterWatermen at https://masterwatermen.co.za.

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Sharks vs People Sardine Report 23 June 2021

Sharks vs People Sardine Report 23 June 2021 Yip!

Sharks vs People Sardine Report 23 June 2021: It’s all happening. The sharks are leading the assault with the dolphins and tuna and other feasting gamefish backing them up. People in a distant 10th spot. This is happening daily literally up and down the KZN South Coast – right now.

Click HERE for our interactive Sardine Run 2021 Map.

Sharks vs People!

The theme of this video are the sharks and land sharks. The sharks in the clear blue waters are clearly visible and it’s quite easy to stay the hell out of their way. But the land sharks hide in the bushes and as soon as your sardine fever takes over your senses, they strike. Hence the warning by Darrell Hattingh contained within.

Main shoals

And the sardine news just gets better and better. Real cold water and billions of sardines are being reported from our sardine spies in Coffee Bay. This means we may just be in for the very start of the 2021 sardine run!

Team Vees and Moonlight are you guys ready!?

Gamefish

Oh yes there are plenty of gamefish! In our previous report we document a shoal of yellowfin tuna getting caught in a sardine net. They were all released! Kudos! So imagine hooking one of those guys on your favourite spinning outfit and a MYDO SS Spoon.

Matt Defillipi’s garrick also featuring in our last report, is one of the biggest seen this year so far. Although the spearos are just getting back into the water after all that brown and green, they too are now slamming the snoek and garrick. Guest Greg Hill at the Umzimkulu Marina, swam out yesterday and bagged himself a beautiful Natal Snoek.

Sharks vs People Greg Hill sneaks a lovely natal snoek from the Zambies
Sharks vs People Greg Hill sneaks a lovely natal snoek from the Zambies

But ok, it’s the most perfect day so far so let’s see what happens.

See you on the beach!

And thank you to Fabian, Adam, Naren, Ash, Shaun and the many others sending us the action right from the beach as it happens! A FREE MYDO SS Spoon to each of you! Buzz me on umzimkulu@gmail.com to claim your lure!

More at https://thesardine.co.za and https://masterwatermen.co.za.

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So why do the sardine shoals not come at all some years?

A bumper sardine run 2020 leaves some unanswered but relevant questions about our annual sardine migration and who gets to harvest and who are in lockdown

So why do the sardine shoals not come at all some years?

So why do the sardine shoals not come at all some years?: Well I got a call from Mr Adam Kamdar of Township Hyper yesterday evening. Great dude and really in the know in the fishing scene.  I had guests and dogs and things going and I could hardly hear, but his question went along the lines of…

“Sean, do you think this Covid thing was the cause of the bumper sardine run?”

Well ok that pushed just about all my buttons, so here is the full answer Adam…

AIS

AIS is the theme to this quasi-sardine report compiled as a result of the big question Adam has posed.

You can download an AIS App to your phone. There are many and they are free for the most. They show you, where the big and ugly fishing trawlers are. Right on your phone!

AIS.

Automatic Identification System. A great effort, and if everyone played along, saves lives (collision avoidance), and sealife (real-time tracking data to catch poachers fishing illegally).

BUT.

And this is a big BUT.

If you are a poacher, you can turn your AIS transponder, right the hell OFF! With a switch!

So this is how they do it then. When pair-trawling (the most destructive of all the illegal fishing methods), one of the collaborators, turns off. Easy as that. If the fleet ventures, in a group (read commercial fishing high-tech armada), then as they get near protected waters, one or two of them turns off, and enters the forbidden zone.

This happens ALL the time. The Sardine News tried to start a trawler watch to log sightings of suspect activity – but there is so much of it, that we got bogged right down right as we started. This was in Mozambique where these ugly boats are literally EVERYWHERE now.

Sardine Run 2020

Whilst we were imprisoned in lockdown thanks to our sheep governments interpretation of convid19, the Chinese/Japanese/Whoever fleets were plying the waters the whole time! Where? Slap bang on the sardine migration path. The AIS charts looked like a rugby scrum.

No photo description available.

And if you have been in St. Francis this time of year, any year, you can smell the sardines from the harbor for miles around. Go sniffing around there for yourselves. Huge loads of sardines. Wonder where they go? And whose were they in the first place?

Whoever they are and wherever they are from, they are ALL rigged with the latest in navigation and depth-sounding equipment. Utilising sonar pulses pumped out by a high-powered transducer, they can detect and chase a shoal of sardines 12 or more miles away! And with their huge capacity and tethers to a mother ship lurking around the area somewhere, that is also a factory ship – that drops CANNED sardines off at the wharf – what chance does the public ever have of getting their share, in the usually slow years of sardine running?

So…

Did Convid19 affect the sardine run this merry 2020?

Nope. It’s a bumper sardine run like we always dream of. It’s beyond perfect. The gamefish have arrived. Sharks are getting their teeth pulled. The weather is fantastic and ecological patterns are in place. Those pundits that complain year after year are completely silent.

Only. They just don’t get it.

AIS.

Shows that there were fleets of fishing boats fishing, directly in the path that the hapless sardines take right now during this sardine run 2020. Whilst we were in lockdown, there were commercial fishermen out there loading up! Enjoying a totally illegal, totally unnecessary lockdown, and infringement of our basic human right to freedom to fish as well!

My answer then is this. These boats remove the exact amount of tonnes and tonnes of sardines missing on our beaches – with this migration – each year. Only this time, there were just so many they couldn’t catch them all.

“Our” sardines?

Another interesting question.

BUT, one thing is for sure, if not for the bumper numbers that this year has given, the sardines hardly ever make it past Port Elizabeth, before they are all netted and frozen.

So, that leaves us back at square one. We have NO voice. It’s time to get political. If not that, then at least investigative in that we need to know why these ships are allowed to be plundering our sardines.

Whilst we are in lockdown!

Almost sounds like a conspiracy in theory.

Adam, my good mate, over to you…

Stay up-to-date with The Sardine News covering the goings-on, during this bumper sardine run in year 2020!

We are on Facebook right here, we run an action-packed YouTube video channel right here. Please like and subscribe to our channel on YouTube if you would like to encourage us to pump out more and more video. We have done really well recently with some great video produced in conjunction with the Fishing Pro Shops Johan Wessels – chasing sardines down in the Port Shepstone area. We got out to sea twice and caught a bunch of gamefish in the surf zone, and in the Umzimkulu River Estuary. Click on over to our YouTube video channel right here. And please consider a Like and Subscribe. Thank you

By The Sardine News

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Protea Reef delivers the goods again and again

Eric with his MYDO Spoon caught baby yellowfin tuna on Protea Reef recently

Protea Reef delivers the goods again and again

Protea Reef delivers the goods again and again: guest stars Eric (Queensland, Oz) and Neville (‘Toti, KZN) joined us for a very friendly high tide launch two mornings in-a-row. What luck!

Watch the video right here and read all about it below…

Day 1

Brown water extended to the horizon with a stiff but pleasant offshore breeze blowing against a small sea. Luckily, Protea Reef would be comfortable in these cool wintery conditions.

20 Minutes later and we already had live bait. I was counting down in my head. Most times it only takes 10 or 20 seconds to have your live bonito or tuna munched. Hopefully by a scorching fast gamefish, must most times once again, it’s a johnny. A big one. There are just so many huge sharks hanging out on Protea Reef. And they don’t seem to go anywhere. They love it here. Plus there are so many free meals presented by charitable sport fisherman using light tackle! In one day they can each get two or three free meals by hanging on either of the two pinnacles.

But…

Our live baits never had a touch. They were panicking properly but Neville was having far more action with his perfectly tuned plug ‘n play outfit sporting 80lb braid and leaders to match. He was getting smashed and chased and smashed and chased until we lost count.

Then it was Eric’s turn as he held on to the flick stick meant for bonito – which turned out to have another spirited yellowfin on the other end. These little fish on light tackle! What fun! Eric also had a run of yellowfin action, all perfect bait sized.

But the live baits still survived, which is remarkable for Protea Reef. But all of a sudden. A HUGE tiger shark came up from the depths and devoured first the big bait. And then another followed up and grabbed the small bait?! All in a few seconds?! After those baits lasted for hours!

Neville Coetzer tied to a monster tiger shark on Protea Reef recently
Neville Coetzer tied to a monster tiger shark on Protea Reef recently

Day 2

The brown water lined itself up properly overnight as the Agulhas current hemmed it up against the coastline. Making a really decent seam which we committed to. Bait was easy to get and we did a nice strike that really could have been a dart couta but we will never know as it shook the hooks professionally just before we could see his colour. Got to lose some fish or it will get boring!

The brown water line off Port Shepstone for dorado
The brown water line off Port Shepstone is really hot for dorado and billfish at this time of the year.

The good weather is coming and the Umzimkulu is real friendly and nicely navigable at the moment. Get in touch if you would to either join us at sea like this trip or fish the estuary. Or the Sandspit.

Check out the accommodation and setting of the Umzimkulu Marina at http://umzimkulu.co.za.

Follow the Sardine News on FAcebook at http://facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/

Check out more videos at http://youtube.com/user/umzimkulu1/

Email Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com or WhatsApp +27793269671 anytime.

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First sardine report for 2019

Sardine Report for 2019 by The Sardine News

First sardine report for 2019.

Officially, the sardine run has begun. 10 Nets were taken over the weekend – at Amanzimtoti. And another down a bit further at Glenmore.

The Sardine News
The Sardine News

Yesterday the long-awaited South Westerly came busting through, after an incredible surfing morning, up and down the south coast of KZN. Whales were jumping out the back. Shoals of baitfish spread out all over. The sun was shining beautifully. Avid sardine hunters everywhere.

The expected cold front arrived timeously. One of the conditions normally required.

And the main shoal of sardines is on the way! And it’s quite big relative to years gone before.

It’s reported to be moving through the Transkei right now with Offshore Africa, our eyes in the waters off of Port St. Johns down the wild coast, having a field day with the first smaller shoals.

You can learn more about their high-level adrenalin inducing sardine run experiences right here… https://web.facebook.com/offshoreafricaportstjohns/

Fishing

It’s all about sharks right now with many anglers having recently taken up the sport. Big baits, big tackle and big struggles. They all get released but mostly not with tags in them. Hopefully this will change soon. We have a shark tagging program running in conjunction with Africa Underwater and the Oceanographic Research Institute guys. So anybody who would like to get involved, please get in touch with me on umzimkulu@gmail.com. The information gleaned from tagging is vital for our understanding of the marine animals we are to look after now.

Gamefish action has been characteristically slow. The garrick are the main players with some beautiful 10kg class kob competing for attention. Catch them on paddletails.

Two spearos swam out whilst we were surfing on Sunday. They spent 4 hours out there until one guy came back with a bent spear and broken gun. A yellowtail had destroyed his equipment. BUT! He had a 25kg king mackerel on his stringer. He jumped in his car and went south with the current direction to look for his mate?! Hardcore! These guys deserve the trophy fish they shoot. It requires so much commitment, physical, and mental effort to attain the levels required to get fish like that.

Netters

Prices this year are higher than last year, but the netters have been very friendly to the public and the beaches are lots of fun right now. You can expect to pay about R40 per kilogram.

Casualties so far are mounting with the out-sized swell marching through right now. Two netters have flipped their boats, with a hospital visit for some crew members. The action is only going to hot up so please be careful everybody.

So this first sardine report for 2019 will be followed by more confirmed news about the location and attitude of the elusive main shoals.

As of now, this wind might warm the water too much, and we will have to go through another cycle of conditions to line up the right stars again. Quite a few stars have to line up for the sardines to land up on the beach each time.

These are a list of conditions that will make things for favourable for sardines to come right in and within reach…

Conditions for sardines to come in close:

  • Colder water

    18 degrees or so would be great. Brought about by east winds. Like the ones we had last week. However, today was in the low 20s.

  • Cold front

    Often this encourages the sardines shallower. Big winds like what we had today.

  • High tides

    Generally they come in closer at high tide, getting trapped as the tide goes out. Spring tides amplify the effect, like they are right now

That is all we have for you for now, but stay close and we will inform you as we go. We will be out early in the morning each day and will report any action right here…

Find us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/

This report was sponsored by the Fishing Pro Shop in Pretoria, MYDO Lures in Port Shepstone and The Umzimkulu Marina, also in Port Shepstone.

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