[twitchermap]
Submitted by: Shona
Report:
If you were up and at it long before this photo was taken, you would have been in with a chance. The Block At Port Shepstone has consistently been good for shad fish this year.
Tag: KZN
Bruce Gold spotted on the KZN South Coast
Bruce Gold on the South Coast
It was celebrity hour in the carpark in front Orca’s Bar and Restaurant on the KZN South Coast this past week. Simon Fish and Bruce Gold popped in with various excuses for coming all the way up here from the Cape, and surfing our winter waves…
Not as though they haven’t had their share of waves this winter either…imagine how all those huge swells that battered our egos us up here, must have looked at the famed Supertubes or those other right handers that favour a slightly east swell.
Simon is busy delivering new surfboards, and Brucifire is up here to visit family for a while.
Watch this space!
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…
Welcome to Mike Stubbs – new Sardine correspondent and photographer
Welcome to Mike Stubbs: Sardine Correspondent and Photographer
As of this month, Mike Stubbs is joining us a writer and photographer, covering various aspects of the fishing world, as he travels around the South African tournament calendar.
Aswell as being dialled in an in the know, Mike is handy with a GoPro camera, as can be seen by this video of a tiger shark being subdued and released…
Meet all of our correspondents and contributors here…
Searching for Sardines with The Sardine Airborne Unit
Searching for Sardines with The Sardine Airborne Unit
Taking to the skies in search of the sardines down Transkei way, thesardine.co.za team shot this rad video, of the trip from Margate Airport, to Port St. Johns and then around Mgazana and back home. Captain John Marshall provided the kite and the thrills – the landing strip experience at Port St. Johns features on the clip – overtaking a renegade VW Golf after negotiating a 200m cliff face, a troup of cows and the usual potholes we encounter in the Transkei.
What I am sure will impress surfing viewers, is the endless stream of right hand point breaks. Wave after wave, all turned on and cranking in the solid 3m ground swell. In fact, on the way back, in the middle of nowhere, a tow surf team was operating?! Wonders…a good 20kms into the Kei!
We flew over a number of whales, travelling in all directions, in groups of two or three, the odd solitary soul too.
Then the shoal of sardines appeared. Tightly packed and being marauded from all sides by dolphins and other predators. A tourist boat, presumably out of Port St. Johns, was close by, cameras rolling. There were many birds active at this spot, Lupitana, but as we went further south, the many birds were just sitting on the water, as if to be waiting. It did seem as though there must have been some sardine action in this area in the last day or so.
Enjoy…
The Sardine has teamed up with WOW and we might soon be offering sardine run trips from the air!
Sardines and Sightings
Check out our annual Sardine Run Map! Download our app to your phone or device, accept notifications, and you will never miss a single sardine.
Here are the links to existing and past Sardine Sighting Maps…
2024 Sardine Map
2023 Sardine Map
2021 Sardine Map
Channels
Brucifire Surf Retorts – highly entertaining surf reporting
Master Watermen – news from way down deep
The Sardine News – neva miss a single sardine
FishBazaruto – 1000 pounds plus
MYDO Tackle Talk – highly technical sport fishing
Surf Launching Southern Africa – getting out there safely
Water Woes – complain about your municipality