Sunny Skies and a Sea Breeze in KZN today 23 Sep 2024
Sunny Skies and a Sea Breeze in KZN today 23 Sep 2024: Conditions were that good. Plus big swirls around the jetty combined. This got a camera in the water at the Umzimkulu marina this morning. Just one argument with the local African Pied Wagtails who insist it’s their boat we are working from?!
The camera settled for barely a minute. The first apparition materialised into a handsome perch swimming straight in unsuspecting at the camera. Full frontal. He swam around and was spotted a few more times. But then the real GHOST appeared. Deftly camouflaged and only really given away by sheer size. This was a big spotted grunter, and he too was ‘spotted’ more than once.
The fish are all feeding on the sand. I suspect they are all looking for the newly arrived river prawns. I also spotted these prawns when walking down the jetty to the boat. I saw one about 3 inches long – the absolute perfect-sized bait for these small-mouthed fish. A little circle hook in the tail and we are in the game for the Ghost!
Umzimkulu Adrenalin
Can take you fishing here in these crystal clear winter waters. Stay at the Umzimkulu Marina to be right on the water and the action. We have boats and kayaks and all sorts. And the fishing off the jetty (as can been from the video) is the real deal.
Durban @8am by Adam Kamdar
Holidaymakers can revel in the sun today! They gonna have to deal with a strengthening North Easter as is so typical of the weather systems this time of year. The NE looks to hang around all week. Luckily with the odd break between blasts.
Thank you Adam!
Sardines n Sighting Maps
It has been a fantastic sardine run this memorable 2024. And all the action has been logged right here on The Sardine News. This year’s map has been viewed 182,000 times and keeps growing.
Which led us to decide to keep the map live. And keep adding unique marine animal sightings and events. That occurs non-stop all year round. This year we started to log more whale and dolphin sightings. And we even had a shipwreck! And a freaking tornado!
These events will from now on be included in the Sardine News Sightings Map for 2024. And on the 1 January 2025, we shall start all over again.
Here are the links to existing and past Sardine Sighting Maps. Great for chilly day like today to research. With instructions to install The Sardine News right on your phone or desktop.
Fishing family takes down proper perch on the ‘Kulu
Acanthopagrus berda Forsskål, 1775 (Goldsilk seabream) goldsilk seabream, sly bream or picnic seabream seems to be the fish we are talking about here. (if you know any better please let us know we have been experiencing some signal loss when identifying certain fish lately) We just call them river perch, or perch.
So the very next session after our fishing family caught that awesome flagtail down at the estuary mouth area (see that video here), the next early morning, literally in the dark, we set out on the river. Navigating north this time, up to the big hole and deeper waters under the cliff.
Along the way, stopping at a recently collapsed tree full of weaver birds. Making nests frantically. After trying for a good twenty minutes we moved on. We need to spend a lot more time at this particular spot. Those big rock salmon will be stopping by there on patrol for sure. Waiting for a chick or two to fall in!
Moored up against the rocks at the base of the cliff, this is real nature. Fish eagles said good morning their own jovial way. All sorts of birds were out and about. Herons. Hawks. We even had a tern fly by?!
But the fishing was slow and aside from a few bites it was almost too quiet for my liking. But then our fishing dad had a huge Mangrove aka Santola crab at the surface. And true to form, as we contemplated how to grab him before he grabbed us, he let go. I was already tasting the curry!
Another slow hour went by and all of a sardine – Bang! Momma fish was bending. In fact, the fish was now peeling line. And with a real tight drag, the fish was literally pulling her down the boat towards the back. The boys all jumped in to help, relieving Momma of her bending rod. All having a go at trying to tame this mean fish. Eventually, the rod made it to Dad. This is a true fishing family!
After a solid and prolonged fight on the light tackle, the tired but angry perch came to the boat and the tiny hook was visibly only holding on by a thread. Luck was on our side and the fish hit the deck with a solid thump!
Perch are superb gamefish. Aggressive and wily at the same time. Those times when you just get a solid thump of a bite, and let’s go immediately – that’s most likely him knocking at your door.
Most times with perch though, you don’t even have to feed to strike. Just hit him back as he bites and hopefully your hook is sharp enough and finds home. Smaller hooks are easier, but if you are releasing most fish, as we all do these days, sometimes the smaller hooks go right inside. Causing complications. I like to use a 3/0 circle hook in the river so that I don’t get tangled with too many smaller fish. And I hook up far better like this too.
Circle hooks are definitely the way to go, whatever size you choose to fish. If you are releasing fish, your survival rate will go right up if you use circles. Many anglers on our trips have not made this revelation out yet, and often the hook sets way down in the fish’s stomach. No good.
Noel Labuschagne and his cute little Umzimkulu perch, about to go back.
Baits for perch are very much the same as you would use for kob or rock salmon. The ever-reliable sardine head with guts hanging out, on a bigger 5/0 circle hook, put’s you in the game for all the trophies you can find in the Umzimkulu River. Fresh prawn. Squid. The fish in the video above was caught on a beautifully prepared bait – a juicy mixed grill lovingly put together by Shaun the fishing Dad, for his wife. Who hooked the fish almost immediately!
Live baiting for perch
Perch are actually aggressive enough to have produced many double and triple header strikes here in the river. They hang out in shoals and are pretty easy to locate and hunt. There are quite a few features in the river, that hold perch consistently. One place is a wall running down the middle of the river, that goes for about 200 meters, they can always be spotted here on the sounder. The other spot is close to Spiller’s, where the old bridge used to be. Some pieces of the old structure are still above the mud – perfect for ambushing perch.
Chuck in a live mullet at any of these spots, on a decent tide, and hold on tight! I like to fish without a sinker when I live bait – makes for thrilling one on one direct feel. But a small ball sinker in front of the swivel means a bit more control for you. Hook in the front somewhere. Ideally thread the circle hook Catalina style (just like for marlin) giving the live bait the most chance of finding a convincing a fish to eat.
Prawns are plentiful and right on the very top of all the predator fish favourite food list in this estuary. I have been lucky enough to fish a 6 inch long live tiger prawn, which became a trophy grunter in less than a few minutes, down at Spiller’s Wharf on the south bank too. There are quite a few species of prawn here in the Kulu. And don’t put your live mullet and live prawns in the same bucket – the prawns always win! I also like to fish the prawn without any sinker or float, but they can hide away in the mud/sand. So, A small sinker in front of the swivel, and a small float near the prawn keeps the prawn in the water column and not hiding out somewhere invisible. Place the circle hook right in the tip of the tail for best results when fishing a live prawn.
Then this nice fish, was caught right up at the top, in the deepest section that we can get to. It gets down to 12 metres after some good rains. But in this spot, up against the side, it’s about 4 metres deep – going deeper. This spot is also where I caught that little Zambezi Shark on a bass lure. For real! Luckily I have proof…
We are operating down on the Umzimkulu River right now, based back at the Umzimkulu Marina, and it’s on! The ocean has also settled and the colour line looks phenomenal these days as the current sweeps it along the coastline to the south.
We have been lucky with a good run of dorado so far. Check out some recent action on the Niteshift right here. And a double hit of dorado news from http://umzimkulu.co.za right here.
The Port Shepstone lighthouse. Great photo opportunities around here.
We are offering accommodation and fishing trips on the Umzimkulu River. And if conditions allow for safe launching, we can take a few lucky anglers out to sea. To chase dorado, striped marlin, sailfish and beeeeg ‘couta, as the hot season kicks in.
This is what you can expect…
If you want some of this KZN South Coast seasonal action, let’s goooooo!
Get in touch with Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com or WhatsApp +27793269671, to chat about options, tides and dates.
The Umzimkulu Perch that we have been catching can range from little guys of like 10cm. And then up to like 4kg’s or more. They are aggressive and ferocious fighters too. Although the fish featured here took a fillet of sardine on a tiny hook – Umzimkulu Perch like to jump on a lure for sure. Sometimes we even get double strikes on the troll.
We troll all sorts but the best performer overall is definitely the range of soft baits on offer. Those loud clangy wheel bearing laden hard plastic baits are so completely unnatural. If we stick a nice split tail or paddel tail on a decent dropshot head, we can troll that up and down the channels and catch perch all day long (when they are biting ha ha).
If you stick the softbait on a MYDO LuckShot, you will get some real swimming action and the benefits of a softbait during the strike. Fish hold on to soft baits since they are so naturally textured. And the single hook almost always hooks in the top or corner of the mouth. Making for real healthy and successful releases. Compared to the double treble configuration (or singles), which almost always inflict damage on the fish.
Using double hook configuration for anything is always going to work against the chances of any fish surviving a release. Or for use as live bait. Double marlin konas are dangerous and inflict a lot of harm during the fight.
And as for bait fishing – use a circle hook! The difference is calculable right from your very first fish. Perfectly healthy releases!
Mapson jnr with a really good sized Umzimkulu perch – that was carefully released. Nice one family!
Mike and Gina Mapson treated their family to this weekend down on the Umzimkulu River – and the first time they threw in a line, Mike jnr nailed this awesome perch. The perch ate a bread bait and was gently released by Dad.
The fishing has really hotted up in the Umzimkulu…more posts to follow…and fishing enquiries to umzimkulu@gmail.com or call 079 326 9671.
The Umzimkulu Marina is offering packaged fishing adventure trips (guided fishing, boats and accomodation for deep sea, rock n surf and estuary fishing) for the upcoming super- exciting fishing season.
Here is a quick YouTube video of our latest big perch, this one was caught two weeks ago (January 2020).
Fishing the Umzimkulu River off Spiller’s Wharf yesterday afternoon, local angler Ahmed, pictured, hooked into a beautiful Leopard Ray. It took him a solid 10 minutes on ultra-light tackle.
Fishing the Umzimkulu is made very comfortable at Spiller’s Wharf. There are a choice of restaurants – Bela’s Mozambican themed diner is most popular.
There is safe parking, grass, chairs and 50 meters of river frontage to choose your spot from. This night there were 11 rods in the water, catching grunter and perch. It costs R20 per angler to fish on the premises. Many species can be targeted. Catfish, kingfish, grunter, perch, eels, rays, oxeye tarpon, rockcod, shad, garrick, rock salmon and even sharks!
Fishing off Karl Gous’ boat – Roger Davidson brings home a real “Skomolo”, while Marc Lange shows us a real nice bull dorado. Fishing seems to be really good down south.
Marc Lange
Note the Umzimkulu River’s brown/orange colour in the background – characteristic of these summer months. By about April the river returns to a clear green and on the stronger high tides – the blue Indian ocean water comes right up the river. The Umzimkulu is a great estuary to fish, even when it’s brown like it is now. Perch, rock salmon (mangrove jack), grunter, kingfish, catfish / barbel, garrick (leervis)…feed on the mullet, prawns (mudprawns, tigers, pink) and crabs (all sorts) that live in the mangrove associates and along the muddy banks.
In winter, in the clear water…and especially at night time…anything can happen! For estuary fishing, the south coast of Natal still has a few surviving tidal/semi-tidal lagoons.
Check out http://www.umzimkulu.co.za for more information on fishing these waters…
