Tag: pomene

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Life in Pomene Fishing Village

Chief Sathane: Fishing Pomene Village

Life in Pomene Fishing Village

The life lived in the Pomene Fishing Village – can be described as serenely simple. This piece of paradise is miles from the main EN1 road leading through Inhambane. It’s a dirt road that requires skilful driving, and at 54kms, keeps very many most people well away.

The village is about as big as a football field. Buildings of local reed and thatch material. All sprawled around Chief Sathane’s old concrete mansion – where he has presided for decades. Scattered around the village is the bakery (in a drum), fish drying racks, arts and craft shops, a bar with a fridge (generator power at night only) and many kids and dogs.

Sathane’s real name is Franz. He claims to have gotten his nickname by being such a good soccer player. He also claims to have shot the last elephant in Pomene too. With an Enfield rifle!

Franz was the skipper on the marlin cruiser that used to run out from Pomene Hotel on the point. It was dragged up and down the beach and launched through the surf with a giant winch and set of pulleys and cables.

I uncovered an account of someone who visited at the old hotel in the very early seventies – in a Datsun 120Y. Sathane reports that the now sandy and difficult road was beautiful and built strong with a layer of clay under the top surface (still evident). But then the tanks came and destroyed the road with their tracks.

Other war stories were of the new revolutionary government having their secret parties at the hotel, after they took over from the Portuguese in 1974. But when Admiral Woodie found out, he drove his submarine right up there, launched his stealth Ace crafts painted black, beached his commandos, and shot the place to pieces. More disturbing stories unfold over the fire and many 2M’s – as Sathane drops tidbits of information relating to the history of this sandy peninsula and the war. Sathane had to flee the war, and worked on the mines for a few decades before coming back and re-instating himself as Chief Sathane of Pomene. He has a property in Roodepoort.

But the Chief hardly ever leaves Pomene City any longer. He has the place working like clockwork – transport in and out of Massinga every day. Cold beer. ..what more could he want then?

Always take the red road. Kayaks are probably the best way to experience PomeneChief Sathane: Fishing Pomene Village

If you have the beautiful Pomene on your bucket list, get in touch and let’s see what we can work out. We have camping facilities, and some nice little A-frames and the like, for options.

Email me on umzimkulu@gmail.com or click below for more adventure options by The Sardine Team.

https://thesardine.co.za/product-category/fishing-experiences/

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Chris Leppan shoots huge couta at Pomene

Chris Leppan and his huge couta at Pomene

Chris Leppan shoots huge couta at Pomene

Watch this cool underwater and highly authentic video shot by Asha Irvine, Chris’ able lady – as Chris puts the spear in a huge couta at Pomene recently.

The fish was deep down, swimming the bottom as Chris descended above and behind to plant the perfect shot. The couta swims off like it would, and Chris gives chase, with Asha right behind him, camera rolling.

The reel gun must have been smoking underwater but luckily it was well spooled and the 32kg fish soon got dragged up kicking and screaming.

Chris’ antics have been nothing more than spectacular…we had to run a series on him to keep up!

More Chris action right here:

Marlin on Kayak

Couta off the beach at Pomene

Just btw, we somehow have two Chris Leppan’s, and they are both smoking hot anglers…

This is the other Chris Leppan…

And more about his fish right here:

https://thesardine.co.za/2015/06/03/chris-lepan-huge-kob-in-the-umzimkulu/

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The tides of March are marching

The tides of March are marching

The tides of March are marching

The tides of March are marching again, and it’s quite tough to understand why.

The main thing out of synch is that the tidal coefficients are not that high. Monday’s coefficient was a mere 95 in the morning. Given that the coefficient range reaches over 120, it means that it was only about 85% of what it could have been. The height of the tide on Monday was 2.1m in Durban. Durban’s highest tides come in at a raging 2.3m! That’s 20cm more than Monday’s water.

But it’s the storm surges from the massive swell that really is higher grade learning. Why now? Why The Ides of March?

Very strange stuff indeed.

But if you check this amazing animation of the globe’s wind and weather (and even ocean currents and waves if you select the right overlay), you will be able to monitor the whole lot in real time.

https://earth.nullschool.net/

The way I interpret this last push, is that the cyclonic system that grew as it moved south East of Madagascar over the weekend, but did not develop to full cyclone (didn’t even get a name), just stubbornly stayed out there, day after day, whipping swell straight at everyone from the Cape to Mozambique. It’s the positioning of the cyclone that makes for the swells. If it goes crazy and heads for land, it’s not ideal, not by a long way. But when they sit out there, just far enough off not to make too much chaos on land (torrential rain), just behind and below Mad, the distance that  a swell can be built up, is a good 2000 to 3500kms. Winds pushing consistently at 60kmh to 120kmh and sometimes more, can do wonders for us, with this huge fetch of water. Hence the huge swell and storm surges that swamped Durban beachfront and surrounds the last few days. Epic stuff – like a mini tsunami really. And with our best cyclone season for years going on right now, things are gonna stay very interesting.

Aside: If you study the animation at the link above closely and over time, you will also see how come Mozambique is offshore so often, this time of the year. As the winds square the coast, where I write this now – Port Shepstone KZN, it’s raining, it’s onshore, the water is brown and the waves are huge. Meanwhile, get on up to sunny skies and chevrolet, and huge crystal clean barrels – at any low tide in Mozambique, right now!

“I have been trying to get photos or pics from the crew up there, but at this stage, an ominous silence prevails. The wind does look a bit iffy today, but it’s the perfect tides  – things, when they smooth out up there, will be melted plastic.

Calvin Moore is in Pomene! Robin Beatty is in Tofinho! Send news!

Is Caesar going down tomorrow? – Xona”

Endless rains are great for farmers but the brown water instils a nervousness as it's full of sharks.
Endless rains are great for farmers but the brown water instils a nervousness down here in KZN as it’s full of sharks. The Umzimkulu River mouth is a favourite hangout for huge Zambezi’s, that can often be seen free-swimming around the mouth area. Eish!
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Bad Brad’s Kingfish at Pomene

Greenspot Kingfish at Pomene Estuary

Bad Brad’s Kingfish at Pomene

The legendary kingfish at Pomene have been under threat from overfishing and nets the last few decades, but this last trip we were there, they came alive! Bus loads of them!

I am not sure if they are Big-eye Kingfish, or juvenile GT’s – they look so similair at the size we were catching them – up to about 3 or 4 kg’s.

But the big ones were in there too!

In the mellee we saw at least a dozen metre long GT’s and yellowfin kingfish smashing along with the juveniles – teaching them how to be a proper bad mooded kingfish.

It was late afternoon when Bad Brad of Durban cast his luminous pink popper in the right place, and soon we had out first little trophy. The pink popper thing was hot to trot and it wasn’t half an hour later when he had his bigger fish of the two. They both swam away completely unharmed, and more experienced in life.

The fish were in hunting shoals, moving with the tide and creating a fracas in the deep channel on the far side of the estuary. We would position ourselves up towards the mouth, and drift in with the current – much the same tactic that the kingfish were using. Then as the kingfish cornered the baitfish they attacked from all sides, whipping the water wild, and making a sound like a live Rodriguez concert.

There were fish just everywhere!

And then as soon as they had started, they stopped. Completely. And disappeared. Gone. Silence. In the sunset.

Bad Brad's kingfish at Pomene

Back to base, where whilst staying in the water chalets, we could hear the very same kingfish attacking right outside our door, intermittently through the night!

The aggressive and intelligent locals – the humpback dolphins, who have been patrolling the Pomene estuary for as long as I have been frequenting it, came to visit. And one time, when I wasn’t looking, a massive explosion of sound and water got me turned around just in time to see a huge black fin slicing the water in a patch of foam and blood as big as a kombi. Now what that could have been? Shark? Huge GT?

This story is not meant to be one telling of the Pomene estuary’s fantastic fishing. No, no. That is long gone. What is left, can be roughly estimated, at about 10% of it’s former glory. When little sailfish were caught right up in the mangroves. Huge yellowfin tuna beaching themselves as they miscalculate the tides and shallows. Brindle Bass would shy you away whilst snorkeling the reefs. Seahorses bouncing around all over. All this in the estuary! Never mind how good the ocean was back then. Couta off the rocks. Huge GT’s in the shallows…

And then the saddest thing, is even after all the effort to protect this prime fish nursery, there come some prospective investors in the area, from South Africa, rent a boat from the lodge, and come back with three little dead kingfish.

Mmmmm.

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Survey in Pomene

Pomene by sea: the natural sand harbour at the top of the point. Kayaks abound here.

Survey in Pomene

Clint Marx of LM Surveys gave The Sardine a call and asked about the feasibility of getting a boat from Barra to Pomene, 110kms north of us, for a survey job. Very feasible, was the quick answer. And so we were chartered to assist Clint with a survey in Pomene.

Our team of Captain Paul Cook, 1st Engineer, and navigation and GIS champion, Captain Robin Beatty, and me, boat Elvis, have done this trip, and so preparations were underway.

Our chosen little big boat was a Cobra Cat 500, with twin Yamaha 60’s. That hadn’t run in 8 years?! So quick to work and Paul started uncovering the multitude of  problems available, when a boat is not winterised. The steering was jammed, the chokes inoperable, the trims full of air, the remotes sticky and stuck, the coils unearthed…it never seemed to end as we just about overhauled the motors completely.

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

After 4 or 5 sea trials, we had the motors starting great and pulling top revs. Which made us good for 22 knots at spark advance – our most economical speed. Which two hours after launch at Barra, put us at the start of the Sylvia Shoal, and lines out.

It wasn’t a few minutes when the MYDO Livebaitswimmer rigged with a brand new mini sardine went down to a marauding Tropical Yellowtail. And the another one a few minutes later. This meant we had enough fish to eat at camp for the next few days, and so on we crtised at 20 knots, influenced by a slight chop. Meeting our ground crew who by road, made the same time as us, at the top of the ever awe-inspiring Pomene Point.

There is a natural sand harbour in front of our permanent camp at Pomene, perfect for parking boats in…easily navigated at higher tides.

The next day, whilst waiting for Clint to arrive, we hit out the 17kms to Bassas da Zambia. Miles and miles of more reef…very similair to The Sylvia Shoal. 5 Metres in places. 7kms out to sea. Snorkeling with the current over undragged coral didn’t last long as fish came into view. Many fish. Two Green Jobfish were soon in the hatch. Then a shark ate our bonnie. And a sailfish speared a hole almost right through our live Rainbow Runner. But in my excitement, I set the drag up to high straight away, the fish did not like that at all,and swam off indignant.

Our guest chef in the camp, Rio Domingo, took to catching our live bait for us, and brought up a host of cool little fishies, most of which swam away without hooks in them.

I got a new reel!

When Clint arrived that night, we moved to Pomene Lodge, where we would be based the next week or so. Hot water showers! Woohoo!

Mobilising the boat took a whole day but then we were cruising the magnificent estuary scanning away before sunset.

After a few days missioning with weather, engines and equipment, the job was done. Clint had to leave for more work but not before, he was amply treated to a serious surf session up at the point, with a draining tide and offshore wind, that produced lips a foot thick. And barrells big enough to live in. Enough said.

And so we were left with a boat and some time on our hands whilst waiting for more fuel and a good sea. With which we were able to explore and survey the rest of the huge estuarine system. Packed with Mangroves, and crystal clear water – what a day! It also happened to be the day of the solar eclipse, more about that here.

Solar eclipse from Pomene Lodge
Solar eclipse at Pomene Lodge by “Buddy”

The next was deemed fit for travel, and at 4am, we repeated the ritual, and headed back out to sea. Again we stopped at The Sylvia Shoal, stuck out a whiting on a MYDO, and as we came up the side of the undersea mountain, a lovely swallowtail rockcod chomped it and we had fish for dinner, once more.

A quick two hours had us back on the beach at Barra, where Russell and his crew from Barra Reef Divers put us back on the trailer and into the pub. A few great plates of food at Neptunes Beach Bar, and three exhausted sailors put in for Tofo, and some serious R&R (not rum and raspberry!).

Thank you Clint and The Sardine team!

We can do this trip for anyone interested, anytime…buzz me on umzimkulu@gmail.com

 

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