Tag: port shepstone

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Umzimkulu perch

Umzimkulu perch

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!
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).

You can also stay in touch via our Facebook page at http://facebook.com/thesardine.co.za

If you or you kids want to come target perch for a weekend or a session, contact me Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com or WhatsApp +27793269671

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Dean Sinclair with more Daga Salmon taken on MYDO’s

Dean Sinclair with more Daga Salmon taken on MYDO’s

Well it’s great to have Dean Sinclair and his mates testing the MYDO Luck Shot Mini out – I don’t even have to go fishing?!

Once again, here he is with not one, but TWO Daga Salmon, taken at a not so secret fishing spot, night before last.

Night time is the right time – at any of the south coast’s longer beaches – with that bountiful channel running along the shoreline. Casting just over the channel is too easy…the daga salmon / kob like to hang out in the white water that flows off the sandbank at lower tides.

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Dean Sinclair has consistently been catching goos sized daga salmon / kob, with the MYDO Luck Shot Mini # 2 Green Mamba colour. Very good Dean!

Dean uses various paddletails and jerkbaits, and the same as Simon Fish in East London, has been getting all his fish on the lime green # 2 MYDO Luck Shot Mini, with a clear / white / silver plastic paddletail or jerk bait. 6″ to 7″ and even bigger paddletails are the go – the fish the team have been catching have all been in the 6 to 10kg range. But it’s chilled again here on the Kwazulu Natal South Coast, and the front that has dominated the weather the last few days, has left us with a sterling ocean with stars lined up all over the place. So we can expect a few bigger fish by the hardcore blokes who weather the freezing cold offshore as it belts down the river valleys, all the way down from the Drakensberg ice and snow!

Watch a video of the MYDO Luck Shot Mini in action on the surface and under water. Note how the action changes at different speeds, and how versatile you can be, with the weedless hook configuration and roll over action upon hitting an underwater obstacle. You can throw the Luck Shots for miles, in any wind conditions that we encounter.

The smaller # 1 sized lure, is just great to have with you all the time…to target estuarine gamefish, bonito swimming by, bass in a dam or shad in the surf. Replacing the jerkbait or paddletail is very simple, and some plastics have been coming out at more reasonable prices.

The MYDO range of dropshot lures are available at Lucky’s, Gremlins and The Tackle Box, on the south coast, or right here online…

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Proven to be reliable, versatile and effective lures – the MYDO Luck Shot Mini(surf) and Luck Shot (boat) are almost in a tackle store near you. Dealer inquiries to Sean on +27 79 326 9671 or email umzimkulu@gmail.com

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Shads Lani!

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Submitted by: Shona

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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.

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Geelbek Salmon at night

Geelbek Salmon at night: with umzimkulu.co.za

A great evening out on the Niteshift, with John van Reenen and Elvis Olimpio as crew…

“Winter time is Geelbek time, and although the ‘Bek do feed during the day time, night time, is the right time.

So when conditions do play along, and the surf is small…and the tides are right, and the Umzimkulu Mouth acts like a harbour…and it lets us out for a 3 or 4 hour window.
The night previous had produced nothing but an Englishman, and we had a lot of trouble with the anchor at Boboyi…there must be so many anchor ropes and chains down there, after all these years!
But the current did turn out to be be very slack…so this last night we used the conditions to buzz around all the spots we could, sounding around…and dropping baits, to see where these Geelbek have been hiding.
There was heaps of bioluminescence in the water, and fishing on the seaward side of the boat, John Fever and I both clearly saw a white mushroom cloud burst up silently into the total blackness, some distance in front of us?! All sorts of thoughts. And then the sound…it was a whale exhaling, the cloud of air illuminated with bioluminescence. The things you see at sea at night?!
But no fish at this stage. Nothing. So after scouring the Port Shepstone reefs, the Old Man, on a hunch, took us 4 miles south through whale infested water…to one of his very first Geelbek stomping grounds.
The new Garmin CHIRP system on the Niteshift, is so powerful, it picks out our baits! So when we we got our first showing of red, the anchor went straight down.
And spot on. Dad goes away immediately. We found them!
I got one next, but on my next down something huge took my middle bait, and after a huge tug-of-war, my trace broke on the snootie?!
Then Elvis starting making weird noises as the biggest Geelbek of the night tried to pull him overboard.
By this time my Dad had his quote of two, so he helped Fever catch two more. I had more trouble, this time with a shark, and that’s how I ended up. Then just before our safe window of conditions were up, Elvis’ rod doubled over…but he made short work of the fish this time…which turned out to be half a fish. Tax.
Then the huge shape appeared around the anchor rope…milky white in the ultra clean and flourescent, phosperous water. It might have been a great white for it’s size, and it leered up at us circling underneath…breaking the water with it’s tail a few times, in some sort of defiant  gesture.
The whales had also been barking at us some more, we were surrounded on a few occasions, so we pulled anchor and hightailed it into the outgoing tide at the Umzimkulu River.
Total fish – 7.5!
A hard days night!”

For more information on the Umzimkulu Marina…click here.

Or check out their current promotion…

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Check out the catch and cook series on thesardine.co.za for how to best savour the flavours of Geelbek Salmon…

And a gallery of photos…

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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…

 

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