Sardines Analysis: in-depth with Windy.com #sardinerun2025 #sardinemigration
Sardines Analysis: in-depth with Windy.com: our meteorological partner – Windy.com – are endowed with a set of tools that make detailed analyses of what is going on with the sardines this year, so much more fun!
Weather
Let’s start with the weather…we have another whole week of low-pressure systems battling it out with any high-pressures they can find. And that big high off Durban (lives there most of the time) has been doing a great job fending off the cold fronts so far. But this next week has a lot of red and orange in it. And many, many close-together lines on the charts. These close-together lines mean big swell is on the way. And the prevailing low-pressures will produce nice big rolling swells from the south (just like the sardines like it) painted with an early morning offshore, delivered with coffee each day.
Sardines Analysis with Windy.com
Currents
The ocean currents analysis from Windy.com tells a few secrets. You can clearly see that the normal straight-driving Agulhas Current has lost attention and is now meandering all over the place. Looks like it is trying to avoid potholes. It’s causing vortexes and counter currents in all the weirdest places. There are two easily identifiable warm-water barriers playing havoc with the already panicked sardines. Of which there are plenty. In that slightly colder patch from Coffee Bay to Port St Johns, there are pilot shoals. And some much bigger shoals coming up behind them. South of that, however, is warm water right to the coastline. And this extends right past Kevin in Qora towards Kei Mouth and Morgans Bay. Then it gets cold again and this is the water in which the GoDive operators are having so much fun. Further south, there is another warm water barrier that might be keeping some of the sardines down there for longer than they would like.
Is the Agulhas trying to avoid the KZN potholes or what? You can see where it veers out to sea from about Port Shepstone and then back in again at Kevin in Qora, bouncing off from there and making contact with land again at Port Alfred.
And as per programme…Adam on the ball in the Township Hyper Crows Nest, this early morning…
Sardines and Sightings
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Member of WhatsApp Sardine News HOTLINE, access to restricted content on thesardine.co.za, LIVE Broadcasts from the Beach during the sardine run. And direct contact with the Sardine Spy network team.
You can also get around the season in a real fun way by checking out our annual Sardine Run Maps. This is a real groovy way to follow the progress of the sardines each year.
You can even 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…
Elton of GoDive Sardine Baitball Report from Cintsa #sardinerun2025 #sardinemigration #sardine #news
Elton of GoDive Sardine Baitball Report from Cintsa #sardinerun2025 #sardinemigration #sardine #news :another crisp wintery morning down here in southern KZN. The offshore winds are blowing daily and this whole week is dominated mainly by south systems swinging across the country. Causing this offshore drift of air every morning – you can see the smoke from bush fires, cane fires and people whisping out over the sea. Makes for spectacular sunrises and seascapes.
We have a gentle southwesterly blowing later this morning, aiming to top out at around 12 to 15 knots as it takes over from the offshore from about low tide onwards. Later in the day, as the tide pushes in, the wind will swing even further to the east to become a proper onshore.
The ocean recovers really fast in this place at this time of the year. And often a bit of east in the afternoon will pull the prevailing SSW swell into the bays and coves for surfing for the next morning. Many nuances in the atmosphere are at play right now that produce these perfect conditions.
Meanwhile, down south in Cintsa…sardine baitball report by Elton…
all the fish and more fish and more fish and more fish Hey morning just an update from Cintsa uh week 4 has just kicked off yesterday was a little bit quiet didn’t really find much at all um and then today all of a sudden in the cold wet windy um weather there was there’s quite a lot of action right from in front of Cintsa in the bay 20 meters deep water nice clear water uh lots of sardines lots of gannets and then some of the videos are also from the East London side so one of the boats went all the way down to East London found great action in front there yeah the other boats in Cintsa all the clients on both boats are in the water at the moment uh I think um the last update I heard is that the one boats on their third or fourth bait ball for the morning yeah and they only launched at 8:00 so it’s really really good conditions at the moment lots of sardines coming through lots of gannets lots of dolphins and I will update further when uh when I hear more wow guys it’s bait fish all over the place Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike
Sardines and Sightings
Join the Sardine News HOTLINE for 2025 and Neva Miss a Single Sardine! We first upload to YouTube, and then progressively up to the rest of the social platforms (Facey, X, etc) as the bandwidth allows.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN as a Member on YouTube, and receive all these perks too…
Member of WhatsApp Sardine News HOTLINE, access to restricted content on thesardine.co.za, LIVE Broadcasts from the Beach during the sardine run. And direct contact with the Sardine Spy network team.
You can also get around the season in a real fun way by checking out our annual Sardine Run Maps. This is a real groovy way to follow the progress of the sardines each year.
You can even 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…
The Sardine News and Windy.com: Good morning and thank you for checking in with us. Ok, conditions first – the conditions analysis goes out nice and early each day. Published on The Sardine News website. And into that will go the news as the day unfolds.
Starting with today! And Adam’s
On a scale of one to ten, today is an 11 plus. The ocean is big and glassy, painted smooth by a brisk and crisp offshore wind. That will blow right through this low tide and into mid-morning. Where it might hang about or swing gently onshore, as is predicted. High tide after lunch.
Talking of predictions, we have struck a deal with Windy.com that allows us to use their fantastic visualisations for our reports! Head on over to https://windy.com if you are ever uncertain of the weather. Hit the play button at the bottom left and watch as your future is revealed. Better than a crystal ball!
From the Windy.com animation, you can see the two cold fronts that we are in the middle of. That next one is only due mid-next week.
Surf
The SSW swell at 14 seconds will be fantastic at certain spots up and down the coast. Durban town looks a bit flat today. The Tweni 2’s surfing contest at Umtentweni is staged for tomorrow down the south coast, and the surf is going to be perfect down there!
A rising barometer at 1030 means east conditions on their way. Afternoon onshores are an everyday thing now. Luckily, the ocean recovers from the chop overnight.
Fish
Except for the lack of shad in KZN, the fishing is excellent. Luckily, this recent cold front might excite them shad all into the same sardine fever that has gotten hold of us.
Garrick and kingfish have been grabbing the headlines, along with medium to small sized koblets. Out at sea, couta is the name of the game. The recent UKFC kayak on the north coast of KZN event had phenomenal catches with a dozen fish around or over 20 kgs. Get your MYDOs in the Sardine News tackle store online.
Currents
And finally the Agulhas current…is screaming and we can clearly see how the counter current carrying the sardines has crept so far up into the Transkei. And is literally cut off now. We can see the Natal Pulse dynamic in full swing as the continental shelf diverts the Agulhas into a literal whirlpool.
Sardines and Sightings
Join the Sardine News HOTLINE
Join the Sardine News HOTLINE for 2025 and Neva Miss a Single Sardine! We first upload to YouTube, and then progressively up to the rest of the social platforms (Facey, X, etc) as the bandwidth allows.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN as a Member on YouTube, and receive all these perks too…
Member of WhatsApp Sardine News HOTLINE, access to restricted content on thesardine.co.za, LIVE Broadcasts from the Beach during the sardine run. And direct contact with the Sardine Spy network team.
You can also get around the season in a real fun way by checking out our annual Sardine Run Maps. This is a real groovy way to follow the progress of the sardines each year.
You can even 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…
The Sardine News Monthly 31 March 2025: what a month March has been. For ducks. And barrels. For the rest of us it has been pure endurance to get through to the blue water. We did have a few clean surfs and some fish were caught and speared but the brown water plumes of the ANC’s sewage has kept most of us at bay.
Here is today’s video report…
NSRI
These guys have been busy as ever, rescuing people and saving lives. Imagine what would happen without them? However their invaluable efforts can only reach so far. And way too many people are drowning due to basic ignorance. Ignorance as to how dangerous the ocean and rivers can be at times.
The lives lost this March are a stark reminder that our government is totally useless at providing even basic protection to its people. Signage at the relevant hot spots are surely something a municipality would be deemed responsible for?
NSRI Pink Buoy Project
In the meantime, the NSRI fill a huge gap left by coastal municipalities by being on alert 24/7 and even placing pink torpedo buoys at dangerous places like Port Sheptone River Mouth – where nobody should ever be allowed to even stick a toe in.
‘Duty to Warn’
Aside from the torrents of water and the Zambezi sharks, the ecoli is ready and waiting. Freshly delivered by the failed municipalities here in Port Sheptone (UGU and RNM) and upriver like Harding (where their sewerage system has been pumping raw sewage into the river for a decade or more now).
The law ‘Duty to Warn’ must surely apply to the municipalities that pollute the place in the first place. Warning signs should be posted all over KZN’s beaches and rivers. When the ecoli is running down the rivers and into the sea.
(For tourists reading this, all is not lost. When the last floods are washed away and the rains dry up, we are left in paradise. )
The floods have come down strong over this last wet season and most of the sewage and gunk has been flushed down the proverbial toilet (South Africa is a toilet these days, really) and into the sea by now. Then it’s dry season and the good times prevail right through the sardine season. Into September and beyond. All this time, though, the dams and rivers are filled daily with millions of tonnes of sewage from all our failed municipalities (ANC), and the cycle repeats when the wet season starts again, just in time for December holidays and our tourists. Many of whom get sick from the poisonous water. At the expense of our tourism industry and our health. 14 Surfers got sick after surfing the tantalising, perfect waves in Durban this month.
WOWser
The WOW Flying School team in Scottburgh have been wowing us completely away with their super video footage and pilot commentary. We look forward to each and every instalment we can get from the WOW guys. Please visit their website at https://wowflight.co.za.
And if you haven’t already seen it, here is their recent epic coverage of the flood plumes between Umkomaas and Scottburgh.
Brewed Awakening
For that lovely aroma and taste in the morning, pop down to the Scotties car park. Where you can find the Brewed Awakening Coffee Shop. The shop is mobile and does not stay there all day long. So the early bird catches the worm. A big thanks to the Brewed Awakening for the awesome time-lapse and pan clips that we featured in some of our reports this March too.
MYDO
MYDO Lures introduced the IGFA version of their infamous MYDO Baitswimmer range. The new head has a pin with which to insert the bait on and keep it swimming perfectly.
MYDO IGFA Baitswimmer 3 Ounce
MYDO has recently introduced a special on their Shad Pack. You now get three shad traces in the R100 packs. Deliver via Pudo is an extra R30, so R130 and you are in the game. This rig will up your hookup and strike ratio immensely as you are abe to present a moving bait at the exact right depth and with a swimming action. When cut right, this rig also gets you 8 baits from a single sardine. The following diagram shows the cuts. It says 4, but if you split each cut to its fillets, you can double to 8 baits per sardine.
And it’s not just shad that take these juiced up traces, you be surprised what else jumps on these moving baits. All kinds of fish. We have caught blacktail, kob, pompano, kingfish, wrasse and others fishing like this. You just have to cast out as far as you can (use your bass rig or estuary rig with casting braid). Allow the rig to sink to about halfway down to the bottom(where the shad swim), and start cranking slowly. The baitswimmer swims your bait through the bubbles exactly where the fish are swimming and hunting. By sticking to this tactic you will stay clear of snagging in the rocks too.
Sardine bait up with the MYDO Shad TraceMYDO Silver Bullet Shad TraceMYDO Baitswimming is an artformMYDO StripBaitSwimmer dressed with sardine fillet and light pink mini skirtMYDO Baitswimmer #1 Silver Bullet Gamefish TraceStrike!Shad fisherman enjoying the early morning spring conditions on the KZN South Coast
Get in touch with me Sean using the big old WhatsApp button on the screen somewhere, or +27793269671, or umzimkulu@gmail.com to get your own stash of Mydos.
On The Edge: KZN Floods Update featuring Umhlanga, Tiger Rocks, The Cutting, Black Rock, Scottburgh, Umzumbe, Sunwich, Umtentweni…presented by The Bear, Chelsea Dog and the Usual Suspects.
A massive thank you to Cliff Bamber for obtaining permission for us to use some of the fabulous WOW (World of Wings) material the guys shot on Tuesday. These perspectives tell all as the brown water and the salt water argue it out as they are pressed against each other by the currents and counter-currents.
Dodging Bullets
Although here in southern Kwazulu Natal – we are far from out of the woods yet, we can so far breathe a sigh of relief that we were not dealt the same treatment as inland of Port Edward, to Umtata and beyond, were over the last few days. They got hammered. Trees breaking and all sorts. The Umtamvuna flooded The Pont completely as a result of this torrential storm weather inland. You can see some of that craziness in the video too…
We have started the 2025 Sardine Run Map! Download our app to your phone or device, accept notifications, and you will never miss a single sardine.
2024 was a thrilling year for sardines. All the action has been logged right here on The Sardine News. The 2024 map has been viewed 200 000 times and just keeps going.
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. Last year we started to log more whale and dolphin sightings. And we even had a shipwreck! This year we have had two sailboat incidents already. PLUS, we have already logged some sardines!
Here are the links to existing and past Sardine Sighting Maps…
