Tag: sardines

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SKZN Fishing Report 22 May 2022

SKZN Fishing Report 22 May 2022

SKZN Fishing Report 22 May 2022

SKZN Fishing Report 22 May 2022: the sea finally returned back to a normal state down here in Southern KwaZulu Natal. Only after weeks and weeks of that ugly poison soup brown water being hemmed in close to the shore – did the current return last week.

With vengeance.

The water shot back up to 23.8 Celsius (from 19) and was full-up with ‘couta lights (bio-luminescent plankton that signifies the presence of hunting couta). When this current kicks, it really kicks. At about 4 knots offshore, makes things tricky for navigation and fuel consumption. But this is the gamefish water. Purple ink.

Unfortunately, more mud is on its way so we can just hope that the current is strong enough. Mhloti is out of bounds BTW. More flood destruction as another little cut off low hit Durban last night. Out of the blue!

Croc couta at Hibberdene

But a croc’ ‘couta came out this past week! Featured image. By local kayak angler Shaun Simpson. Off Hibberdene. Really nice fish looks like 25kgs or so, maybe more?

Hibberdene does clean up faster than most places down here since there are not any major river mouths north of the place. And those pinnacles and backline rock formations are exactly the turf that the couta like to hunt in. Many, many outsized couta have come from these reefs.

Including these two monsters, taken along while back, in June, 2007. When the sardines had just arrived that season. From the rocks!!!

You can read all about that incredible day right here…

A brace of couta at Hibberdene by the Posthumous brothers

Back to the present…

Sardines

There are NO sardines yet. Don’t believe anything you read in the mainstream media. And watch out for false sardine news on the social shark nets too. It’s unbelievable how stories grow and get completely out of control as the Dunning -Krueger effect kicks in.

As The Sardine News (marketing for Umzimkulu Adrenalin), we have sardine spies stationed up and down the entire coastline. Make sure to be a part of this community to never miss a single sardine this year and every year to come. Since 1987, we have been doing this. Back then we were a printed tabloid!

Anyway, sardines don’t do brown water so we are gonna have to wait until the current takes it all away.

Shad

The shad have most definitely arrived. But we have only been catching them out deep. Away from the poison soup. Some magnificent chases out there along the backline reefs too. Things are getting back to normal. And the shad will come in close with the effect of the current’s long overdue return.

Rock Salmon

Ian Logie cracked the first decent fish of the Umzimkulu Estuary winter season. The water clears up and these fish are available on artificial. Or live bait. As what felled this guy, down in the mouth area.

Fishing report 20 May 2022 featuring Ian Logie again!
Ian Logie strikes again! 4.5kgs.

There has been a big Zambezi Shark terrorising everybody at night time here. ALso spotted during daylight hours, this aggressive fish has been making huge splashing noises as he chases the plentiful perch, mullet and whatever other fish, that have come back him into the estuary recently.

The other estuaries that still function, like Mpenjati and Mtamvuna, are also going to be hot as the dry season sets in.

Get in touch if you would like some of this action!

Sean on +27793269671 or umzimkulu@gmail.com to arrange some fishing. Or check the menu above.

More fun apps/websites:

Umzimkulu Marina – self-catering in Port Shepstone

Spillers House – BnB and Backpackers right on the Umzimkulu River

The Sardine News – never miss a single sardine

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19 June 2021 Sardine Report: TUNA in da NETS!

19 June 2021 Sardine Report: TUNA in da NETS!

TUNA in da NETS! Unbelievably, our mate Alex sent in some unbelievable footage of a shoal of yellowfin tuna being caught in a net! And then being released! This must surely be due to some sort of bycatch law (acknowledgements Darrell Hattingh) because those tuna taste way better than them sardines in that same net!

But the main message that the 19 June 2021 Sardine Report carries, is…

TAKE YOUR SPINNING ROD FOR A WALK!

Imagine one of those bombers on your favourite spinning stick. You would need at least 50lb to be in with a chance. But a fish of a lifetime, oh yes. A yellowfin of any size, off the bricks, is one helluva tasty trophy. Walk a popper or a spoon, up and down the inside channels for garrick, shad and kingfish. And get your MYDO SS Spoon out just past the waves to be in for the queen of all gamefish – the Queen Mackerel. Aka Natal Snoek. The most amazingly beautiful fish all round.

And right within reach right now.

Sardine Report in Video

Garrick have also been playing the game. Hence the featured pic of Matt Defillipi and a bomber taken at the Sandspit in Port Shepstone. Right near the Umzimkulu Marina.

19 June 2021 Sardine Report
19 June 2021 Sardine Report: Matt Defillipi at the Sandspit in Port Shepstone

And the sardines are literally everywhere!

Just hit your favourite beach and set ambush.

Gallery

Thank you!

As for the rest of the 2021 Sardine Reports, I cannot thank you guys enough for making this all possible. Riaan, Alex, Daniel, Jason, Darrell, Adam, Yushan, Quentin, Digby, Ant, Marc, Brucifire (gone gallivanting again) …and the list goes in and on actually.

And then to all the new subscribers and members, a HUGE welcome from the team at The Sardine News. We will keep you informed and up-to-date each sardine season.

And the rest of the time we do surfing, fishing and diving news.

Check it all out at https://thesardine.co.za and on https://masterwatermen.co.za/.

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So this is where our sards go!

Hands off our Sardines! Trawler watch. Keep these destructive forces from our waters

So this is where our sards go!

I was researching a keyword clash with some of my SEO pages and I came across this post we did in June 2017. It wasn’t a particularly good year for the wards that year. And the pundits were being merrily goaded on by me as I also felt bereaved of the shoals of sards we so impatiently wait for each year. But the post is extremely pertinent as it backs up the visual evidence and AIS tracking showing Chinese and all-sorts of vessels stealing our sardines.

And selling them right back to us!!!

by Sean Lange, June 2017….

Well I don’t know how I got onto this dude’s mailing list, but every week or so, I receive a circular, offering me bulk sardines for sale? Perhaps the morons phished my details from The Sardine News – perhaps they think I deal in sardines ha ha!

I am not sure of the details of the catches either, details are sketchy to say the least, each time. But the list below sure reads two grades of sards for sale. One for bait, and one for canning. And a bunch of other forms of seafood.

Where these sardines are coming from, is anyone’s guess…but we can’t help but feel, that if fishing is going on all over the world, at the scale that reads below, no wonder we are running clean out of fish. And these just could be, our own sards?! Taken from our waters, way out deep, as they head their way towards our coastline. Way out of sight.

Never detected.

Then the fact is, that even if we spot a suspicious vessel, there is nowhere to report it?! (Read all about that here) And so speculation that foul play is underway, is rife. Many suspect our government is selling out on our quota system. Allowing foreign vessels to operate in our waters.  Zuma style corruption runs deep, into every department and level of government.

And if they all thought they could hide the Gupta nuclear bullshit from us, what else did they hide already?

Enjoy the read…

Dear Sir,

Good morning.

We now have several containers’ ready products as below, please kindly advise, thanks.

#13 Agentina Squid 100-150g / pc Processing Material

Product Name: Frozen W/R Agentina Squid for Processing Material purpose

Specification: 100-150g / pc, BQF, Light Purse Seine, Sea Frozen

#12 Black Squid 80-150g / pc Processing Material

Product Name: Frozen W/R Black Squid for Processing Material purpose

Specification: 80-150g / pc, BQF, Light Purse Seine, Sea Frozen

#14 Frozen Crab Meat

Product Name: Frozen Crab Meat  (Winter Crab)

Jumbo Lump, 1lb./bag; Lump, 4lb./bag

#15 Frozen Seafood Mix

Ingredients: Squid Rings/ Tentacles/ Strips/Cut/Head, Octopus Cut/Strip, Baby Octopus, Mussels meat, Shrimps, etc.

Glazing: 0-20%, Package: 24 *1 lb.

#1 Sardine 6-10 pcs/kg Market / Bait

Product Name: Frozen W/R Sardine for Market / Bait purpose

Specification: 6-10 pcs/kg, BQF, Light Purse Seine, Land Frozen

#2 Sardine 6-10 pcs/kg Canning

Product Name: Frozen W/R Sardine for Canning purpose

Specification: 6-10 pcs/kg, BQF, Trawl, Land Frozen

#3 Scad (Horse Mackerel) 8-10 pcs/kg Market

Product Name: Frozen W/R Scad (Horse Mackerel) for Market purpose

Specification: 8-10 pcs/kg, BQF, Light Purse Seine, Land Frozen

Kindly let us know the name of your destination port. More products information including pictures and price will be sent according to your respond.

Thanks and warmly regards.

And there it right there, once again, showing quite clearly, that if it were not for the Chinese boats being apprehended and sent home, there would have definitely NOT been so many sards as there are this year.

And it has only just started!!!

Sardine activity 2020 by OJ
Sharks in the shorebreak during sards season 2020
Sards being netted on the KZN South Coast of South Africa
Sards for sale!
A bumper sardine run 2020 leaves some unanswered but relevant questions about our annual sardine migration and who gets to harvest and who are in lockdown
Sardine action sardine run 2020
Mature Tiger Shark released with satellite tag swims away

A big thank you to OJ Communications and her efforts to bring us the amazing imagery of the local photographers best sardine work of 2020. Justin Klusener features prominently, their pics are all credited at original publication on The Sardine News.

We are on Facebook right here, we run an action-packed YouTube video channel right here.

By The Sardine News

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So why do the sardine shoals not come at all some years?

A bumper sardine run 2020 leaves some unanswered but relevant questions about our annual sardine migration and who gets to harvest and who are in lockdown

So why do the sardine shoals not come at all some years?

So why do the sardine shoals not come at all some years?: Well I got a call from Mr Adam Kamdar of Township Hyper yesterday evening. Great dude and really in the know in the fishing scene.  I had guests and dogs and things going and I could hardly hear, but his question went along the lines of…

“Sean, do you think this Covid thing was the cause of the bumper sardine run?”

Well ok that pushed just about all my buttons, so here is the full answer Adam…

AIS

AIS is the theme to this quasi-sardine report compiled as a result of the big question Adam has posed.

You can download an AIS App to your phone. There are many and they are free for the most. They show you, where the big and ugly fishing trawlers are. Right on your phone!

AIS.

Automatic Identification System. A great effort, and if everyone played along, saves lives (collision avoidance), and sealife (real-time tracking data to catch poachers fishing illegally).

BUT.

And this is a big BUT.

If you are a poacher, you can turn your AIS transponder, right the hell OFF! With a switch!

So this is how they do it then. When pair-trawling (the most destructive of all the illegal fishing methods), one of the collaborators, turns off. Easy as that. If the fleet ventures, in a group (read commercial fishing high-tech armada), then as they get near protected waters, one or two of them turns off, and enters the forbidden zone.

This happens ALL the time. The Sardine News tried to start a trawler watch to log sightings of suspect activity – but there is so much of it, that we got bogged right down right as we started. This was in Mozambique where these ugly boats are literally EVERYWHERE now.

Sardine Run 2020

Whilst we were imprisoned in lockdown thanks to our sheep governments interpretation of convid19, the Chinese/Japanese/Whoever fleets were plying the waters the whole time! Where? Slap bang on the sardine migration path. The AIS charts looked like a rugby scrum.

No photo description available.

And if you have been in St. Francis this time of year, any year, you can smell the sardines from the harbor for miles around. Go sniffing around there for yourselves. Huge loads of sardines. Wonder where they go? And whose were they in the first place?

Whoever they are and wherever they are from, they are ALL rigged with the latest in navigation and depth-sounding equipment. Utilising sonar pulses pumped out by a high-powered transducer, they can detect and chase a shoal of sardines 12 or more miles away! And with their huge capacity and tethers to a mother ship lurking around the area somewhere, that is also a factory ship – that drops CANNED sardines off at the wharf – what chance does the public ever have of getting their share, in the usually slow years of sardine running?

So…

Did Convid19 affect the sardine run this merry 2020?

Nope. It’s a bumper sardine run like we always dream of. It’s beyond perfect. The gamefish have arrived. Sharks are getting their teeth pulled. The weather is fantastic and ecological patterns are in place. Those pundits that complain year after year are completely silent.

Only. They just don’t get it.

AIS.

Shows that there were fleets of fishing boats fishing, directly in the path that the hapless sardines take right now during this sardine run 2020. Whilst we were in lockdown, there were commercial fishermen out there loading up! Enjoying a totally illegal, totally unnecessary lockdown, and infringement of our basic human right to freedom to fish as well!

My answer then is this. These boats remove the exact amount of tonnes and tonnes of sardines missing on our beaches – with this migration – each year. Only this time, there were just so many they couldn’t catch them all.

“Our” sardines?

Another interesting question.

BUT, one thing is for sure, if not for the bumper numbers that this year has given, the sardines hardly ever make it past Port Elizabeth, before they are all netted and frozen.

So, that leaves us back at square one. We have NO voice. It’s time to get political. If not that, then at least investigative in that we need to know why these ships are allowed to be plundering our sardines.

Whilst we are in lockdown!

Almost sounds like a conspiracy in theory.

Adam, my good mate, over to you…

Stay up-to-date with The Sardine News covering the goings-on, during this bumper sardine run in year 2020!

We are on Facebook right here, we run an action-packed YouTube video channel right here. Please like and subscribe to our channel on YouTube if you would like to encourage us to pump out more and more video. We have done really well recently with some great video produced in conjunction with the Fishing Pro Shops Johan Wessels – chasing sardines down in the Port Shepstone area. We got out to sea twice and caught a bunch of gamefish in the surf zone, and in the Umzimkulu River Estuary. Click on over to our YouTube video channel right here. And please consider a Like and Subscribe. Thank you

By The Sardine News

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12 July 2019 Sardine Report

2019 Sardine Report featured image by (c) FOX

12 July 2019 Sardine Report

Sardines and surfers have been seen everywhere up and down the Natal South Coast, over the past two weeks. Outsized sea conditions have brought on the KZN winter proper! Your July 2019 Sardine Report…

A special thanks to Ant Fox for the featured image of this post – a school of dolphins enjoying the surf conditions way down south.

Many shoals (over 10 for sure) of genuine sardines have been netted. The price per crate sitting at R1300 or so. Equates to about R43 per kilo. Cheap at the price! But these are merely the so-called pilot shoals. Small pockets of sardines that break ahead of the main shoal, arriving a little earlier in the season and getting everyone warmed up.

The main shoal is reportedly still in the Transkei, making it’s way up the coast slowly. The warm water is troublesome for sardine hunters at the moment, however.

We are going to need a few days of Nor’Easter wind to chill the water back to where it was when the pilot shoals first pulled in. It’s way over 20 degrees right now, where ideal temperature for sardines to come in shallow is about 18 degrees.

At the moment a new low pressure system is kicking in. Warm Berg Winds this morning indicate the arrival of a stiff Sou’Wester later today. It’s gonna blast, and then swing around to offshore mornings with easterly afternoons. A great formula for bringing the water temperature down slowly.

Sharks

Many anglers who have taken up shark fishing from the beach and rocks, are having an absolute blast right now. Big reels. Big baits. Big fish.

Shad

Well unfortunately, DAFF and friends are not coping with the volume as sack loads of shad are leaving the beach. It is unashamed murder as some guys load 50 and more, take that load home, and return for more. This is happening at all the usual spots but Margate Pier and Splash Rock have been particularly busy lately.

Overall the shad have been on the small side.

Litter

It seems to just get worse as piles and piles of rubbish are left at all your favourite beaches. The shift in fisherman behaviour is going to be a massive requirement as it seems to be hardwired into some people that you can, in this day and age of polluted oceans, throw your trash into nature.

But, what a bad name we all get from this indolent behaviour. Please take your trash off the beach and rocks with you. You know who you are!

Surfing

The surf has been cooking the entire time with carparks packed by locals who have been waiting all year for the favourable offshore winds and strong swells. And warm winter water.

Gamefish

Whilst surfing we have encountered some huge GTs, that circled us a while and then basically obliterated a shoal of shad right next to us. Shad were flying everywhere as the huge fish pummelled them in a team effort. Better bring your elephant gun if you want to tackle these fish. Skib-oater Greg Defilippi has released two GTs over 20kgs just recently. Cannot tell you where this was unfortunately, you will have to do some searching yourself!

Whales

It is humpback highway right now on the Natal South Coast and down into the Transkei. As these beautiful mammals make their way up to the calm and warm waters of the African East coast. Where the big mommas suckle their young and avoid eager males chasing them all over the place. Great spectator fun. You can get right up close and personal with the humpbacks, there are limitations, but we can get you in amongst them safely and legally anytime. The whales have arrived in the Bazaruto waters too, and continue quite very far north. They stick around until November and even into December on occasion. The Sardine team will be busy with whales and research in October this 2019, for a few weeks.

And a word from our sponsors…

After a big day out on the ocean, there is nothing much like winding down on a sunset river cruise on the Umzimkulu River in Port Shepstone. This cool little clip was shot by Sardine correspodent Neil Campbell with his new drone…

VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/hsDubs5Zo8A

Email Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com to arrange a ride. Corporates and team builders welcome.

Stay up-to-date with The Sardine News as we search daily for news of the main shoals and the marine life with them, this 2019. You can join the weekly newsletter by entering your email on https://thesardine.co.za.

The 2019 sardine report series is brought to you by the Umzimkulu Marina, MYDO Fishing Lures and The Fishing Pro Shop (Pta).

Catch us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/

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