Sardines every Day by Adam Kamdar 26 June #2024 from the #Durban #Beachfront #sardinerun2024 #sardine #run
Sardines every Day by Adam Kamdar 26 June #2024 from the #Durban #Beachfront #sardinerun2024 #sardine #run: thank you to Adam for taking the time to record this morning’s early report…
Good morning, guys. It’s Wednesday, the 26th of June 2024, 7. 15 a. m. As you can see from the tide chart, we are about half an hour past sunrise. We’ve just passed the high tide. The next low tide will be around 12h30 in the afternoon. The forecast shows settled conditions for today. Very low winds, scattered low-level clouds could indicate some rain, but there’s no rain forecast for today.
Tides for fishing shows current wind of 13 kilometers per hour from the west southwest. Current temperature in Durban is 18 degrees. The pressure currently, atmospheric pressure at Durban is 1, 030 hectopascals. Water temperature is still hovering in the 20 degree, 20 to 21 degree mark.
Sardines yesterday were netted in the Illovo and Kingsborough, Winklescrate area. It seems like they are netting ssardines every day now.
And next we’ll have the view of the sunrise. And here we have the glorious sun coming up. As shown on Winguru. The swell period is quite long, which leads to very settled seas. As you can see, not much of a wave for the surfers today but beautiful conditions for netting. The sardines still haven’t seemed to reach the golden mile, but, uh, they’re just not far away now.
They’re just around the corner. Wiklespruit, Illovo. Possible netting today even at Warner Beach, maybe in Toti, and after Toti the next stop is Durban. Have a good one guys, and don’t forget to watch the Sardine News for more updates.
1000s of Cape Gannets dive-bombing in Qora, Deep Transkei
1000s of Cape Gannets dive-bombing in Qora, Deep Transkei: the iconic and beautifully choreographed gannet population descends on the sardine run first. Every time. These are our main indicators. That along with the cetaceans, sharks, fish and other marine mega-fauna, make up all the predators that are chasing after the sardines each year.
When all these guys come together, you are guaranteed a front-row seat at The Greatest Shoal on Earth.
CLICK HERE for the Sardine Run 2024 Sightings Map Page.
Enjoy the report and thank you Kevin in Qora, deep Transkei…
More about Gannets
Cape gannets (Morus capensis) possess several remarkable features that set them apart:
Colonial Nesting: These seabirds breed in large colonies, often on remote islands or rocky cliffs. Their communal nesting behaviour is a spectacle to behold.
Distinct Appearance: Cape gannets have striking plumage, with snowy white bodies, black wingtips, and a golden-yellow crown. Their eyes are surrounded by a distinctive blue ring.
Precise Diving Skills: When hunting for sardines, they perform spectacular plunges from great heights, folding their wings and torpedoing into the water. Their streamlined bodies and keen eyesight aid in precise targeting.
Monogamous Pairs: Cape gannets form monogamous pairs during the breeding season. They engage in elaborate courtship displays, reinforcing their bond through synchronized head movements and calls.
Diet: Their diet consists of small fish, especially sardines and anchovies. They rely on the annual sardine run off the South African coast for abundant food.
Conservation Concerns: Unfortunately, Cape gannets face threats such as overfishing, pollution, and habitat disturbance. Conservation efforts are crucial to protect these magnificent birds.
In summary, Cape gannets combine elegance, precision, and ecological significance, making them a celebrated and vital part of South Africa’s marine ecosystem.
Cape gannets are attentive parents, and their chick-rearing process involves several key steps:
Nesting Sites: Cape gannets breed in large colonies on rocky cliffs or remote islands. They choose nesting sites carefully to avoid predators and ensure proximity to food-rich waters.
Courtship and Pair Bonding: During the breeding season, male and female gannets engage in courtship displays. They perform synchronized head movements and calls to strengthen their pair bond.
Egg Laying: After courtship, the female lays a single egg. Both parents take turns incubating the egg, which typically lasts around 44 days.
Incubation Shifts: The parents alternate incubation duties. While one incubates, the other forages for food. Their precise shifts ensure constant warmth for the developing chick.
Hatching and Chick Care: Once the egg hatches, the chick emerges. It is initially covered in soft down feathers. The parents feed the chick regurgitated fish, providing essential nutrients.
Growth and Development: Over the next few weeks, the chick grows rapidly. It develops waterproof feathers and gains strength. The parents continue to feed it until it becomes independent.
Fledging: Around 90 days after hatching, the chick is ready to fledge. It takes its first flight, leaving the nest. The parents continue to provide food during this transition.
Post-Fledging Period: After fledging, young gannets spend several years at sea, honing their fishing skills. Eventually, they return to the colony to breed, continuing the cycle.
December 2023 Fishing Report for KZN: shad, shad, and more shad! Which also means garrick, kob and all kinds of big gamefish in the surf zone.
Shad Season is OPEN
And, you can get fishing licenses online! This is big news in a country whose post office is a derelict shell of what it was 20 years ago. The post office stopped paying rent to its many satellite offices that were filling their vital role. And so where could you buy a fishing license? And then you’d go to the beach to have some dummy enforcing fishing licenses that you can’t even get?!
Kob
“Wherever the shad are biting during the day – that’s where the kob will be at night” – Louis Posthumous
It’s been a helluva year for catching big kob in the surf zone. Some are released. Some just aren’t. If you have a huge refrigerator and a huge family, then great, start the endless job of processing that big fish. It will turn you off catching another one for sure.
Rather just release those breeding fish. At about 8 or 9 years old, the kob, scientifically known as Argyrosomus japonicus, reaches sexual maturity. This is equal to about a 8 or 9 kg fish. So a 20kg fish, theoretically 20 years old, has had 10 seasons to throw some kob parties in the Umtamvuna. A 40kg fish (they get bigger!), will have had 30 seasons of breeding.
Upon these many revelations, the law was changed. And as such, tries to protect the big breeders. The thinking is that, at smaller sizes, these fish shoal in numbers. So to harvest a small percentage of these bigger numbers, would be a lot less detrimental than allowing the slaughter of the less populous breeding stock.
Let the big ones go!
Gerrard-Powells-100lb-kob-being-manhandled-back-to-the-water-correctlyKoblet by Josh Herrison near Port St JohnsDecember small kobbiesKobbies in the CapeAnd it’s Chris Lepan again with another Umzimkulu Estuary kob.
Garrick
If the shad and other bait are prevalent, then the garrick will stick around. They do not like dirty water (unlike the kob). Sometimes the water stays clean through December and January in some KZN places. And there are still garrick coming out at Vidal and St. Lucia, way north. That have to traverse us on their way home to the Cape.
Again, it’s the shad that are the main attraction and oftentimes you will be catching shad in the shore break and the next thing the garrick come in and destroy the whole show. Spectacular to see garrick smashing like this.
But down south in the clean water…garrick are out and about and looking for a fight! Kathryn Els show us how…yesterday!
Katie Else with December 2023 Garrick down Plett way…
Jason Heyne of the Master Watermen and his Margate shot GarrickTagging and releasing garrick off Umzimkulu River mouth in 1987. Karl and Roosta are now 40yrs!Wayne Trelawney in Port St Johns with his dream National Garrick Day fish. Wayne responsible kept this single fish and made all sorts of delicacies with it, that lasted him months.
Dorado
The current hasn’t really kicked in yet. But there are fish about. There is a dorado fishing competition on down south at the moment. Boats are allowed to launch up and down. With the goings-on held down in Ramsgate. A very well-run event.
The shoal of angry dorado move in and harass the shad flat outHolding on tight this dorado refuses to let my bait go even under 3kgs of dragDorado Strike Analysis – Strike Two – the dorado has got the shad by the head and is performing evasive meanuevresDorado Strike Analysis – Strike Three – another headshot and she refuses to let goDorado Strike Analysis – Strike One – the Dorado comes straight in for the kill – zero hesitation
Sailfish
These widespread fish do follow seasons and patterns like most fish. But they are the ones most likely to just pitch up out of nowhere. Fuklk of surprises, but they definitely are here for the same reasons that the dorado are here. The halocline with it;s structural characteristics. And the shoals and shaols of mackerel, shad, maasbanker and red-eyes that also like this place this time of the year.
Vilankulos weather and fishing in NovemberAlthough it is blue marlin season up north, sailfish also come in to play.Sailfish in Madagascar (c) Duarte RatoThe annual sailfish competition off VilanculosFly fishermens dreamDecember time for the odd sailfishSailfish ladies eye the trophy at the Vilankulos Sailfish 2017
King Mackerel
No fireworks as of yet but give those spearos a patch of clean water and they will find out for sure if the couta have pitched up for this same baitball party. Last year and the year before, November produced some crocodiles. This year so far has been quiet.
The first couta of our 2023 season DecemberKayak couta spread coming soon…Jonno Gouws with the very first couta of the 2021 season. In 2020! 27 November to be exact.SKZN Fishing Report 22 May 2022. Shaun Simpson with a croc at Hibberdene earlier this week.December for big coutas
Catch the first couta of the season, send the pics and story to me, and you will get R500 to spend in the MYDO store.
If you feel like targeting these trophies, get in touch and we can arrange species specific holidays for you. For this coming up season, stay with us at The Umzimkulu Marina where Umzimkulu Adrenalin can get you out to the couta.
Do you need a fishing license to catch sardines? Very interesting question this one. Came to me. So Lets read the rules together…
The Rules
You can download the rules in PDF form to your phone or computer and have them with you at all times. Its a very nicely put-together document and we should all be familiar with it.
But here listed below, are the juicy bits, that might answer the big question…do you need a fishing license to catch yourself a few sardines in the shore break? With your bare hands. Or a bucket. A skirt. A t-shirt. Washing baskets work wonders…here goes…
General Regulations
Every recreational angler must pay for the right to fish in marine waters by buying an annual (or temporary) recreational fishing permit. Different types of fishing permits are available including angling, spearfishing, boat skipper, etc. These permits are available from the Post Office.
A recreational fishing permit entitles the holder to catch fish for own use only and not to sell or trade.
The holder of a recreational angling permit is entitled to catch fish of the Class Pisces (i.e. bony fish, sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras) only with a rod, reel and line, to which no more than 10 hooks are attached.
The holder of a recreational spearfishing permit is entitled to catch fish of the Class Pisces (i.e. bony fish, sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras) only with a speargun.
The skipper of a vessel used for recreational fishing shall be in possession of a permit endorsed for recreational fishing from a vessel.
The holder of a spearfishing permit shall not use any artificial respiratory equipment, except for a snorkel.
The holder of a recreational fishing permit authorised to fish within a Marine Protected Area (MPA) must adhere to the conditions specific to that MPA.
The holder of a recreational angling and/or spearfishing permit shall not catch or be in possession of: a) Any fish listed as a Prohibited Species. b) More than the daily bag limit listed for that species during any one day. Furthermore, there is an overall cumulative bag limit of ten (10) fish per person per day irrespective of the species caught, except that this does not apply to baitfish species where there is no bag limit or to species where the bag limit is greater than 10. MARINE RECREATIONAL FISHING REGULATIONS in South Africa c) Any fish smaller than, or of a mass less than, the size limit listed for that species. d) Any fish during the closed season listed for that species.
The holder of a recreational spearfishing permit shall not catch or attempt to catch fish in an estuary.
All fish that are landed, except sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras, must have head and tail intact so that it can be established whether the fish conforms to the minimum size and/or mass, provided that it may be gutted.
Any fish caught in contravention of the provisions of the Act or the permit conditions must immediately be returned to the sea with as little injury as possible.
Comment
Well, to me this certainly looks like it reads that everyone who collects anything from the ocean, in any way, needs a form of fishing license! Luckily I managed to get my license at the Port Shepstone Post Office since the South African Post Office stopped paying rent to all its cute little satellite and handy branches that were dotted all over the country. Little towns and villages. They all had these quaint versions of a cultural icon that we have ALL relied on for our lives until recently. Pen pals. Mail order. Postcards…so much fun!
But they were mercilessly culled off. Another ANC achievement. Shut down. Jobs and livelihoods gone. So now you got to hike to the bigger centres to find a working post office.
And get a fishing license!
And then when the officials come raiding your beach like stormtroopers, in their decked-out new bakkies, you can show them, the difference between a shad and a santer. With the PDF download on your phone.
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…
This is a rundown through a list the game fish species we are lucky enough to encounter – during the annual sardine run. Here in KZN, South Africa.
Shad
It starts with the shad. These guys smash into those poor little sardines like piranhas. And a shad smaller than a sard will still eat a sardine. Those teeth!
Shad readily jump on a spoon or any artificial, when it’s like this.
This video featuring the Fishing Pro Shop‘s Johan Wessels – shows exactly how surf fishing for shad is very easily done…
Sardines and shad in the shorebreak! Shop safely online at The Fishing Pro Shop.
Kob
The kob have actually already been here quite some time now. Many covert catches are made under the cover of darkness. And in the uncomfortable cold of the chilly winter offshore winds.
Check this mosnter tagged and released a little later in the season,last year! By Gerrard Powell and ably assisted by his mates who carefully put that huge fish back in the water. With a tag well-insertedby Mr. AntNel.
Garrick
Our endemic and highly threatened Garrick population is also going to be here shortly. They are here to breed and in this vulnerable state, can be easily overfished.
Bag limit is two per man. For a reason.
This is an old video, that captures the surf fishing vibe down on the Sandspit on National Garrick Day…
Check out the MYDO range of spoons for surf fishing
But get a live mullet or shad swimming in the channel between the mid-break and the shore break, and you will get your Garrick.
Throw a big old ice cream plug over the same channel 200 or 300 times you also could be in the game. Also for…
Let ’em go!
Kingfish
The GTs are here! Already a few have shown their ugly faces around the social shark nets recently in amongst the sardine action. There are many species to choose from including the also release-worthy blacktip, greenspot and blue models.
Some people actually want to catch sharks! But mainly anglers hook them by mistake. Luckily they all are let go these days. The shark nets have done the shark population more than enough damage already.
It’s true, we hardly ever get sharks around the backline anymore. Luckily in sardine season, ALL the remaining ones come to visit. And we can see these beautiful and majestic animals swimming by in the wild.
Sharks in the Shorebreak…
Sharks in the Shorebreak!
Umzimkulu Adrenalin
We are ready to take you out there! Stationed down on the Umzimkulu River in Port Shepstone. With direct access to the ocean, Umzimkulu Adrenalin will put you right in amongst it all.
We have accommodation at the Umzimkulu Marina. Spillers House too. And we have an Egyptian Halaal restaurant downstairs. With a tented dining area right on the edge of the water. The MYDO Factory shop is in here too!
