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The Sardine News Monthly 31 March 2025

Umkomaas Brown Water Plume 27 March 2025

The Sardine News Monthly 31 March 2025

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
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 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 Trace
Sardine bait up with the MYDO Shad Trace

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.

Sardines and Sightings

Check out our annual Sardine Run Map! 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…

2025 Sardine Map

2024 Sardine Map

2023 Sardine Map

2022 Sardine Map

2021 Sardine Map

Channels

Brucifire Surf Retorts â€“ highly entertaining  surf reporting

Master Watermen â€“ news from way down deep

The Sardine News â€“ neva miss a single  sardine

FishBazaruto â€“ 1000 pounds plus

MYDO Tackle Talk â€“ highly technical  sport fishing

Surf Launching Southern Africa â€“ getting out there safely

Water Woes â€“ complain about your municipality

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Making a MYDO Telescopic Couta Trace (with downforce)

MYDO Telescopic Couta Trace Number One

Making a MYDO Telescopic Couta Trace (with downforce)

The MYDO Telescopic Couta Trace can take any bait from a sardine to a bonnie. And everything in between! And its new spoiler design copied from the new Porsche GT3 RS adds in buckets of effective downforce.

More depth, and a lot more action!

Heavy-duty

This will most likely be your biggest bait out the back and therefore, like all other HD traces by MYDO, features double wire droppers. From a super sharp wire single. To the 4 X wire trebles that hold onto anything they touch.

The leader is also #7 wire, although it can (and should) be rigged with 200 to 300lb nylon. The 300 is too strong for a couta too bite through. The 200 id borderline. But your strike rate will increase radically if you string nylon up front.

And you will hold onto a freaking out billfish a great deal better than you would with wire.

Versatile

You can tie one of these traces on and use it all day long. Brings a dead bait back to life. And handles a live bait with no problem. Front hook through the lip and off you go. If the live bait pegs, rehook through both lips, bend the rigour mortis out, and you have a beautiful swimming bait.

For live or dead bait.

Available

We are still looking for cheerful tackle shop owners to stock our innovations. But in the meantime, contact Sean on +27793269671 or umzimkulu@gmail.com. There is also a big old WhatsApp button floating around on this page somewhere. That patches you through on a direct line to the factory. Where we are looking forward to being of assistance.

Links

Check out our other YouTube Channels that might interest you…

https://youtube.com/@thesardinenews
https://youtube.com/@brucifire
https://youtube.com/@waterwoes

And our websites…

https://thesardine.co.za (neva miss a single sardine)
https://thesardine.co.za/mydo (South Africa sales)
https://mydofishinglures.co.za (in USD with worldwide delivery)
https://umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za (charters and activities KZN South Coast)
https://umzimkulu.co.za (self-catering accomodation on the Umzimkulu Estuary)
https://fishbazaruto.com (extraordinary fishing for marlin)

Couta Gallery

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