At 4 am this early morning, whilst I was tossing and turning (dreaming of marlin perhaps) with another bout of the Big M. (Malaria) – I sensed some activity outside.
My brother Marc was back from Angola. And he had his son Brandon and his mate Tristan Roodt.
They were prepping the good boat Niteshift, and soon headed out through the Umzimkulu River mouth, into a rough and ready ocean. All confused from the day before as the south and north wind argued like they have been. From my angle, the wind just blew and blew, but with high tide all day, I knew they could return anytime they liked really.
But they didn’t.
The first Instagram video came through – wasting time with a shark.
But then silence. For ages.
The wind got right up again. 20 Knots or more. Ideal dorado weather. And marlin!
And so it was, the early birds, after spending a good few hours getting into the swing of the day, found the worm.
The dorado came screaming in and a total of five eventually made it into the hatch for a free boat ride. Many got away and lost out.
Delicious dorado for dinner! Reward for releasing the marlin!
At one point, Marc took a look at his plugging outfit looking all lonely. So in sympathy, he picked it up and gave it a lob. As it hit the water, without any sign or warning, a tasty little yellowfin tuna smashed it! Luck? I dunno?
Marlin!
Then all of a sudden, there it was. An angry 100kg plus marlin picked on the blue number 2 Mydo Livebaitswimmer, armed with those reliable 5x little black trebles from Mustad.
Not wanting to cause the fish too much distress before he let it go, Marc pushed the drag right up and gave the jumping, dancing fish the gears. In 25 minutes he had the fish beat and behaving in front of the boat?! Marc pulled the tiny trebles out easily enough, and sent it on its way a lot more wily and suspicious of those Mydos and how good they are rigged!
The Mydo LiveBaitSwimmer is just like a Baitswimmer, but it has a strong little single hook to pin the lively live bait with. There are two weights, 1 Oz and 2Oz, so you can keep your livies away from eachother, on the drift, or on the troll.
More about the lure Marc used to catch this marlin today…and details of which shops carry The Mydo range can be found at https://thesardine.co.za/mydo/
Our two resident fish eagles, a pair that have been living and breeding here on the lower Umzimkulu River, for decades it feels, were circling over head. The colours of the afternoon showing no sign of the impending cold front. The sun was out. The river had swelled magnificently since the mouth started closing.
And there were fish about. As I edged along the bouncy noisy floating jetty at the Umzimkulu Marina, a bunch of mullet were startled by something 50 m down towards the mouth. The blue-tailed guys were jumping for joy (according to science), and there were kingfish-like smashes going on, sporadically, all over. The perfectly calm water making it so much easier to see fish and movement.
Then one of my favourite things – a turtle! It popped his head up down where those mullet were having a panic from before. I cast one near him, kingfish and all sorts tag turtles when they hunting, but remembering a turtle ate my lure twice before in this river, I quickly cranked away.
Enjoying the scene, cast after cast, things looking good for putting in some real fishing time. And I really am looking for a garrick, to round off my winter estuary season.
And there came the fish eagle. Locked on target. Heading for the grunter bank in the middle, a hundred metres in front of me. Picking up speed and lowering trajectory he came in like a missile. Swooping in, the flaps came on and the the highly adapted landing gear came out.
Bang! Splash! Chaos!
The fish eagle literally came to a dead halt. Whaaaaat. We have twice seen the fish eagles here kill huge otters. And eat them all day right in front of us on Dead Man’s Island. So this was unbelievable!
As much as the eagles wings were flapping like crazy – the huge bird went right under for a second. But it came back up and the battle waged on. It looked like the fish eagle was still in the game at one point. The birds wings took for a moment, and I saw the huge back of whatever it was on the bottom end, being dragged up and out of the water. Huge, like 10kgs or so. But then a violent twist and huge splashing brought the eagle tumbling back down into the water.
The eagle came back up thrashing. And then it just let go!
Fish Eagle 0 Fish 1
The fish eagle then flew off into the sun, and found a rad spot on a huge tree. And let out a huge fish eagle cry. But it sounded like laughter. And when it’s partner joined in with a chorus – it also sounded very high spirited – like – “Hey man how big was that fish dude!” Whaaahaaahaaahaaa…
True fish eagles! Having a blast down on the river in the afternoon.
Come and join us down at the Umzimkulu River…get in touch on umzimkulu@gmail.com or check out our river fishing packages at the following link:
A few weekends back we had a huge influx of fishing mad kids down at the Umzimkulu Marina. Including a chap named Max who took the right ride out to rock salmon alley, on the Mad Mullet. He caught his first rock salmon – and so he brought it home and cooked it for his Mom.
With a magnificent turnaround in weather conditions, the fish in the Umzimkulu came alive this sunny 19th August 2017 morning.
Fishing brothers Liam and Jarrod Gallagher were up at crackers loading the Mad Mullet with her powerful new 4 horse Yamaha. Their mate Max Mogeson made up the three anglers and Brian Lange was at the helm.
After getting the boat back to seaworthy after the recent rains nearly flooded The Mad Mullet, the lucky anglers left the Umzimkulu Marina in high spirits. Liam had netted a live mullet so they headed straight for rock salmon alley.
It wasn’t long before Jarrod was jammed up against the gunwhale as a serious rock salmon came to fight. He was actually a bit too serious and ended up winning hands down.
Live bait gone.
And so they switched to lures and trolled along the northern channel towards the river mouth.
Bang the rod went again. So Max was given a go at his first gamefish. It worked him hard and he had tired arms and deep breath by the time it was flapping on the deck.
Being his first rockie, Max was allowed to take it back to base for a braai.
And a big thank you to The Sardine News correspondent and photographer Tracey Saayman for always being on the spot.
Max Mogeson’s first Rock Salmon. Max is on the left, Liam and Sienna Gallagher on the right. Max says he will throw them all back from now on – but this rock salmon was delicious on the braai in foil and garlic butter!
Then the next crew of kids got all excited and Calum and older brother Kyle Saayman headed across in their little boat – Unsinkable 2. They had been schooled in the art of fishing awith a sardine head and soon Kyle was fighting his first rock salmon too. Jack Russells Chelsea and Satch were unfortunately on the boat too, and they cannot control themselves with rock salmon, or any fish for that matter. So they jumped on the lively fish. The fish jumped back at them and a dorsal spine went straight through the pontoon. Calum jumped to stick something in the hole, the dogs came back into the ring, Kyle grabbed the injured fish and someone fell onto one of the rods and smashed two of the eyes. Chaos!
There was no ways that rock salmon was going to make it back into the water, and it also became Mom’s lunch!
[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ShusV9ax2wc/WaefklL7RPI/AAAAAAAAK0k/c9f6k7HcqB86cftaHZiU3shV27cMARJ6QCCoYBhgL/s144-o/FullSizeRender-1.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/105055692697822421688/6460307644026744497#6460307641292506354″ caption=”Kyle Saayman and his first rock salmon. Caught in the Umzimkulu Estuary on his boat Unsinkable 2. Using a sardine head as bait…” type=”image” alt=”FullSizeRender-1.jpg” image_size=”768×1024″ ]
Umzimkulu GT in the evening: Estuary fishing is a technical art. You can’t decide to just go fishing. You got to research beforehand and time it right. So when Yousef Jadwat emailed me a while back to go fish the Umzimkulu, we had a good look, and chose 6pm high tide, with absolutely no moon – which happened upon the 27 June 2017.
Last night!
There are very many other technical variables to catching good fish in the Umzimkulu River, down here in Port Shepstone. In our lockup in Mozambique, I had been hoarding a lure. Brand new, but 20 years old. Three trebles. About 20cm. Black on top, silver below. Rapala don’t make anything hand-made anymore, but this one was. Balsa with wire through. Skill all the way. It was like a stretched out version of the infamous CD13, also defunct now. But it’s long narrow profile, and it’s gentle side to side action was exactly what we were going to need. And those colours!
So I had a Luck Shot #1 with my favourite orca 5 inch jerk tail. And my other favourite – Luck Shot #1 with a huge 7 inch split tail out too. It wasn’t a hundred metres, as we set out for the mouth, when I instinctively turned back and WHALLOP! A grey shoulder and huge fins were all I could see for the strike through the spray. It was merciless. An explosion, and the 8ft boat rod bent double, and the 50SH screamed. It was on my 20 year old lure! I was just thinking about those skinny little hooks. The drag was a bit heavy and Yousef could not get the rod out of the holder as the fish smoked line off the spool. And when I went to assist – the rod holder broke clean off the back of the boat! Where it’s been faithfully serving for 20 years too!
Well now Yousef had the rod and I had the lines cleared. I got to the drag and backed it right off – all the time worried about those skinny but sharp trebles. But Yousef did his job well and after some time we got a glimpse way down in the clear water. I had thought garrick right from the start. Those long fins haunting me. It was doing all the head shakes, short high speed runs, rapid turnarounds and staying deep. Then it popped up where we could see it proper in the afternoon light.
Kingfish!
The Umzimkulu is renowned for it’s little kingfish on lures. Usually Big-Eye Kingfish. But we have had plenty yellow ones, and the ultra-beautiful blue-fin versions. We never take any out, they release so easy if you are careful. Just don’t touch eyes or gills, lift carefully by the body, not the hook – and use a long-nose pliers to get the hook out fast. Tag. Very quick photo and release! Too easy.
But this one was huge in comparison. If it was a big-eye, it quite well have been record sized. They only get to 7 or 8kg’s max. Most records stand at about 4 or 5kg’s. But those big fins? I was wondering still.
Yousef started winning with the heavy tackle and next thing the fish was right there. Still fiesty, the fish started to get angry as it got closer. Then GASP! I saw the hook pull and the lure turned upwards! But bang the line went tight again – the tail treble, the third and last one, was stuck in the kingfish’s head. All the others were straight. And now he was mad! Tight little corkscrews at super high speeds. Just flashes really.
I had to do something so I grabbed the tiny emergency gaff and hung out off the back. I was getting dizzy with all the swerving going on but then he did the same circle twice and I poked him right in the tail – where those heavy scales and armour protect him from attack all his life. The gaff hook held as I pulled the little guy through the air backwards and on to the deck. Where the gaff fell apart!
And when I saw that it was actually a GT!
The hook that held, funnily enough, was real tough to remove. That skin up top there is soooo strong. We got some really good shots and a sequence of the release into the serene but colourful sunset on the river. Whooohooo! 1 for 1 on GT as Duarte would say!
In great spirits we patrolled with the same spread down past rock salmon alley one, around the submerged rail and road bridge of old, across perch channel, down the middle along the long wall of features, and into the wide open basin – that presents the foaming mouth of the river, to the warm clear Indian Ocean in winter time. Water was rushing in so we anchored about a hundred metres inside. Just in front of a prefect sandbank slowing the waters for us, and making it very pleasant to fish with some ultralight tackle.
The first grunter, the only fish that came home with us, made a great show of his first run, as he set off with the tide for the sun. It was always gonna be the kids turn, and the 5 year old Hamza accepted the rod from his Dad with enthusiasm and confidence. The drag was lekker. The rod and reel working so well. Circle hook. Not much current. And soon after some puffing and panting and pulling, there it was. A sterling example of a table-sized spotted grunter. Well pot sized! This one was going to be curry for sure.
The next rod went while we were still taking photographs, and the kid got another one! This kid has a bright future – especially with his already practising catch and release. Between the two of them, they released that lovely GT, and three grunter (plus about 5 strepies?!).
I am going to be working the Umzimkulu Estuary for the next two weeks. There are still some great slots available – get in touch on umzimkulu@gmail.com to get in on this type of fishing. Ot WhatsApp +27 79 326 9671
Click here for more estuary fishing options, along the eastern seaboard of Southern Africa
“It’s been a while since we were able to get back out on the Umzimkulu and fish for salmon again. Fortunately the water cleaned up and Dejan Vujevic, out from Europe, timed his charter down at the Umzimkulu Marina in Port Shepstone, KZN South Africa –Â really well” – Xona
We started out on Sunday. Preparing the boat. Remembering everything that it takes to make a proper fishing trip. We loaded the skottel, the coffee, the snacks, the fishing dog – Chelsea our fishing Jack Russell was over excited at losing the no fishing withdrawals and soon it was time to set sail.
Dejan (from Serbia) had come over from Germany (where he works), and we had talked about doing a two-day trip on the Umzimkulu River, in Port Shepstone. We had already caught a few barbel and eel together in the brown run-off water from the heavy rains a few weeks previously. And we had fished the Paddock Bass comp, where Dejan got to know his first bass or two.
But we needed a good fish. Something to remember the experience of fishing Africa with.
The small kob, up to and around 5kg’s, were the main target, and we had everything we needed to get them. Lures of every shape and size. And a bucket with some live bait therein. So with the outgoing tide we sailed, our heading towards the Sandspit, where we would try. And try. And try. With about 100 casts each under the belt and no result, we headed back to the boat and launched back out into the river, this time dropping our QE2 sized anchor just inside the bridge to greet the incoming tide. We chucked out a bait each and continued our spinning frenzy, cast after cast, lure after lure, colour after colour, action after action. This is what it takes. Sheer effort.
Soon the fish came through, there was action everywhere. Boils and attacks and all sorts. Baitfish jumping, it just felt so right. We had our beautiful baits and lures but nothing to report, and so with a slacking tide, we kind of passed out under the beautiful moonless sky, stars holding our gazes until the snoring competition started. A few hours drifted by and soon the boat had turned again, and the river was running out gently with the tide change.
Chelsea had us out of bed and scrambled within seconds of the ratchet! Dejan’s bait had been picked up and line was melting off he reel.
I cleared the decks for Dejan to enjoy fighting what was definitely not a kob. I dared utter the name rock salmon as I hold these fish in such high esteem, but the way that fish rocketed past us and up river said it for me. Dejan did a great job and finally maneuvered his trophy fish close to the boat, where after a few more dogged runs, it lay still. The hook was deep down and the rockie was bleeding so Dejan took home his very first Rock Salmon, to be utterly appreciated on a braai, with his family in Umtentweni.
Dejan Vujevic and his Umzimkulu Rock Salmon
So, very stoked we lay back down on our comfy mattresses, and hardly drifted off when my out-sized livey started the same blood curdling scream. I burst up again, grabbed the rod and force fed the fish as it swam off with my bait. I let it go, but it was headed towards the mouth area, so I put the brakes on and bang I had a really heavy fish on the end of my line. But it was not to be – I was too soon (as usual), and what I got back was eye-opening! Something with real sharp and large teeth had crushed my live baits head right in, with a clean cut on the one side. I hesitate to say shark, except that it characteristically ran for the mouth, as they almost all do. Rock Salmon head up river almost always.
In the morning we tried the Sandspit again, threw another 100 casts each, but it wasn’t going to be this time either.
And so we prepared for the next night. Some sleep, another shopping run…and back to the river. This time we went to the bay under the ghost house up river of the lodge, and found a spot where our anchor rope was long enough to reach the bottom. It’s a good 12 metres deep in some places, in that bend, with pinnacles and all sorts of features in the bottom. And there we fished the night through. Some crabs gave us a few slow runs, and there were fish all around us all night. Big fish. Some huge attacks, but no action on our offerings.
And so we resorted to the galley, and in a fun few hours, came up with the most uncannily delicious mutton curry, with which to replace some energy and heat.
And so it came to be that we returned to land and reality, with just that one fish. But. It was a rock salmon and a fish that Dejan will never forget.
Book your slot now, choose your weekend carefully. Ask JP Bartholomew for advice on when to fish. He still is the undisputed champion, with 8 gamefish on lures, in just two sessions?! Check this link for more on that interesting story.
