After the recent news of sightings of pilot shoals of Sardines at many spots along the Transkei coast together with the numerous catches of Garrick, it’s the south coast that has everyone’s attention. The current water temperature for most of South KZN is still sitting at around the 26° mark on the surface and around 19° at the bottom, offshore. A few strong cold fronts are needed to send the surface temp closer to 19° before the Silver Tide will move up our way.

For more up to date info on the Sardines check out the 2012 Sardine Run thread sponsored by Betting World on - 2012 - Latest Sardine Run News by Betting World

South Coast

The positive news from Port Edward will almost certainly see anglers heading that way in numbers. Shad have been prolific in the Splash Rock area and sizes have improved significantly. Hopefully this is an indication of a great season ahead. Along with the increase in Shad numbers have come the Garrick with some days producing as many as 8 of these. Kobs are also being landed and some beautiful specimens in the 5kgs to 10kgs region have been caught and one of about 20kgs lost very close. The evenings have produced a number of Hammerhead and Spinner Sharks.

Uvongo through to Port Shepstone has seen plenty of Shad being taken. Here too sizes have increased with a few in the 5kg mark.  A number of Garrick have been caught from the Uvongo pier and a few from Sand pits in Shepstone. Orange Rocks had a very good weekend last week and produced a a good number of both edibles and ineds.The Block in Sheppie has produced a variety of edible fish. Those putting in the hours were rewarded.

The Ifafa and Mtwalume areas have been rather quite with only a few Shad and gully fish being taken here.  Bazley through to Umdoni has seen action these past few days with Shad making their presence felt. Sea weed continues to be a problem along here making it almost impossible to slide out bigger baits.
 

Umkommas is certainly the place to fish, with excellent catches of edibles along these parts. Shad and Grunter have entrenched themselves along the river mouth area. Some excellent sized Kob in the 5kg to 10kg region has been taken on live bait. The north bank is fishing better than the south for bigger Grunter and some good Kob.