Fishing Orange Rocks Uvongo KZN South Africa

Garic by Algy Dooling

Ernest throws back Hammer head

Fishing Orange Rocks in Uvongo along the South Coast of KZN South Africa is always a great experience

 I have not blogged here a while, as I have been busy writing my book on #FUFISM or Functional User Freindly Integrated Social Media, and took a break to clear my mind, as I was getting stuck and thinking in SQUIRCLES.

Pieter Herbst with his Yellow tail.

Yesterday Pieter Herbst caught this 4 Kg Yellow tail  on live shad

Ernest Botha with Hammer Head Shark

and today (30 November 2014) a few shad came out that were also put out as live bait.  the fish that cane out today at about 05H40 were  a Garic caught by Algy Dooling and a Hammer Head shark caught by Ernest Botha.

The Shad Season opens again tomorrow, (one December 2014, and I am looking forward to eating a few smoked shad before they disappear  until June / July next year.  

 Sunrise at orange rocks this morning.

Read more about fishing on the South Coast of KZN South Africa by searching the hash tag #4u2gofishing or visit our fishing community on Google plus at https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/113105142481933358360/+4u2gofishingBlogspotteam/posts

MPA proposed for KZN South Coast

Issues with the propsed MPA (Marine Protected Area) along the hibiscus Coast of KZN South Africa

 I recently heard that the South African Government is in the process of creating a new MPA (Marine Protected Area) along the entire Hibiscus Coast, and need to gather more info about this.  The ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act) specifies how this should be accomplished along with the mandated public participation procedure and other formalities that need to be completed during the process. Hibiscus Coast is the brand name for the lower South Coast of KZN South Africa.

We will be using the hashtag #4u2gofishing for marketing the fishing opportunities within the area as well as the issues around this new MPA  ( #MPA ) (Marine Protected area) that has been proposed, which some are already working on. the hashtag #marineprotectedarea will also be used in our efforts to get the public aware of all the issues at stake here

MORE COMING AFTER SOME RESEARCH  

ANY BODY THAT HAS NEWS PLEASE VISIT THE 4U2GOFISHING SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES AND COMMENT ON THE POSTS THERE.

Just as many of the issues were side stepped during the implementation of the 4x4 ban, so many issues are currently being side stepped here, and this blog will be our preferred platform to address these issues and get the necessary public support to take up the issue at the highest level, as this is bad news for business along the Hibiscus Coast .  Most people do not realize the amount of tourism that is connected both directly and indirectly to the fishing industry, and closing the entire Hibicus Coast to fishing will result in many thousands of job losses.

Exactly how many people will loose their ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES (read jobs) will need to be calculated during the PPPM's  (Public Participation Process Meetings) that are mandated by the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act) during the various implementation phases as is prescribed in the ICMA and related legislation.We will be placing links to the various legislation and related public participation   process meetings here and if you want to know more then let us know in the comments of this blog. 

MORE COMING AFTER SOME RESEARCH

During last week I went on a road trip to St. Lucia along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa to put my eyes on the St. Lucia Estuary and the water levels in Lake St. Lucia, as I have been hearing very conflicting stories about these issues from people in St. Lucia.

We traveled up to St. Lucia on Wednesday 24 September and came back home on Saturday 27 September. We stayed over at BUDGET BACKPACKERS in Mckenzie street (the main road) and were confronted with a town that had no municipal water supply.  Fortunately the management at BUDGET BACK PACKERS has installed a 5 000 liter JOJO water tank, and they had water, but it was only on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, so we had to plan our days around the times that we could shower.

Lake St. Lucia has plenty of water, but the mouth is still closed to the Indian Ocean.  The Umfolozi River mouth was open, but it was busy closing fast due to the very low river levels. The back channels that are supposed to be in place to connect the St. Lucia lake system to the Umfolozi river system is apparently open, but the water flow during tide changes is very minimal and hardly noticeable in the lake levels.

The channel that the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) dug open to connect the Umfolozi river system to the lake system a few months back has sanded up and wind erosion of the beaches has contributed to this in a big way.  There has been massive sanding up of the region and this is very evident when we visited Cape Vidal, where the beaches have grown considerably and now stretch a good 100 meters plus from the Vidal on-ramp, and even cover the small reef that usually protected the launch site from the south east point of Vidal bay.  Many areas of mission rocks were also sanded up but not as seriously as either Cape Vidal or St. Lucia.

During our short stay in St. Lucia many asked why I had stopped fighting the 4x4 ban issue, and asked me to take up the fight again.  some also pointed out that the IWPA was doing many strange things, and that they are due to start mining the mouth of the St. Lucia Estuary system in the near future.  This still needs to be confirmed, but I have not heard about any PPP (Public Participation Process) for this activity, and have not seen anything about an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) for this in terms of the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act) and the NEMA (National Environmental Management Act)

The fishing was actually quite terrible during our short stay in St. Lucia and the wind was blowing North East for most of the time.  When the wind did die down, it was only for very short spells, and a BIG SOUTH WEST BUSTER was predicted for Saturday Night and Sunday, so we packed up and left early.

By that time I had spoken to a few of the locals and had gathered all the info that I was going to get from people on the ground who were not active in politics or town management issues.  The IWPA (iSimanagliso Wetland Park Authority) has not changed their attitude, and is still making things uncomfortable for ther domestic tourism market. They still support the 4x4 ban and still call domestic tourists visitors, so that they can confuse all official reporting issues around tourism numbers.

The IWPA is still not playing the game, and they have not held very many PPPM (Public Participation Process Meetings) where the water levels, and a solution to the non tidal motions in lake st. Lucia are discussed.

I will need to do some extra research around these issues and write a new post about those during the next few weeks.  In the mean time go over to our Google Plus page (4u2gofishing) or search on Google using the hashtag #4u2gofishing

Man OVER BOARD at SBSBC during launch Sat 28 July 2014

surf launch at shell beach

Went fishing just to the North of the Shelly Beach Ski Boat Club where the Sonny Evans Small craft harbor is the launch site for  ski boats this morning hoping to get me a shad for breakfast. When we got there just before six bells the surf was up a bit and there was a bank of clouds out to sea, with no wind in the air.

The fishing was not that good, and only peckers were nibbling on our bait so I threw a spoon for a while and watched some skiboats launching. at about one chime after seven (quarter after seven) we decided to call it a day and go home to some mielie pap.

Shell beach launch site

When we got to our car parked on the northern edge of the Shelly Beach skiboat club we bumped a few guys that were just coming down to take a peep see if there were any shad in the district, so we relaxed for a while and had a bit of a grannies meeting discussing fishing, when we saw a guy from the TRANSVAAL with a tiny dam boat that had two motors which were way too big and powerful for the sea, as if one suddenly opened them to full taps the boat would definitely lift the nose way too much for launching in the surf, so we decided to sit and watch this guy, as we were sure that this was going to be a GOOD CACKLE as he launched.

None of us had a camera, or a mobile phone,  as we had come fishing, and were prepared to get a bit wet if need be. What a pity as this was quite a thing to watch.  These guys with the tiny boat were definitely not experienced fishermen, and we could see from that way that they pushed their boat into the water that there would be an incident at launch.   We stood around discussing past deep see fishing incidents and cackled about all the mistakes that we our selves had made collectively over the years, especially the ones where copious amounts of liquid beverages (Alcohol) were involved during our younger days.

NSRI base at Sonny Evans Small Craft Harbour

Now the launch here at the Sonny Evans Small Craft Harbor is reasonably safe, but for inexperienced skippers who do not know how to read the waves and count the sets, there is a chance that one may experience some AIR  under the boat as you punched the last line of waves, if you do not run left and stick between the sets of waves and the coast line.  This was a tiny boat with really over sized motors suited to pulling a skier on a dam, and we knew that if the skipper opened up to full taps too fast that the nose would lift considerably and offer the sea an opportunity to flip the boat over, so we watched as these guys went  out and we were convinced  that there was going to be an incident of some sort.

launching a boat at SBSBC

We were not wrong, and as these guys got to the last wave in the set, it stood up in-front of this tiny boat and the skipper gave the motors free reign to punch through the wave lifting the nose and launching the boat vertically into the air.

The passenger realised that the smelly stuff had collided with the wind making machine and took it upon himself to ensure that he would be clear of the boat should it decide to fall on his head by diving over board. Some how the skipper managed to keep things under some form of control, and the boat swerved this way and that but he was out in the open ocean and did not even realise that his passenger was missing for a good few seconds.

Sunrise at Shelly Beach Skiboat Club

When he did realise that his passenger was missing and turned around to come back, he also realised that he was now in the CRUNCH ZONE so promptly turned again and went back out to see and watched in disbelief as his sole crew member was forced towards the shore by the white water.  The skipper just idled around the back line and I have no clue as to what was going through his head, as it was obvious that he was an inexperienced skipper, because he did not even try to save his buddy.

WE watched idly as we were in no position to do any thing,  the guys in the tower at the Sonny Evans Small Craft harbor had obviously also witnessed the incident and the NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institution) has a base right there, with  some body  already driving down the beach with a safety crew to help the swimmer if need be.

We had a good cackle about this, as most of us had at some point in our lives experienced something similar ourselves, all 5 of us being well into our fifties and remembering the old days back in the 1970's and 1980's when these types of incidents were common place all along the South African coastline and there were no safety nets like the NSRI to help-out when things went wrong.

Thanx for reading this post, and if you are interested the #4u2gofishing project has a Google plus page at  +4u2gofishing which is in place to support this blog and help us have better fishing experiences all along the KZN South Coast.

Fishing at Orange rocks - 27 June 2014

Fishing at orange rocks, 27 June 2014

Went down to Orange rocks, at Uvongo along the KZN south Coast this morning and was rather disappointed.  The wind was up just a little, and it was rather over cast so I was thinking that there should be a shad or two in the district, but there were not even peckers.  Some other guys were using bait and they were bringing back their bait just as they had thrown it out.

 Threw a spoon for about ten minutes then decided that I was wasting my time and came home.

The water looked so nice at orange rocks, but there were definitely no fish looking for something to eat, so we took a drive to St. Mikes at the swimming pool.  We sat in the car and checked the water out.  There was quite a bit of sand churning up in the waves, and that is usually a bad sign for the fishing, so we watched the guys surfing for a while, then came home.  The waves were not big at all, but they were surfable and there were about 8 or 10 guys surfing.

Maybe later this afternoon....things may be a bit better.