ST. LUCIA MOUTH RE-OPENS!!!!!!!!
- Thread starter Volcom
- Start date
hey there eugene
can you tell me what the 4x4 thing is over there
i heard that in december they were allowing 5o vehicals onto the beach at vidal
and i knnow previously at st lucia they also limited the amount of vehicals on the beach do you know if they are going to start that again or are they still going to keep up with the law .
cheers riymos.
can you tell me what the 4x4 thing is over there
i heard that in december they were allowing 5o vehicals onto the beach at vidal
and i knnow previously at st lucia they also limited the amount of vehicals on the beach do you know if they are going to start that again or are they still going to keep up with the law .
cheers riymos.
Hi there,
Iv no idea mate. Will find out though. Seriously doubt it though cuz recently, there was a press release that the 4x4 ban will no longer be looked at cuz their decision is final.
But, if theres such a statment that there will be restricted access, ill let u guys know.
Iv no idea mate. Will find out though. Seriously doubt it though cuz recently, there was a press release that the 4x4 ban will no longer be looked at cuz their decision is final.
But, if theres such a statment that there will be restricted access, ill let u guys know.
So with the river opening up to the sea now, what is the impact on the Umfolozi just South of St Lucia?
Anyone care to speculate on how events will turn out - how will rock and surf fishing be affected in the area? - reason being I'm going to Mapelane in 6 weeks time!!! The fishing could either be absolutely brilliant or absolutely disastrous - I've a feeling there's no in between with this one!?
Anyone care to speculate on how events will turn out - how will rock and surf fishing be affected in the area? - reason being I'm going to Mapelane in 6 weeks time!!! The fishing could either be absolutely brilliant or absolutely disastrous - I've a feeling there's no in between with this one!?
hey there reefman
im not so sure about that
i know mapelane fishes well most of the year so im sure its just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
infact if you think about it for the last 5 years the mouth at st lucia has been closed
so do you think the fish are all of a sudden just o back home nah..
im sure you gona have a great time hopefully eventually evrything will even out again once the ballance in nature has been restored fully
cheers riymos
im not so sure about that
i know mapelane fishes well most of the year so im sure its just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
infact if you think about it for the last 5 years the mouth at st lucia has been closed
so do you think the fish are all of a sudden just o back home nah..
im sure you gona have a great time hopefully eventually evrything will even out again once the ballance in nature has been restored fully
cheers riymos
G
Guest
Guest
Absolutly Brillaint !!
G
Guest
Guest
Reefman wrote:
As you know there have been various requests a while ago to open the mouth and let the sea in to restore the Lake. This would definately had some repercussions.
1) The Lake level was much lower than the sealevel. Millions of tons of salt would have flown into the system. The water would have evaporated (it was determined that approximately 1000 million leters of water evaporate on average per day). Thus the level of salt would have become very high. This would have left the enivronment no way to recover to its formal balance / glory.
2) The second would have been that the massive rush of water into the system would also have taken with it millions of tons of sand.
I do not know if you remember (maybe some of you were not born yet), but we had the same situation in the early 80's. Then nature climed in and we had Cyclone Domoina in 1984 which resulted in a large amount of fresh water. It relieved the issue of salinity by dilution and blasted the salt out to sea as well as opening the mouth !
Let me tell you, I had the best fishing at St Lucia thereafter.
I do think that this area will recover to its formal glory - Humans must just stay out of it and not make the same mistakes as when they created the Warner Drain in 1928
Just some quik trivial issues on the mouth. As you know this is my saltwater fishing spot since I started to walk.
As you know there have been various requests a while ago to open the mouth and let the sea in to restore the Lake. This would definately had some repercussions.
1) The Lake level was much lower than the sealevel. Millions of tons of salt would have flown into the system. The water would have evaporated (it was determined that approximately 1000 million leters of water evaporate on average per day). Thus the level of salt would have become very high. This would have left the enivronment no way to recover to its formal balance / glory.
2) The second would have been that the massive rush of water into the system would also have taken with it millions of tons of sand.
I do not know if you remember (maybe some of you were not born yet), but we had the same situation in the early 80's. Then nature climed in and we had Cyclone Domoina in 1984 which resulted in a large amount of fresh water. It relieved the issue of salinity by dilution and blasted the salt out to sea as well as opening the mouth !
Let me tell you, I had the best fishing at St Lucia thereafter.
I do think that this area will recover to its formal glory - Humans must just stay out of it and not make the same mistakes as when they created the Warner Drain in 1928
Jacques wrote:
Hi Jacques,
Thanks for your input!
With point one and two, thats exactly whats happened now. Either way, I cant see the diffrence if they opened it up a few months ago when the heavy rains were here or now. A lot of sand will most def come in but hey, why do the NCS have a dredger? At least put it use NOW.
Hey guys, Iv stumbled upon a golden piece of a news paper article. Date unknown but once i get it scanned ill post it up. The content is sure to blow you away.
Lol, yea, I was one year old when Demoina hit
My dad also tell me the stories of the grunter and salmon runs back then.... *sigh*
Your generation are oh so lucky to have experianced that.
Tight lines Jaques!
Hi Jacques,
Thanks for your input!
With point one and two, thats exactly whats happened now. Either way, I cant see the diffrence if they opened it up a few months ago when the heavy rains were here or now. A lot of sand will most def come in but hey, why do the NCS have a dredger? At least put it use NOW.
Hey guys, Iv stumbled upon a golden piece of a news paper article. Date unknown but once i get it scanned ill post it up. The content is sure to blow you away.
Lol, yea, I was one year old when Demoina hit
My dad also tell me the stories of the grunter and salmon runs back then.... *sigh*
Your generation are oh so lucky to have experianced that.
Tight lines Jaques!
G
Guest
Guest
Not to bore anyone,
The first interferance on the St Lucia system was in 1912. The Warner Drain interferance of 1928 was mainly the clearing of the swamp filter of the Umfolozi (reed and papyrus) near a place now known as Honeymoon Bend.
The above intervensions lead to the worst state the system was in in 1958 when the estuary was a clogged silt-bed of thick, deep mud and left St Lucia town almost a ghost town. The system was then reclaimed by dredging the entire estuary from mouth to lake. The main reason for management at that time was based on fishery and this required keeping the mouth open at all costs. Seawater started to move into the lake at astronomical volumes (1500 tons per day !) and no freshwater entering the system as drought was the order of the day. In the 1970's salinity reached over 120 parts salt per 1000 parts water. Croc's had to be airlifted, shoreline vegetation destroyed ect ect.
As I said: Cyclone Domoina fixed this.
The result of the closed mouth (now open) 4 years ago was waves plugging the mouth. However, because of previous human intervention, it is required that the area be managed and that human intervention are now required. We just need to bear with the management strategy. I know the Wetland Authoroty is sourcing money to fund research to do this.
Thats me. I will go through my pic's (from when I was still a laaity of 12) and post what was know as the "glory" days.
The first interferance on the St Lucia system was in 1912. The Warner Drain interferance of 1928 was mainly the clearing of the swamp filter of the Umfolozi (reed and papyrus) near a place now known as Honeymoon Bend.
The above intervensions lead to the worst state the system was in in 1958 when the estuary was a clogged silt-bed of thick, deep mud and left St Lucia town almost a ghost town. The system was then reclaimed by dredging the entire estuary from mouth to lake. The main reason for management at that time was based on fishery and this required keeping the mouth open at all costs. Seawater started to move into the lake at astronomical volumes (1500 tons per day !) and no freshwater entering the system as drought was the order of the day. In the 1970's salinity reached over 120 parts salt per 1000 parts water. Croc's had to be airlifted, shoreline vegetation destroyed ect ect.
As I said: Cyclone Domoina fixed this.
The result of the closed mouth (now open) 4 years ago was waves plugging the mouth. However, because of previous human intervention, it is required that the area be managed and that human intervention are now required. We just need to bear with the management strategy. I know the Wetland Authoroty is sourcing money to fund research to do this.
Thats me. I will go through my pic's (from when I was still a laaity of 12) and post what was know as the "glory" days.
Mornay Ruth
Senior Member
Hi guys,
I was up at St Lucia about three weeks ago and chatted with some of the local charter operators. They say that NCS closed the mouth some years ago because they wanted the estuary to remain freshwater. There was apparently huge debate and controversy around this decision. They realised that they made a mistake, but when asked by the locals to reopen the mouth, they refused and the response was "let nature take it's course". Somewhat ironic, don't you think? I'm not sure how accurate the story is but this is what I was told. But nature as taken it's course at last! Great pics!
Mornay
I was up at St Lucia about three weeks ago and chatted with some of the local charter operators. They say that NCS closed the mouth some years ago because they wanted the estuary to remain freshwater. There was apparently huge debate and controversy around this decision. They realised that they made a mistake, but when asked by the locals to reopen the mouth, they refused and the response was "let nature take it's course". Somewhat ironic, don't you think? I'm not sure how accurate the story is but this is what I was told. But nature as taken it's course at last! Great pics!
Mornay
Hi there Mornay,
Youre quite right there buddy.
Just got back from the mouth. Lol, had some good fun! Two of ma mates joined me for a lil action. In between a lotta small ones we landed the following.
A 1.3kg Saddle-Back Grunter
A lil Southern Pompano
and the cherrie on top... we got a shad up the system!! lol!! Got bitten off in quick succsession but yup they were around for all of 5min.
Youre quite right there buddy.
Just got back from the mouth. Lol, had some good fun! Two of ma mates joined me for a lil action. In between a lotta small ones we landed the following.
A 1.3kg Saddle-Back Grunter
A lil Southern Pompano
and the cherrie on top... we got a shad up the system!! lol!! Got bitten off in quick succsession but yup they were around for all of 5min.
Hi there guys,
Thanks for the comments Mumro, will get them next time
Hi there Riymos,
On that particular day, nothing xplosive happened. Water was an off green colour at first but with the push tide, saw liquid blue pulling in! Yep other guys were around but us three landed the only fish in the time we were there.
Thanks for the comments Mumro, will get them next time
Hi there Riymos,
On that particular day, nothing xplosive happened. Water was an off green colour at first but with the push tide, saw liquid blue pulling in! Yep other guys were around but us three landed the only fish in the time we were there.
Good Evening everybody,
Just returned from St.Lucia now. Wow, what an afternoon session!!! Had a total blast with my drop shot rig and a lil efzet spoon. At first 8 throws resulted in 8 junior shad, until number 9 threw the hook. lol, total being 18 and of course, all were returned. Had great fun today with the light tackle!! :dude:
Yep shad were fast n furious today but 90% being undersize. It is indeed sad to say.... small shad were seen being shoved into socks, bags and believe it or not..... a rod tube!!!!
Parks Board were around but didnt seem to care much. They just casually popped around to ASK you, not search, how many shad one had caught. Well, I saw everything today, from shad bungs the size of rugby balls to a genuine fight over one legal sized shad.... damn, that desperate huh?
Sliding a bait today was simply a no go.... just too much white water.
Lake is looking ok. With a wide mouth but a seemingly narrow channel. No news bout the NCS though. Its all hushed at the moment.
Peace out!! N screaming reels!!! :dude:
Just returned from St.Lucia now. Wow, what an afternoon session!!! Had a total blast with my drop shot rig and a lil efzet spoon. At first 8 throws resulted in 8 junior shad, until number 9 threw the hook. lol, total being 18 and of course, all were returned. Had great fun today with the light tackle!! :dude:
Yep shad were fast n furious today but 90% being undersize. It is indeed sad to say.... small shad were seen being shoved into socks, bags and believe it or not..... a rod tube!!!!
Parks Board were around but didnt seem to care much. They just casually popped around to ASK you, not search, how many shad one had caught. Well, I saw everything today, from shad bungs the size of rugby balls to a genuine fight over one legal sized shad.... damn, that desperate huh?
Sliding a bait today was simply a no go.... just too much white water.
Lake is looking ok. With a wide mouth but a seemingly narrow channel. No news bout the NCS though. Its all hushed at the moment.
Peace out!! N screaming reels!!! :dude: