The absence of shad on the garden route

[Spool-Song]

Its been a strange year on the garden route. Our shad season normally starts after the spawning, in December, as the shoals move into the shallow water, and we start to get nice catches. Perfect conditions are when that blue "tropical" water moves in and you can feel the warmth of it on your ankles when you wade in. Good fishing normally progresses through to about March-April, and then activity slows when the water starts to get too cold. Over the period, the size of the fish tends to increase but the number decreases.

This year has been very strange. We have had cold and wet "wintery" weather right through December, with no sign of a shad. The SE wind has been the dominant wind, and that keeps the sea cold, and there has hardly been any switch to our prevailing SW wind which warms the water up. With the exception of a few hot days, these conditions have persisted through to January.

I have heard of one guy who caught one the other day, and found it to still be carrying eggs, which suggests they have not even spawned yet, a month after the closed season. Probably due to the cold water temp.

Anybody have any ideas what's gone wrong, and when it will come right?

 

[Stefan001]

We down in the Overberg have caught a few really nice shad the last few weeks. Best ive got was a 68cm fish on plug. Also still full of eggs unfortunately.

Its been a strange season all over.

 

[DieterW]

Everything on the KZN coast seems to be a month or two late this year.

They are probably still on their way down.

 

[mrcricket]

Its hands down the wettest and coldest December I’ve experienced in the Garden route. The elf are definitely MIA,well the bigger ones are. Loads of small “mal elf”. Usually by this time every year I’ve at least gotten 2 or 3 5kg+ models. They just aren’t here. As mentioned,everythings is late. Havent seen a bonnie smash since last March. Anchovies are in abundance though,catching mackerel on light spinning gear…40-50 in an hour. . Water was much colder than last year or 4years prior. I note everyday’s weather details etc.

I still feel we’re going to have a crazy Feb,March and April.
The water only on the last week or two has gotten to 20plus degrees. Fingers crossed

 

[Ben REINERS]

The day the season opened Whatsapp groups was in a buzz with shad catches, it was so typical of excited anglers to break the so called "new news or beginning of the new season quick to their mates.

Anglers posted their catches & there was some real bus-shads caught yet again in December 2021.

If I refer to big shad, there were many 4-5kg shads displayed with an odd one slightly heavier.
Well, its not the area of concern "spool-song", but on the KZN North coast & a few along the south coast of KZN I am referring to.

It will be interesting to know what happened in your area, is there an explanation or are they still having "honeymoon".

 

[kitefisher]

Ben REINERS wrote:

The day the season opened Whatsapp groups was in a buzz with shad catches, it was so typical of excited anglers to break the so called "new news or beginning of the new season quick to their mates.

Anglers posted their catches & there was some real bus-shads caught yet again in December 2021.

If I refer to big shad, there were many 4-5kg shads displayed with an odd one slightly heavier.
Well, its not the area of concern "spool-song", but on the KZN North coast & a few along the south coast of KZN I am referring to.

It will be interesting to know what happened in your area, is there an explanation or are they still having "honeymoon".

Hi Ben ,Hope you're keeping well.Long time no chat .As you mentioned the Lower KZN Coast area that I frequent was also a bit strange regarding Shad catches from Mid-December to Mid January..A good couple of bus-shad came out on different days 3-4 kg range. The days when the smaller ones would be a continuous pain, were actually vary rare in most places.

Also perhaps a bit strange that most of the bigger ones were still carrying eggs .The weather may have played a role,as there were very few days which were scorchers.It was either raining,overcast, or howling NE/SW with very little 2-3 day consistency in either direction.

 

[Ben REINERS]

kitefisher wrote:

Ben REINERS wrote:

The day the season opened Whatsapp groups was in a buzz with shad catches, it was so typical of excited anglers to break the so called "new news or beginning of the new season quick to their mates.

Anglers posted their catches & there was some real bus-shads caught yet again in December 2021.

If I refer to big shad, there were many 4-5kg shads displayed with an odd one slightly heavier.
Well, its not the area of concern "spool-song", but on the KZN North coast & a few along the south coast of KZN I am referring to.

It will be interesting to know what happened in your area, is there an explanation or are they still having "honeymoon".

Hi Ben ,Hope you're keeping well.Long time no chat .As you mentioned the Lower KZN Coast area that I frequent was also a bit strange regarding Shad catches from Mid-December to Mid January..A good couple of bus-shad came out on different days 3-4 kg range. The days when the smaller ones would be a continuous pain, were actually vary rare in most places.

Also perhaps a bit strange that most of the bigger ones were still carrying eggs .The weather may have played a role,as there were very few days which were scorchers.It was either raining,overcast, or howling NE/SW with very little 2-3 day consistency in either direction.

Hey there KF......wow...it has been a long time indeed, its so good to see you back.
Welcome back & hope you have a lovely 2022.

I was told the same thing about the smaller ones being a pest so to say....& litterally in their hundreds & taking even the smallest of baits.
But then again, is that not a good sign to see so many small shad around at some spots, maybe a good sign for the future lets hope.

Do you think a late spawn mixed with our "4 in 1 day seasons" might have played a role ?

 

[Spool-Song]

So I think I have finished figuring out another piece of the puzzle. In birding circles, they say "where there is food there are birds." so if you are looking for a black eagle, find a koppie covered in Dassies, and sooner or later, one will fly by looking for a take away. The same goes for baitfish. Its rare to see baitfish at the surface without seabirds giving you the clue. I also believe very strongly, that the same applies to fish.

This got me thinking about a few things this season. For one, despite the absence of shad, the fishing has been excellent for other species. Over the last month I have caught a lot of fish scratching around. In addition to some bus blacktail, in the 40cm class. I have landed a whole lot of others in the mix, including a 42cm cape stumpie, grunter and that tropical yellowtail. Yesterday the guys were even pulling out a pile of gallies from the cold water.

So why the abundance of lovely edibles, including big blacktail and others???? At first I thought I was becoming a local angling legend, but I realised that this was not the case, as I wasn't doing anything different to previous years.

At this time of year, your bait normally stays in the water for about 5 seconds before it is demolished by the machine gun peckers. This is not the case. Your bait sits around in the water until it gets taken by a decent fish. So the good fishing is actually attributable to the lack of smaller bait fish with respect to leaving your bait untouched until a good fish comes along. On the flip side, I suspect the absence of shad is more likely due to the lack of food inshore. No baitfish, no shad. There doesn't seem to be any gorries (pinkies for the KZN guys) around which I think is an inshore shad staple.

Out of curiosity, every fish that I have caught this year has not spawned yet. I don't know when blacktail, grunter, stumpies are meant to spawn, but I think it should be over by now for most of them.

 

[DJP]

I'm finding this read quite interesting especially considering the observations on fish spawning. It does make me wonder how applicable closed seasons for shad are especially considering its wide distribution?

My observation is that our seasons over the last few years have shifted on at least a month. March and April have been hot down here and the winter weather has gone well into September. We've had mild Decembers for a couple years now, especially evening temperatures seem low.

 

[Kosi]

DJP wrote:

I'm finding this read quite interesting especially considering the observations on fish spawning. It does make me wonder how applicable closed seasons for shad are especially considering its wide distribution?

My observation is that our seasons over the last few years have shifted on at least a month. March and April have been hot down here and the winter weather has gone well into September. We've had mild Decembers for a couple years now, especially evening temperatures seem low.

We have been in Sedgefield for a little over eight months now, and our summer really only started about three or four weeks ago. Until then, it was like we were stuck in early spring, and the water has been exceptionally cold for this part of the coast.

 

[willem wikkel spies]

the north east wind has been howling non stop on the north coast.
Deon from Raggie tackle looked at his records.
In 2004 he fished 28 days of the December month, commercially off St Lucia.
this last December he managed to fish only 4 days for the whole month.

so yes, everything is screwed up.
just shows us, mother nature is in control, and not us.

 

[_zaahid]

What i have noticed this season is that we in the cape are getting a lot more SE than usual, and very little NW as we would usually get. this is having a major effect on fishing conditions and water temperature.

 

[Spool-Song]

so another twist to this tail. I was talking to a commercial operator who catches pilchards from Mossel Bay. He also noticed a change in the seasons and distributions. He said they were catching pilies in January already around Mossel bay in warm water. He said they normally only get them from March on, in cold water.

Maybe the shad are getting their own fill of pilies, rather than waiting to strip them off my hook

 

[Kosi]

Spool-SongMaybe the shad are getting their own fill of pilies, rather than waiting to strip them off my hook[/quote]

Interesting thought which, hopefully, might point to a bumper shad season in the next year or two....?