Tugela mouth report: 7 August to 9 August 2009.
Hi All.
Just the following;
Road conditions:
The road down from Heidelberg to Mandini is great. Turning to Tugelamouth, one needs to drive a dirt road that was seemingly tarred at places. Take it slowly here as holes are commonly with places being “sink plaat padâ€
Accommodation:
We have visited Tugela on previous occasions at Tugela mouth resort but no space were available
We found accommodation at Sea Breeze.
The chalet sleeps 4, double bed with two bunkers stacked. Two plate stove, micro wave, fridge and braai stand. A toilet and shower. Tv on request. Your vehicle is closed off via a sliding gate and palisade bars. So no worries. Very nicely situated as one walks out the gate, crossing the road and walking down with the tarred road down to the beach. Or out the gate, turn right and walk up the road until one gets the footpath down to the mouth.
We stayed really lekker there and would from now on make this our place of choice.
Fishing:
The Tugela river came down flooding the sea with brown muddy water. We were lucky to get a greenish water on high tides at the mouth area. So fishing was best on the high tide only.
On the 6[suP]th[/suP] of August a angler got a salmon of 36 kg in the mouth area on a live mullet. Speaking to the angler, he confirmed that the live bait was in brown water when he got the take, it took him a hour and 30 minutes to land the fish.
Live bait was the best option and with the shad absent we had no choice but to swing the cast nets.
Mullet were caught in the mouth muddy water to about 2 hours before high tide, then they would disappear. The mullet are not so abundant as one would expect, so hard work was at the order of the day. 5 guys “ghielies†were seen catching mullet with cast nets and then selling them for R10 a piece.
I did notice that the beach that normaly is about 80meters wide, was completely washed away by big seas. It was interesting to see, anglers fishing from the high dunes as the water would come up to the foot of the dune on high tide.
Although different baits were placed in the muddy water, either the fish were absent or the water too dirty.
Saturday 8 August 2009
The north-Easter blew about 30km per hour which is not too bad. This would assist in the cleaning up of the brown muddy water.
Guys were fishing in the mouth area when they decided to pack up and go watch the rugby test. I saw that the water in the mouth, was cleaning up.
I slid two live mullet out into this cleaner water. (these mullet were slid out next to scattered rocks; doing homework at low tide do assist one) With my wife at my side, and looking at the brown water getting closer to the live bait, I told the wife that we might have 15 minutes left until the brown water would engulf the live bait. Surprisingly, the water stayed green. While admiring nature and everything, I saw my one rod tip dip, I got up and gave line. The fish took line and went to the direction of the scattered rocks. I applied lots of pressure and got myself to a higher position, to try and stay clear of the rocks. The fish stayed clear of the rocks and I had it in no time in the shore break. I saw that it was indeed a garrick which later measured 108cm fork length. According to ORI 15.8 kg. The fish gave a very good account of itself.
That fish has a really huge mouth and would eat a donkey shad with a smile.
It also gave me a really big smile as this is now my PB Garrick.
We went to the chalet and watched the delayed transmission of the Spring Boks nailing the Aussies.
August 10, 2009
The brown water was every where. I saw anglers catching sea barbel and so we decided to visit friends at Durban.
With only one fish the trip was made. We fished Winkelspruit from 15:00 until 19:00 with live mullet but didn’t get any luck.
I do feel that in a week or two, when the water clears a bit, fishing would be better. So all you guys going down there, tight lines.
Some pictures to follow.
Hi All.
Just the following;
Road conditions:
The road down from Heidelberg to Mandini is great. Turning to Tugelamouth, one needs to drive a dirt road that was seemingly tarred at places. Take it slowly here as holes are commonly with places being “sink plaat padâ€
Accommodation:
We have visited Tugela on previous occasions at Tugela mouth resort but no space were available
We found accommodation at Sea Breeze.
The chalet sleeps 4, double bed with two bunkers stacked. Two plate stove, micro wave, fridge and braai stand. A toilet and shower. Tv on request. Your vehicle is closed off via a sliding gate and palisade bars. So no worries. Very nicely situated as one walks out the gate, crossing the road and walking down with the tarred road down to the beach. Or out the gate, turn right and walk up the road until one gets the footpath down to the mouth.
We stayed really lekker there and would from now on make this our place of choice.
Fishing:
The Tugela river came down flooding the sea with brown muddy water. We were lucky to get a greenish water on high tides at the mouth area. So fishing was best on the high tide only.
On the 6[suP]th[/suP] of August a angler got a salmon of 36 kg in the mouth area on a live mullet. Speaking to the angler, he confirmed that the live bait was in brown water when he got the take, it took him a hour and 30 minutes to land the fish.
Live bait was the best option and with the shad absent we had no choice but to swing the cast nets.
Mullet were caught in the mouth muddy water to about 2 hours before high tide, then they would disappear. The mullet are not so abundant as one would expect, so hard work was at the order of the day. 5 guys “ghielies†were seen catching mullet with cast nets and then selling them for R10 a piece.
I did notice that the beach that normaly is about 80meters wide, was completely washed away by big seas. It was interesting to see, anglers fishing from the high dunes as the water would come up to the foot of the dune on high tide.
Although different baits were placed in the muddy water, either the fish were absent or the water too dirty.
Saturday 8 August 2009
The north-Easter blew about 30km per hour which is not too bad. This would assist in the cleaning up of the brown muddy water.
Guys were fishing in the mouth area when they decided to pack up and go watch the rugby test. I saw that the water in the mouth, was cleaning up.
I slid two live mullet out into this cleaner water. (these mullet were slid out next to scattered rocks; doing homework at low tide do assist one) With my wife at my side, and looking at the brown water getting closer to the live bait, I told the wife that we might have 15 minutes left until the brown water would engulf the live bait. Surprisingly, the water stayed green. While admiring nature and everything, I saw my one rod tip dip, I got up and gave line. The fish took line and went to the direction of the scattered rocks. I applied lots of pressure and got myself to a higher position, to try and stay clear of the rocks. The fish stayed clear of the rocks and I had it in no time in the shore break. I saw that it was indeed a garrick which later measured 108cm fork length. According to ORI 15.8 kg. The fish gave a very good account of itself.
That fish has a really huge mouth and would eat a donkey shad with a smile.
It also gave me a really big smile as this is now my PB Garrick.
We went to the chalet and watched the delayed transmission of the Spring Boks nailing the Aussies.
August 10, 2009
The brown water was every where. I saw anglers catching sea barbel and so we decided to visit friends at Durban.
With only one fish the trip was made. We fished Winkelspruit from 15:00 until 19:00 with live mullet but didn’t get any luck.
I do feel that in a week or two, when the water clears a bit, fishing would be better. So all you guys going down there, tight lines.
Some pictures to follow.
