Sardine Run Action
By: Craig HeslopThe natural phenomenon that is the sardine run takes place annually in late June, beginning off the South African Eastern Cape coast. The actual reason for the migration remains something of a scientific mystery, although a popular theory is that their habitat is determined by water temperature, and colder sea temperatures in Natal waters, see trillions of the little silver fish migrate north. The result is a buffet featuring every kind of fish and shark imaginable. As a diver this is potentially the most excitement you will ever encounter with the knowledge that you could be presented the fish of a lifetime. The anticipation builds as news of the pilot shoals moving up the inhospitable Transkei Coast filters back to the fishing community, waiting impatiently in KwaZulu-Natal. Then suddenly the action erupts and seemingly overnight, the massive “oil slick” 10km long, appears in a feeding frenzy of gannets diving, porpoise feeding and fish jumping. . Spearfishing in the Sardine run is a bit of a lottery; the water is often dirty and the gamefish are not always feeding so you can never be sure that you will find the pot of gold. It is perplexing to dive alongside a wall of bait, 10m deep and 500m long and not see a single gamefish!
However, every dog has its day…
We launched early off Rocky Bay (approx. 80km south of Duban), knowing that the previous day’s action had been off Port Shepstone, thus hoping to intercept the shoal by running south. We rounded the corner at Pennington, to see a cloud of white hovering in the distance as kamikaze birds fell out of the sky. We were in luck: first boat on the scene, no porpoise activity to scare away the game fish and the dinner bell was ringing - LOUD!
It was a race to kit up first, I believe I won it, and took second prize slipping into the water before the other divers. The vis was poor at 3-4m with the surface an oily distortion of fish scales and gannet feathers. I swam towards shore, could see the shadow of the reef below me, wait; the reef is moving – it was a wall of sardines gliding by. Next the unmistakable and dreaded outline of a big shark cruising the fringes of the shoal, not clean enough to identify but good money would bet on it being a Bronze Whaler. Soon thereafter the tell tale sight of long white pecs extending out the side of a big fish, I dipped below the surface angled in to intercept and squeezed the trigger; nothing! I tugged on my float line and felt the dead weight as a 50lb Ignoblis Kingfish loomed into vision – miraculously I had spined it.
By now Clint was in the water and he too was into the action with a similar sized Kingfish, with the shoal patrolling the tight ball of Sardines. The birds were diving frenetically into the water around us as sardines bubbled nervously as predators of all shapes and sizes circled. There were a lot of sharks in the water but, so gorged on sardines, they weren’t interested in our fish or us. Owen opened his account with a good-sized Iggy and I got another two before the action subsided.
By now it was my buckie turn on the boat and the guys were hunting alongside the shoal right on backline. Feeding predators had pushed the shoal into the surf zone and crowds of people were harvesting the tormented fish from the shore as well. With so many sharks in the water we make it a rule to keep the boat close at hand. This was proving a headache to achieve, whilst dodging the odd big wave, constantly threatening to break outside of the boat. I was drifting pretty close to Clint in 3m of water when a bright flash caught my attention, streaking beneath the boat closely followed by whizzing line, buoy and diver. Pandemonium erupted as the 60lb Couta (Mackerel) sped straight out to sea. There is far greater risk of losing a Couta to sharks than Kingfish, because one, they are much tastier and two, they run so hard they diver is inevitably separated from the fish until the fish dies. We were fortunate to land the fish whole, fending off some pesky Blacktips in the process.
By now it was mid-morning and all of the breakfast action had subsided. We thus moved out slightly deeper – doing drifts 50 – 100m on the outside of the shoal in 20m of water, hoping to intercept one of the many Yellow-fin Tuna speeding by. The vis had improved out deeper and we were blessed with 10metres, however try as we might, nothing would lure the passing Tuna within range.
It wasn’t long before Clint was at the centre of more chaos as he put a spear into a big Couta. His buoy disappeared below the surface and I hopped on the boat to assist in the pursuit that took us 400m out to sea – unfortunately the sharks beat us to the prize and an estimated 70lb Couta was devoured before we could catch-up!
That saw an end to the day’s action, with 6 fish weighing 250lb’s, having been boated in less than 45minutes!
Craig Heslop
June 1999
