Hi ebvahed
I haven't stayed at the lodge, but saw it while I was there from the water. It is nicely situated to take advantage of the river fishing at Umgazana. I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability here in order to help you to have a succesful trip.
1. For the river I would use jig heads of a 1/8 and 1/4 ounce, I would bite the bullet and buy quality jig heads such as Berkley Nitro or Bimini jig heads. It is not very deep and any heavier than 1/4 ounce would be overkill. I would buy a selection of McArthy Jerk Minnows in 5" size. The colours that I would go for for the estuary would be: pearl, goldfish, olive and baby elf.
2. I don't use a bite trace as such for the estuarine species, but you would want to use a leader of 40 to 50lb, as rock salmon can cut you off quite easily, springer can cut your leader in the scissors of their mouth or fray through it and of course shad and sea pike have sharp teeth. If you are using fluorocarbon you can use 20-30lb.
3. You must take a selection of topwater lures including: Strike Pro Tai Stick, Rapala X-Rap Walk 9cm, Storm Chug Bug 5cm, or any other really small surface popper (generally you will find these in the fresh water or bass fishing section of the store).
4. Yes, Jerkshads/Minnows are ideal for the Umgazana estuary.
5. Braid definitely makes life easier in terms of casting light lures, detecting skelm bites, and setting the hook. If I were you I would buy some, even if you use a nylon backing and just a 50m top shot of braid with a leader on the end.
6.I unfortunately don't know what the river is doing at the moment, but would imagine that there is a reasonable amount of freshwater flowing into it. This would make it a bit murky, but unless there is a lot of rain it will still be fishable.
If I were you I would concentrate my efforts upriver of the lodge. Just above the lodge there is a channel that joins the main river on the south bank. The mouth of this channel ia a good area. A bit of a way upstream of that, just above a shallow shale section, you will see a place where the river forms a pool, and then doubles back on itself. That pool, plus the water immediately below it, as well as above it, pretty much up to the bridge is probably the most productive part of the river for light tackle lure angling. Particularly on the high water. The river mouth area and the rock ledges on the south side of the mouth at the beach are great for low tide fishing and should produce kob, shad and garrick. Also the mouth area of the bigger mangrove channel on the north side of the river just before the cottages start is good around the lower end of the tide.
It may also be a good idea to take some bass hooks and fish your soft plastics weedless, with a small worm sinker texas rigged in some of those nooks and crannies of the upper reaches of the river. The rock salmon and perch in particular are often in and around heavy structure, and you may want to get right into it.
Fish your topwater lures slowly, with plenty of pauses during the retrieve. Small twitches with pauses is particularly good when casting tight to structure. It gives those ambush predators plenty of time to take a look at the lure and decide to eat it. You don't need your lures to make big splashes, the most subtle of movements is often more attractive in an estuarine environment.
Try and be on the water at first light and last light. These times are undoubtedly more productive than the rest of the day, regardless of tides. You will see much more baitfish movement and chases at those times and it will help you to read the water and to establish where and how the fish are feeding.
