Shoals of Snoek!

I called up Koos Jordaan on Wednesday night, hoping there would be a spot on the boat. Thurday was looking good weather wise and Lucky for me there was a spot available.
We jumped on the boat nice and early and left the harbour heading north to Mapelane Lighthouse. Koos, Jonie, Kevin and myself jumped in out deep and did one or two drifts without much success, so we went closer to shore, not the best vis but just enough. Next thing I saw a dark shape glide past my flasher, as I dived down a good few snoek raced past me, i took a shot and nailed one. Stoked! threw it on the boat quickly and loaded my gun, by now Kevin had also nailed one. I was sure Koos and Jonie, slightly ahead also got at-least one. They did.
My heart was racing, the snoek were thick, I waited only seconds to see more snoek, dived down, shot another one, other snoek were screaming past as I pulled in my snoek in. A drift or two later the sharks decided to get in on the action as-well, and things started to get difficult with fish getting lost and spears bent.
At this point the snoek started getting very skittish, and the snoek were thinning out.
We then went  back deep and Jonie managed to get a nice salmon over 20kg, and Koos got a smaller one a bit later.
The wind started picking up and we decided to head back, luckily we did as the weather started to turn really nasty.

All in all a good day out at sea. With everyone getting a few snoek.

Kevin with a nice Snoek

Myself with supper

Braai Last Friday/ Future Comp

We had a Braai on Friday night at Allen Heydorn's house. A lot of interesting stories came out from people from a long time ago....I wont divulge too much :)  Zululand has a really rich history of all sorts of different colourful characters when it comes to spearfishing, and many current characters as-well. I think a good time was had by all, there was the inevitable banter amongst the guys, which made for a good laugh.

Thanks to Allen Heydorn for opening up his house to us.

What was interesting though, is that there use to be some sort of record of fish amongst the guys. I think we should try and get hold of these old records, and try and keep them up to date. Anyone know who might have these?

Also it doesn't look like everyone was too keen on the idea of starting up the club through the ZUC. So it will be a once a month get together at someones house, for a braai. 

It was decided by most that the 09th Oct, would be the next best date for all, regarding the competition. So get your boats and crew ready.

Same rules, prizes and everything else as before.

See you there

Cheers
Warren

Post-poned Competition

The Weather does not seem to be changing. If you have not checked the weather, its is really looking terrible

Big swells, and a strong NE that will be blowing into the cape vidal bay making the launch very difficult.

I am going to Post-pone the competition until another suitable date.

If you would like your R100 entry fee back, please go collect it at Rods & Odds.

Sorry about this, I know some of the shift workers have booked leave. Not much I can do about the weather though.

Please let all your dive buddies know.

Also Cape Vidal has cancelled all bookings, due to them not having water.

The good news is the shirts will be ready for next time  :)

What do you guys think about the

9th Oct or the 16th Oct.

Otherwise, Allan Heydorn has offered to have a Bring & Braai

Where : 10 Barracuda Bar, Meerensee

When  : Friday night 6:30 - 7:00 pm

Bring and Braai 

See you there

Cheers
Warren

Ultimate Spearfishing Mag

Just thought I would let you guys know about this Magazine.

This is a great magazine and the best part is, its Free! It comes straight to your post box.
Usually with free things there is a catch of some sort, there isn't, Ive got 3 issues so far!
I sound like a spam machine of some sort, but seriously the mag is top quality.

If you email them soon, they might even have a few copies left of Volume 3! See the pic below
or visit http://www.ultimatespearfishing.com for details on how to get this mag.

Spearfishing World Cup 2010

The spearfishing world cup is going to start in less than a day, I know the guys have been doing some scouting, this is some information I got from Craig Heslop, one of the Springboks in the Team.

Hey all

We have finally managed to sort out a wireless connection in the hotel so comms should be more regular. The boys have been scouting hard, generally launching by 9am (civilised start with a healthy breakfast) and at sea till about 7pm – it gets dark at about 8pm. Diving is pretty tough as know in the med – deep and no fish. Water has been unusually cold with thermocline btw 15m and 20m and temp dropping from 19 degrees on surface to 14 degrees, this has resulted in even less fish than usual. We found a nice ledge dropping from 30m to 38m on sand with good cave structure and there were no fish even at that depth. However all teams are reporting the same problem and a southerly is blowing today which is expected to warm the water up and hopefully bring the fish. The team is fit and diving well, Ryan and Brent have been here a week longer than the rest of us and they have acclimatised faster as a result, this has definitely benefited the team as we arrived and were able to launch first thing with boats and permits all sorted. Andrew has been a huge asset to the team, an extra set of eyes has helped enormously in scouting and he has proved a master as spotting Congers.

Most teams have arrived by now and poor weather saw all of the teams take a rest day today and wander the town. The lifestyle is very chilled and typically Mediterranean with outdoor restaurants and tables on the street and lots of long lazy lunches. We will be having dinner with the Croatians team tonight and it will be good to see all of them again, they have been very friendly and helpful on the back of our friendships made earlier in the year. It has been good to rest up and we are all pumped to get out to sea again tomorrow for another spell of scouting. The Spanish are pretty confident as per usual, Joesepa has been scouting on his underwater scooter and they have a team of 9 divers! The Croatians are feeling a fair bit of pressure but they must be favourites in their own back yard. We are in the same hotel as Great Britain with Kevin Daly, Garry Roach and Colin Chester all representing the UK, seems to be a pattern in British sport? Colin arrived yesterday having towed his new C-Ski 444 from London and good to see Steve’s boat spreading around the world!

We had some fun and games on Monday; we dived until 5pm and decided to take a scenic trip back. Area 2 is around the Island of Unje which is about 9km long and 4km wide, it is a huge area and we have only managed to scout the Western side so far so the plan was to run around the Eastern side to get a feel for the coast line. We changed petrol tanks and then the motor died… we were about 1hr from home and the wind was blowing a good 20knots and not another boat in sight. Of course the boat had no tools or safety kit so all we could do was anchor and wait for help. Fortunately the owner was still out at sea (scouting with the Chilean team and not far away). He arrived in a big Bayliner and towed us to the lee of an Island – with the right tools we found that there was some water at in the tank which was blocking the carb. We all had visions of sleeping on the island and enduring a chilly night on empty stomachs but fortunately a hot shower and warm meal was not far away.

Mali Losinj is a pretty BIG Island by Croatian standards but is still a very small village. World Champs is a big deal and spearfishing is very popular over here, there are posters all over town advertising the event and Daniel Gospic who lives on Mali Losinj is the local hero and favourite to win. The town is buzzing with the upcoming comp and the locals are very friendly and accommodating.

That’s about all the news for now, will try to send some pics with the next update

cheers

Lighthouse, Mapelane

I went to Lighthouse on Sunday, there was a break in the windy weather. It turned out to be a good day, weather wise or better than the forecast suggested.
The water was clean, everything seemed to be going according to plan, the game-fish however didn't show up. We got a few bottoms, Colin got a decent size Tassel, and missed a salmon.

Other than us, we saw Allen Heydorn, Johan Jacobs and Alan Ferraris out on the water aswell, they got a few decent bottoms.

I must say a few thanks to a few guys who have organised us a few more sponsors. Blondie has organised us a R2000 sponsorship from Siyakha Logistics. Also Billy has organised us another sponsorship from one of his suppliers. Still to be confirmed.
Thank you very much guys! You guys have been very generous.

I have applied for a bank account, and we can keep some funds for the next competition.

Cheers
Warren

Dylan's Garrick

A good mate of mine, Dylan Banwell, shot a nice size Garrick, down in Margate.
He said he saw a few around in the distance, this one however wasn't so shy.
I know he is really chuffed.

Otherwise Sunday is looking really good weather wise, see you on the water....

12.6 kg Garrick

ZULULAND SPEARFISHING COMP!

Hey

Sorry for the delay in posts, to tell you the truth not much diving has been done with this weather.
I know Koos and crew got a 20kg wahoo and a few Cuda this week at Vidal, otherwise its been quiet.

Check out the link below, for a Zululand Club Competition.

Will be on the 18th September.
You can hand in all Entry Forms in at Rods & Odds, before the 10th September.

There will be cool Prizes up for grabs.

Zululand Game Fish Competition