Last day of Work

Today is my last day at work for almost a month !!!!

Its like break up day at school, you are amped and excited, but the drudgery of the last few hours is almost unbearable.

Any way you probably want to know what the sea is doing?? Well its gone green!!! Yep green, I took my lighty for a dive thinking it was going to be brilliant and it was murky muck. A mate dived Xmas and said it was 2 meters on the bottom in 10m of water.

Strange that the south winds have brought bad water, normally its the easts that turn it to poo.

Any way on the brighter side, this time next week I will be in Mozambique a couple cuta richer. :-)

Coatesman

New Spearguns & a New Season

I have recently acquired some new spear guns from Rob Allen for our up coming Mozambique spearfishing trip. Nothing to out of the ordinary, but i have been keen to get them in a pool and just check that they are 100%. I think it is more for my confidence than anything else. I also dont want to get to Mozambique and jump into the water with a gun that I have never shot with before ...... to nerve racking.

Any way the sea made a small turn for the better yesterday and 'all of a sardine' I was juggling my last few appointments for the day .... actually it was quiet at work :-) but juggling sounds busy!!
And hooked up with a mate of mine for a quicky at a spot I like at a certain time of the day. I was about to take my trusty old Rob Allen 1.3m ...absolutely cant miss with it! When I thought ...'premo' opportunity to test one of the new spear guns.
I grabbed the new 1.3m caranx, everything 100% stock off the shelf. I normally shorten the rubbers slightly and use a slightly longer spear, but there was no time so took it as is and went diving.

The long and short is that I got 2 good size cuta hitting the spine on both fish!! On the bigger one the shot was a little further away and the spear only just pierced the other side. So I will be shortening the rubbers a little. But I have to say that the gun is 100s and I will probably not change the spear either.

Now were amped, so we get up super early and hit Tiffs before that Durban crowds hit the place. I decided to try the Rob Allen 1.3m Tuna this time. And again 2 good size cuta, not as big as yesterday but between 8 & 9 kg .... nothing wrong. And again I spined the one and the other was a perfect shot. I am tempted to shorten the rubbers ... but i know it is very easy to over power these guns, so i might just leave it for now.

Any way loads of fun and with the west due tomorrow maybe some more good water.

Cheers

Coatesaman

Earth Touch & Ponta Malongane in Southern Mozambique.

Ponta Malongane in Southern Mozambique is one heck of a place to dive during the early summer, a mate of mine is up there at the moment filming some footage for Earth Touch.

Check out the clips of some of the shark action. if you register and log in you will also get the commentary with the clip.

Masters of the Sneak

Crowd of Zambezi sharks - Check out the sailfish that swims in!!

The cool thing about Earth Touch is that it is fairly current. I think these two clips are only a week old. The guys at Ponta Malongane in Mozambique upload the footage via a satellite link. It is full on high tech stuff.

Graeme and Barry specialize in marine animals and both are spearo's so there clips are alway interesting.

Only 9 days then we are in Mozambique!!

Coatesman

Ban on all diving in Cape Point Nature Reserve!!

Hey guys there is a mail going around with details on the ban on all diving in Cape Point Nature Reserve. Please if you ever use the sea in any way help these guy out and sign. I know we need to conserve what we have, but banning something because it cant / wont be policed properly ... well that just sux!!

Go to:

http://www.petitiononline.com/NoDiveCT/petition-sign.html

Coatesman

Lazy Bones

The sea was diveable this morning ... but for some reason I just was not too amped. I looked out side and the west was still blowing a bit ... not that that has stopped me before, nor the light drizzle. I think it is the fact that I know that the warm waters of Mozam are only 2WEEKS away!!! And diving marginal water for snoek just does not seem all that inviting right now.

That said the Shoal was on form yesterday, Andy got a 20 plus wahoo and just missed a saily, they got some cuta aswell. I also seems like the Dorado are starting to come through in some numbers off the FADs .... maybe we will get out there soon.

Any way thats all for now,

P.S dont forget SALTY DIVERS CLUB NITE 2NITE!!!!

Coatesman

Fishing Corner Comp Results

Hey guys here are the results of the Fishing Corners Comp.

Check out the Pics : Fishing Corner Comp Pics

Cheers

Coatesman

Fishing Corner Comp Results

Well the comp started off slow with bad weather and poor water conditions the first fish for the comp was a small Snoek from Keith Hockly. I must say it was good to see some Garrick coming out on the Ski's which is not usually the case on ski's so well done to all those breaking out of tradition and going the extra mile! Anyways weather did not play its part for most of the comp period and catches came in slow with little eastern tunas making up a large portion of the catches (when you know things are bad!) - as the comp progressed we saw some great catches making their way to my PC firstly a 25.7kg Wahoo shot by Morne Muller! Also a 26kg Tuna Shot by Mike Harrison - Scott Hunter (Shunter) managed an impressive 10.4Kg Queenfish have a look in the gallery for all the picks. The results of the comp were as follows.

Fishing paddle Ski / Ski Boat

1. Xander Engelbecht with 161.24 Points

2. Scott Hunter with 128 Points

3. Keith Hockly (Mr Faulty) 69.18 Points

4. Luke Dulton 28 Points

5. Barnard, Malan 9.5 Points

6. Kyle Sommers 3.5 Points (beating his Dad!!)

Spearfishing

1. Chris Coats with 295.8 Points

2. Morne Muller with 138 Points

3. Mark Sav with 46.8 Points

4. Mike Harrison with 26 Points

5. Shaun Reid with 21 Points

6. Wayne Dunken with 17 Points

That was the first 6 in each prize group. I just wanted to give the sponsors a huge thanks for the prizes. Here is what they all gave

Mick (Codfather) - Week End at the Umkomaas Guest House

Steve (brooksie) - Long week End or Midweek Accommodation at ‘Peace of Paradise' + R600 of his company (Profile Creations) goods Just to let you all know they are having a massive Clearance sale from 3^rd - 7^th December - They have great Christmas gifts so make an effort to pop in! 7 Elmfield Place Springfield Park

Keith Hockly - Huge help!!!! For organizing the Venue for Prize giving @ Durban Paddle Ski Club - R 250 Bassel Manning Voucher and R500 Shelving Voucher!!! Thanks Bud huge help!!!!

Gladiator Lures - Thanks to Logan & Jamie for a R 1500 Prize - Their stuff is just getting better every time I see it!

Bassel Manning - Thanks Brad for the support and the R 1000 worth of lures and stuff! Always good to go and spend time in the new shop! If any of you have not been to visit yet make sure you do!!

Stealth - Bret thanks for the goods you gave! Always amazed buy your support - I know you must get hounded for sponsorship so thanks!!

Garman - Thanks for all the T-Shirts you gave us! I hope that this is the start of a great relationship!

Sabat Batteries - Thanks for the Caps Sure it will save a couple guys some serious Burns!

Thanks all for a great comp and sending in those picks! Keep watching this space as there is an even greater comp to follow!

Shaun

Weekends Spearfishing Update

Hey guys,

It was a fairly uneventful weekend ...dive wise. The water was mif and the light south did little for the vis up north. The Shoal was reported to be clean and I am sure some fish did come out.
That said there was a nasty little swell from the north and some mates of mine flipped their boat launching through the surf.
Not a nice thing!!! Fortunately no one was hurt ....I suppose in that situation thats the main thing.
I am reminded of the old saying on our coast ...."Its not if, its when" No one is above getting in the POO, I have seen the most experienced skippers get in the dwang.

On the up side the Fishing Corner Comp finished this weekend and they had the prize giving on Saturday. Morne and I did very well, dominating the spearing side of the comp. We won some cool prizes, always a good thing!! Weldone to Shaun and co for a great comp, I am sure they will have an update on their site shortly.

Here is my other vid of the shark footage from Aliwal Shoal a few weeks ago ..... read the old post: A Day Filming Sharks






Any way thats all for now, hopefully this south cleans things up and rain stays away.
P.S - 18 days til Mozam ......cant wait :-)

Coatesman