Spearfishing Holiday.

Well So much for diving everyday this holiday! The 2 or 3 weeks running up to the holidays were epic, the pressure was on at work and had a hard time balancing the two. So i tried to dive only every second day ..... I usually land up pretty useless after diving for a couple hours.

But now that I have the time the water is cold and green and the East is blowing again!! And then from tomorrow the south is going to pump. ... Sob and then when it gets good on Christmas Morning (and every one will be doing the Christmas thing, so the drop off will be crowd less) I will be stuck in the Berg!! (One day when I grow big and make the big choices ... we are not going to the Berg!!)

Alas! Redemption is near and we are going straight from the berg.. ok one nite sleep over .. and we are off to Mozam for 10days!

Cant wait

Coatesman

P.S - There is good news from up at Cape Vidal, they have sunk the second Barge. It is a little shallow and the top is in 15m. However the sand is at 20-30m so it could be a real great Cuta spot. The guys have reported some good catches from the other deeper barge already, including Tuna and Sailfish. Lets just hope that the 'Parkies' dont go and make it a sanctuary.

Public Holidays = Spearfishing Traffic Jam

Well the whole of Natal obviously thought that the only place to dive was the North Coast. You cant blame them the conditions have been great here and every one wants a piece of paradise.

I decided not to go too early but rather wait for everyone to get in first and then pick a quiet spot. There were loads of guys in at all the spots so I snuck off to a quiet little reef ...somewhere and bagged a nice cuta of 9.5kg gutted.

Not many fish came out other than a Dorado, one cuta and a snoek! (that I know of) And thats between a fair bunch of guys. So it is safe to say it is quiet.

The east is pumping now and is supposed to push through the nite, lets hope it backs off so we can get in again in the morning.

Coatesman

Clean Water Spearfishing

Tassel fish at 25m - pic Morne Muller

This weekend had some of the most increadable water we have had this year. The vis was up to 30m and as warm as 27deg. We dived insome deep water looking for some big game fish, but it was quiet out deep.

There were loads of quality reef fish around, but all we wanted were big game fish. But the northern reefs were fairly quiet. 

All the action seemed to be between Westbrook and Umhloti. The guys diving trials got seriously side tracked with shooting Cuta and snoek on the 16m line.

Tomorrow looks like it will be good so we will see if our side will turn on ...

Later

Coatesman

Spearfishing News

Gee the water was crystal clean, when we first got out at Tiffs the water was 20m! But the current started to push and the thermocline pushed in with some very cold water on the bottom.

My mate saw one cuta in the distance, and thats all... it was very quiet. 

There is a west comming today and pushing through till Saterday, so the dive should cook this weekend.

I have been hearing reports from the Shoal and Protea Banks, the guys seem to be nailing some seriously good fish. Mostly Wahoo off the Shoal ..but I dont hear any one complaining.

Hoping this weekend turns on!

Coatesman

Spearfishing Update

There has been some diving around, but with mixed results. The odd fish has come out but for the most part it has been quiet. I think it might be the water temp, it is still low and generally the cuta come on once it gets to about 24 deg or more.

I spoke to a commercial fisherman yesterday and he said the water was 23 deg 30km out. They had got some Wahoo and Dorries off the fads , and some good bottoms off the deep reefs ...but no cuta.

There is a west due tomorrow and friday so hopefully we will be in the mix ......

We can only hope.

Coatesman

check out Sea Temp watch the dark orange!!

21kg Cuta shot with a reelgun.

This weekend was epic for Spearfishing, the conditions were great and most spots had very good vis. The early birds seemed to get the fish and some great fish came out, including some Wahoo off Westbrook. I even saw a pic of a 30kg Wahoo that was caught off a ski.

We headed north on Saturday and I got lucky with a 21kg Cuta, we thought the fish was bigger as it was long and had a huge head. But it was a bit skinny and only just made 21kg.

I took my lighty for a dive on Sunday off the stairs, we dived all the way out to 4th reef. The water was very clean, but it was quiet. We dived for 3 hours with Braidy landing up shooting some reef fish on the inside.

Its good to see the fish starting to come on ..... with some luck we will get some more good water and some good diving.

The long term forecast is looking great for next weekend.

Cheers

Coatesman

Spearfishing Update

Well the water is still clean ...for now! that is - the rivers are coming down and it might all be over by this arvo ....bleak!!

The fish have been a little quiet, and only the odd fish being seen.

Dont forget Salty's Club nite tonight ...... and the club shirts going cheap!!

Hey I also found this article on the web .... interesting.

Coatesman

LAHAINA - It was a fishing tournament with an environmental twist providing a $10,000 benefit for a longtime spear fisherman, Sean "Stody" Stodelle, diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

The "Roi Roundup" held Nov. 9 drew 80 divers from Maui and Oahu to waters off Lahaina. They targeted three invasive reef fish - roi, toau and taape, which were introduced to Hawaiian waters in the 1950s. The goal was to reduce the population of introduced predators as a way of protecting indigenous reef fish. The tournament was held as part of International Year of the Reef activities.

Of particular concern is the roi, also known as the blue-spotted grouper, a voracious predator that grows up to 16 inches long and is estimated to eat an average of 146 fish a year. The roundup hauled in 218 roi, which tournament organizers reason saved more than 31,000 reef fish.

Toau and taape, both in the snapper family, feed on young reef fish as well as compete for the crustaceans favored by reef fish such as weke and kumu. Taape, which can form large schools, have displaced other nearshore fishes more popular as food fish.

The tournament was supported by the Maui County and the Office of the Mayor. Other sponsors were Maui Sporting Goods and the Hard Rock Cafe in Lahaina.

"This tournament brought together many from our community who care about the health of our islands' reefs," said Mayor Charmaine Tavares. "Divers, businesses and agencies all played a role in this important event, which was one of the major highlights of this year's IYOR festivities. As more people learn about the destructive forces of invasive species on our reefs, more can be done as we work together to control them."

Tournament coordinator Brian Yoshikawa of Maui Sporting Goods said the days of tournaments with no limits or regard for resource laws were over, in favor of competitions that are purposeful and nondetrimental to the reef or to the ability of future generations to harvest fish to feed their families.

Darrell Tanaka, another coordinator of the fishing tournament and a lifelong fisherman, said the event's conservation twist was a novel idea.

"As a spearfisher, I find this concept of killing fish to save fish rather unique," he said. "We are the only ones that have the ability to help the reefs in this way, so as divers we need to put our abilities to good use."

Several state Department of Land and Natural Resources' Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement officers from Maui were on hand to support the event as well.

Enforcement officers Nalu Yen and Nathan Hillen participated in the tournament, while several others assisted with crowd control and checking in the divers with the catches.

"It was a great event, and I am so pleased that our staff was willing to participate in such a worthy cause to protect our coral reefs on their day off," said Randy Awo, the division's Maui branch chief. "Our officers also wanted to be there to support Sean and encourage him to keep fighting to overcome the cancer."

Stodelle, who was diagnosed with brain cancer two months ago, has become well known as a reef conservationist. He promotes diving safety through the Hawaii Skin Diver's Web site.

The Hard Rock Cafe provided support for last month's tournament by serving a continental breakfast for the divers, lunchtime entertainment by Leokane Pryor and Friends and other complimentary or discounted menu items. Dozens of businesses also donated prizes for the event.

A similar invasive species fishing tournament held earlier this year also focused on roi, toau and taape and drew approximately 54 divers. Money raised during that event supported Team Hawaii, a group of three divers who represented Hawaii in the U.S. Spearfishing Championships in Rhode Island in August.

Spearfishing Update

Hey guys,

The water has been real good ... just a pity the fish are so quiet. We dived Sheffield and did not see a fish. I saw 4 other divers who also saw nothing. I heard the same from a mate who dived Tiffs.

But the conditions are still looking epic for the next few days...so we will keep trying!!

Coatesman

Salty Diver End of Year Club Nite

Hey there!

This Friday is the Salty Divers End of Year Club Nite Jol. 

We will start with a good ol "Dop en Chop" ..... why change a good thing Right?

The guys were amped to hit the town after ... but Saterday looks like it could seriously be on for a dive. So I think the guys might take it easy.

Any way we will be there ..... maybe we will get a DVD and the big screen up?

See ya there

Coatesman

Braiden's First Iggie

Braiden Coates Ignobilis Kingfish

Friday afternoon had epic conditions, the water was warm, blua and the was almost no swell. I decided to take my son Braiden for a dive, and at 11years he is becoming quiet the little diver.

We dived off a local point with a small reef in about 8m of water just a short distance off the backline. I was hoping to see some snoek or even a lost Garrick .... there have still been the odd one coming out.

Anyway we were at the drop off and in this cave was this little Iggie, Braidy tried acouple times to get down, and into the cave. But his ears were giving him hastles and could just not get deep enough to get an angle to see the fish.

So I decided to chase the fish out the cave hoping Braidy would get a shot, the fish darted out and Braidy had dived in the wrong direction missing the fish. Next thing the fish comes back to the cave, Braidy dives down before it can get inside and he nailed it!

It wasn't massive but hey its an Iggie ... not sure too many 11 year olds can clame an Iggie?

Coatesman

Spearfishing News

After some great diving yesterday ..just not by me :-) the sea still looked great for a dive this morning even tho the east was on the water.

My mate Mike is down in the eastern Cape, and got a great Garrick yesterday. Apparently the Cracker ar loose as well. So I am sure he will have some more pics by the end of the week.

Mike Constantino 17.2kg Garrick shot somewhere in the Kei.

Andy finally sent some pics from his Tanzania trip, I am still hoping that he will do a write up on his trip as it sounded like they had some serious challenges with stuff being stolen and big fish swimming off with their kit.

Andy Hewood Tanzanian Iggie

Andy and a Doggie that did not get away.

Coatesman

Pap Speargun Rubber, Empty Fish Blik!

I am always telling guys in the shop to ensure their speargun rubbers are correctly setup. This morning I should have taken my own advice!! 

I have been out the water with a stomach bug and have been hearing stories of the odd cuta starting to come out. So when I woke up this morning and I did not have to bolt for the toilet. I made a beeline for my spearfishing kit and speed up the coast to a spot up north.

I grabbed my 1.3 reelgun, I had heard the current was screaming and wanted to be able to hook in instead of swimming against the current.

I had not used the gun since last summer and just assumed that it was all good.

Anyway the long and short of it was that I tagged 4 cuta, all good shots .. I just don't think the spear went through one of them! One was a really good size fish that I shot at a fairly close distance.

So you can well imagine the frustration, after the fourth fish, I swam in .... no point in tagging fish!

The only up side was that I did not have to carry 40kg of fish 2km back along the beach.

Tomorrow unfortunately has a busting North east from early bells and I don't think there is ant chance of a dive.

So remember ....'Pap Speargun Rubber = Empty Fish Blik"

Coatesman

Weekends Spearfishing Update.

Hey Guys sorry I did not post yesterday, I came down with a bug and was fairly cooked most of the day. ....and did not get to dive.

The guy guys got in and reported seeing some fish, mostly small snoek. Hey at this stage of the game small snoek sounds tasty! They all said it was greenish and very cold on the bottom. 

The arvo turn yuk, with 3-4m vis and very cold, so I know some guys called todays dive off. 

But I think the water actualy loked ok .... from the beach.

There were a whole bunch of guys up at Ponta this past weekend and they unfortunatly had green cold water, with very few good fish.

There could be a couple dives this week, so keep an eye open.

Coatesman

Sailfish Spearfishing Record Broken

Sven Arro 51kg Sailfish - Pending Salt Rock Spearfishing Record

Sven Arro came seriously right a few days ago when he shot a 51kg Sailfish off Durban. The Sailfish was shot with a 1.2m speargun and it was on a reel!

Here is Svens account:

Enrico and I went out to No. 1 on Tuesday afternoon amidst the drizzle and mist to find some cleanish water. Viz was around 15 metres and fish were on the wild side.

My “shik-shik machine” brought in this saily that really didn’t care much about my presence and I was able to get a good shot at close range…so a shot was let off to the head area with my 1.2m reel gun. After that, it took about 20 minutes to subdue and place on the duck. Landed up weighing in at 51 Kilos.

Strange I had just put up the pics of the Indo-Pacific Sailfish when a mate sent the message alerting me that Sven had nailed a big one. The Sailfish is a pending Salt Rock Spearfishing Record, and will be a record that will be hard to beat.

Coatesman

Indo Pacific Sailfish

Shoaling Indo Pacific Sailfish

Sailfish eye candy! My mate Scotty sent me these pictures from a his fathers mate, he wont tell me where they were taken ... and you can understand why. But I will be pressing him for more info on these shoaling Sailfish's where abouts ..for sure!

Sailfish - Lights On! An Excited Sailfish showing its colours.

Sailfish have reported to grow up to 100kg and the South African & World Spearfishing Record is 63.4kg shot by Allan Haydorn up at Cape Vidal. My personal best is only 35.5kg - Mozambique Sailfish
Most Spearfishermen will only take a couple of these majestic creatures in there lifetime. I cant wait for the day when I can get a good oppertunity to get some Sailfish like this on film ... it will be epic.



For more info on the Indo-Pacific Sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) visit Fishbase - Indo-Pacific Sailfish

Cheers,

Coatesman

Spearfishing Update

Hey guys,

I got up early and was on the beach at 4am to find a solid 6ft swell running. Unfortunately the east was allover the surf and I landed up going back to bed.

The east has not pumped so I suppose that is a good thing, and I noticed that the Tongaat river is not flowing too strong so there is some hope. The bad news is that the east is on and off all the way til Sunday.

So be it I suppose!

I am still waiting for a write up from the guys who went to Tanzania, and will post it asap!! Morne and friends crossed the boarder into Mozambique this morning for a week at the Pinnacles! I am sure there will be a story or two when they get back.

Other than that ... the road is going to be all the action I am lightly to get :-(

Coatesman

Look Out - Here comes the Surf!

Hey Guys,

Sorry I did not post yesterday, was running around like a headless chicken. Oh and trying to squeeze in some diving in between as the water was crystal clean.

I got in late in the arvo with my son Braiden, he missed a good sized Garrick. He was pretty bumbed until he found a pot hole full of lead. He collected 8kg for his weight making business, so he was super stoked!

This mornings dive was good, the vis was great and I managed a 7kg Garrick which came in on the drop off out in 17m of water.
There was not too much else going on, but it was good just to get a solid dive in.

The forcast shows a large strong swell coming through this arvo and pushing through to tommorrow. It will possibly too big to spearfish, but we might get some really good waves.

The rest of the week shows easterlies, so if you are desperate for a dive ... go now!!

Later

Coatesman

Spearfishing .. Whats coming up?

Hey Guys the West is going to hit tonight and with a little bit of luck maybe the clean water will come in despite the dirty river water that is around.

If the rain holds off and the clean water comes in we could have diving Sunday to Tuesday ... hold thumbs!!

Andy Henwood and John Little returned from a very eventful trip to Tanzania. The Speared some great fish ...but lost some kit to some massive Doggies! I am sure Andy will do a write up which I will be sure to post.

Cheers for now

Coatesman

Spearfishing Southern Mozambique

Sean O'Connor - With a Southern Mozambique Bus sized Wahoo!

Owen 2x Wahoo lucky - Gee great fish!

Sean o Connor and friends just got back from a Southern Mozambique Spearfishing trip. Spring time up there can have the most amazing spearfishing, but can also have the most terrible weather. The guys only got in the water on a couple occasions and I dont think they even got a whole day in.

Never the less they got some great Wahoo all around the 30kg mark!! They also got some other great fish, and Sean managed a 12kg Dorado ... I bet that made some serious chow!!

There is another crew going up next week, so it will be interesting to see how they do.

Cheers

Coatesman


Book your own Mozambican Spearfishing Adventure go to: Spearfishing Charters Mozambique

Spearfishing Update

Hey guys,

I got in the water this morning, the vis wasnt too bad a green 6m, and a little on the chilly side. The fish were quiet and we did not see any gamefish. There were loads of Whales around, and the Sharks Board guy said he counted 6 whales off Salt Rock.

The east is going to pump tomorrow and then turn south again until Sunday. So we might get in on Sunday again.

Coatesman

Spearfishing Weekends Update

Howdy,

Well I never got in, but the guys did find some clean water down south off Umkomass. The KZN trials went ahead and some good fish came out in the mix.

What was encouraging was a report from some guys diving Aliwal shoal. They managed some cuta, a 20kg Iggie and a 30kg Sailfish that was swimming around a floating bag.

Some mates also just got back from a week at Ponta, were they battled for good conditions, but when they did get in they made up for it with some quality fish. From what I heard they got 3 wahoo just under the 30kg mark among some other really good fish.

Back at home the surf was pumping a solid 6ft and I got my ass kicked ... ok I was surfing a 5'10" twin fin!! I got some good barrels and some hair-assed takeoffs ....all good I suppose :-)

This week it will be Thursday before we get in .... the tides will be starting to get high in the morning by then so it will probably mean we will be diving if the water gets clean.

Thats all for now

Coatesman

Two Cement Barges Run Aground off Cape Vidal

Two American Barges 12km North of Cape Vidal

Last week 2 barges ran aground just north of Vegetation's at Cape Vidal!! I must have had my head in the ground, coz I only heard about them today.

The first Barge has been dragged 24km out to sea, a little too far to be of any value to us dives. I cant see why they could not sink it in shallower water, even if it were in 40 meters it would still attract fish.

The second barge is still on the shore, and they are waiting for the next spring tide to try and remove it from the beach. I heard via the grape vine that they might sink the second one in shallower water and make an Artificial Reef. Freaken yippy and much celebrations!!! Imagine that a barge of that size up at Vidal!! My mind is doing flick flacks at the diving to be had!!

All they need to do is make sure that the barge sinks parallel to the current, so we can do nice long drifts down it length as it lies in 25 - 35m of water ....depth i am not to fussy about tho.
(ok 30-35 will be perfect, no use it being shallow....... there are enough snoek spots!!)

My only fear is that the bunny Hugger's will get there paws on the wreck and make it off limits like the Nabo and Produce!

Another interesting saga is going down ...

The Diomed on the beach at Banga Nek

Also in the last week or so a Trawler called Diomed ran aground just north of Banga Nek, about 15km south of the boarder. This vessel has been taken off the beach an was being towed away when it apparently under mysterious circumstances sank! Unfortunately it is 250m of water, another diving opportunity wasted!!

I will try keep you up to date with the 2nd Barge
(if any one has more info please give me a shout or just add a comment to this blog)

Coatesman

Salty Divers Club Nite

Hey Guys its Club Nite on Friday!

And there is a new DVD to watch ... apparently it is outstanding and there are over 100 species of fish, a film that has taken a couple years to put together!!

We will do the usual "Dop en Chop", but in the event of rain just bring a pizza or something to share.

We will also be looking ahead to next year and some of the plans to try and get more diving in ....so pull in and check it out.

On the weather front the east is going to pump then turing tio a South West on Friday and Saturday, so with some luck Sunday will be diveable.

Thats all for now,

Coatesman

Queen Fish Spearfishing Record

Morne Muller Queen Fish 10.55kg
New Salt Rock Spearfishing Record

Its about time some one broke a record at the Salt Rock Spearfishing Club. Morne just pips the old record 10.50kg that was set in November 2004 by Ivor Sykes.

The Salty's Site has been down for some time, so here is an updated records list:

Salt Rock Spearfishing Records

Bardman	5.1kg	Iain Ewing
Black Marlin	125kg	Andy Henwood
Blood Snapper	5.4kg	Iain Ewing
Bone Fish	4.65kg	Sean Burns
Brusher	8.2kg	Shaun Reid
Catface Rockcod	6.5kg	Sean Burns
Cuta	24kg	Andy Henwood
Dagga	36.8kg	Warren Blackmore
Dorado	12.5kg	Ivor Sykes
Kingfish Fulvie	12.3kg	Morne Muller
Kingfish Gaint (Iggie)	48kg	Sean O'Connor
Garrick	19.5kg	Warren Blackmore
Geelbeck	9.8kg	Chris Coates
Job fish	10.5kg	Mike Cook
Kingfish (yellow tail)	9,5kg	Shaun Ried
Pick handle Barracuda	11.4kg	Andy Henwood
Pompano	10kg	Warren Blackmore
Prodigal Son	19.98kg	Chris Coates
Queenfish	10.55kg	Morne Muller
Sail fish	33kg	Sean O'Connor
Sangora	9.0kg	Sean O'Connor
Snoek	9.6kg	Chris Coates
Spotted Grunter	5.5kg	Bruce Long
Stumpnose Bream	4.35kg	John Van Rooyen
Threadfin Mirrorfish	9.22kg	Craig Harper
Wahoo	25.2kg	Morne Muller
Yellow Fin Tuna	27kg	Sean Burns

Monday Morning Blues

Monday Morning 5:00:
Wind - light off shore
Swell - 6ft and clean
Tide - High but the wave is coming off the point.

I shot home, grabbed a coffee and my board, boardies and a towel.

Monday Morning 5:30:
Wind - Brisk South West
Swell - 6ft and Choppy
Tide - Who cares the surf is alover the place!

Thats how my morning started :-) - I suppose it could have been worse, like sitting in traffic!!

The weekend had some nice surprises! I did not think that the dive or surf would be good, and we got both!
Saturday turned out to be a pearler, and there were waves almost all day. The big surprise was the vis, it was actually quiet good. I got in for an arvo dive and landed up getting my first cuta for the new season.My mate got a garrick ... on the sand off the drop off (this tells me that the Garrick are now in full return mode, They seem to run deep sometimes and the large shoals seem to break down into one and sometimes 2's)

Sunday the west was blowing but it was sunny and there were some super fun waves at surfers beach. The banks arnt bad and with some luck there will be some good surfing going down this week.

Looking a head a little .... It is Salty Club Nite on Friday so make sure you are free to join us.

Thats all for now ..cheers

Coatesman

Bugg Season Comes to an End

Crayfish Season Closes today! I tried a last ditch attempt at getting in, but the vis was horrid and there was loads of swell. I spent about 20min in the water looking for a fish for the pot, and then called it quits.

At this stage I dont think we will be diving tomorrow either :-(

Coatesman

Jaco Blignaut Would Have Come 2nd At Spearfishing World Champs!!

Here is some more news from Tony Heugh who was at the World Spearfishing Championships in Venezuela:

"Jaco was unfairly disqualified on the first day, after the Chilean divers lodged a protest against him for using a body stringer.

Jaco did not use a body stringer. All he did was to swim his fish to the boat and hand it to the commissioner. Technically we all did this - how else does one get the fish to the boat?

The Chilean divers were irritated with Jaco because he found fish in the same cave they had also scouted. Jaco had a plan to get these fish by surfacing into an air pocket at the back of the cave and stringing his fish on a stringer attached to a drop weight at the bottom of the cave. This way he did not have to swim out of the cave each time he speared a fish.

The Chilians never thought of Jaco's method and were very envious when they saw him swim out of the cave with a stringer of weighers. Other top divers including Maurizio backed Jaco but the judicial committee interpereted the rules the way of the Chileans and their protest was upheld.

I tried several times to intervene on Jaco's behalf. Jaco consistantly stuck to his version of the events and most of the divers, including myself, believed his version.
The food, accomodation and facilities were great and the boats we used were adequate with only a couple of breakdowns.

The standard of organisation for the competition was not up to scratch. Each day hours were spent hanging around the start wasting time while the organisers went about seemingly without direction. I have never before been to a competition where I had to get upat 5.30am for an 11h45 start.

On the 2nd day the armader of boats congregated at the same starting point of the first day and waited for the official boat to turn up. When it eventually arrived the chief organiser adresssed everyone in Spanish and the boats sped away to a new starting point. About half of the divers and commissioners with them, thought the competition had started and sped off to begin diving.

After about 1/2 and hour these people were recalled and penalised 1 hour for false starting.
Gyula was one of them. The organiser told him to get off his boat and onto the official boat and then gave his boat to one of the Croatian divers. Apparently one of the outboards on the Croatian's boat was playing up. The Croatian then left for the competition area with Gyuyla's gear after the new start. Although Gyula was only penalised 1 hour he did not get his gear back for the next 2 hours.

Not surprisingly Gyula and one of the Kiwi divers decided to make a statement and headed back to the hotel instead of diving the second day.

There were very few weigher fish around for both days of the competition. The areas were relatively small. Most of the fish were on the outside (seaward side) of the islands, with little but sand between and wide of the islands. Teams who had spent a lot of time scouting with sounders found scaterred patches out deep but these were heavily fished during the competition and the fish did not hang around.

The top divers weighed between 5 and 8 fish per day and Jaco would have been 2nd overall with two hauls of 8 fish (white margo - rubber lips).

There was a lot of noise from the 65 boats working the small areas each day and we wee lucky there were no injuries due to boating incidents. All the boats had a high prow - dificult to see past, with a view only down one side for the tiller operating boat handlers.

In hindsight it would have been best to reduce the number of boats in the area by using 1 boat for each team of 3 divers instead of 3.

The next Titles will be in Croatia - after the last performance by the organisers in Croata where the venue was changed at the 11th hour, I don't see either New Zealand or Auastralia participating.

If you guys hold the comp off Durban in 2012 we will be there.

Rgds,
Tony."

Not Much Happening

Hey Guys,

Sorry there has been no posts, its just that there is nothing really happening on the Spearfishing side of things this side of the world. There is not even any surf!
At the moment the sea is brown with a lumpy east swell and the wind is about to start pushing from the south.

With some luck we might get some cleaner water, but its a long shot I think!

The SA spearo team should be back so I am sure that there a full report on what went down. Just picking up on what has been said, it looks like there was a fair amount of questionable circumstances around the way the champs were run.

Anyway I will keep you posted ...

Coatesman

CMAS Underwater fishing World Championship Venezuela 2008

The Final results for the CMAS Underwater fishing World Championship Venezuela 2008.

INDIVIDUAL FINAL RANKING
POS	ATHLETES	COUNTRY
1	Joseba Kerejeta	Espana Spain
2	Loannis Sideris	Grecia Greece
3	Pedro Carbonell	Espana Spain
4	Maurizio Ramaccttio	Italy
5	Daniel Gospić	Croacia
6	Andre Domingues	Portugal
7	Alex Ortega	Venezuela
8	Juan Fuentes	Spain
9	Bruno de Silvestri	Italy
10	Harol Dean	United States
11	Antonio Buratović	Croatia
12	Jhony Reyes	Venezuela
13	Kevin Daly	Great Britain
14	Jaco Blignaut	South Africa
15	Zephirin Tarahu	Tahiti
16	Stefano Bellani	Italy
17	Benoist David	France
18	Miguel Soto	Chile
19	Jody Lot	Portugal
20	Paulo Longo	Brazil
21	Antonio Silva	Portugal
22	Dario Marinov	Croatia
23	Franco Bosquez	Chile
24	Roman Fedash	Ukraine
25	Carlos Fung	Peru
26	Kieran Andrews	New Zealand
27	Drew Fenney	Australia
28	Jhony Ortega	Venezuela
29	Lossy Loic	France
30	Kuznestsov Mikhail	Russia
31	Paul Roso	Australia
32	Tsiou Fouc Franck	Tahiti Tahiti
33	Andrii Lagutin	Ucrania Ukraine
34	Fernando Thoni	Brasil Brazil
35	Mike Hickey	United States
36	Jorge Rodriguez	Chile Chile
37	Daniel Márquez	Peru Peru
38	Gyula Plagany	South Africa
39	Paul Christie	Australia
40	Peter Herbert	New Zealand
41	Alan Fraser	South Africa
42	Nicolás Milanes	Colombia
43	Keith Eayrs	Great Britain
44	Emmanouil Peristeris	Greece
45	Julian Lockett	Peru
46	Nikolaos Kambanis	Greece
47	Teva Montagnon	Tahiti
48	Volkan Demircioğlu	Turkey
49	Georges Martens	Brazil
50	Jorge Pareja	Colombia
51	Hebert Delgado	Colombia
52	Rapo Jukka Tom	Finland
53	Levonen Jukka Tapio	Finland
54	David Pearce	Great Britain
55	Shane Fitzmaurice	New Zealand
56	Mario Espinoza	Peru
57	Alexander Kochetrov	Russia
58	Olga Surgakora	Russia
59	Steve Tetuani	Tahiti
60	Selim Konya	Turkey
61	Sergii Kozlenko	Ukraine
62	Salakari Marko	Finland
63	Mille Christian	France
64	Anthony Heugh	Australia
65	Miguel Guinovart	United States
66	Laakso Pertti Rudolf	Finland
67	Bonci David	France
68	Hakan Gencer	Turkey
TEAM RESULTS FINAL RANKING BY COUNTRY
POS	COUNTRY
1	Spain
2	Italy
3	Croatia
4	Portugal
5	Venezuela
6	Greece
7	Chile
8	United States
9	Tahiti
10	South Africa
11	France
12	Great Britain
13	Brazil
14	Australia
15	Ukraine
16	Peru
17	New Zealand
18	Russia
19	Colombia
20	Finland
21	Turkey

Jaco in the throws of being disqualified

We almost had a good result, Jaco would have probably come 4th overall if it were not for being disqualified for caring fish on his belt. Moo and Gyula had shockers both having days when they did not get any points at all! Flip if they went getting weighers it must have been hard going!

Jaco finished in 14th far from 4th and his score helped SA aleast get to 10th.

I am sure there will be a full report out on the World Spearfishing Champs soon.

Coateman

Almost got in again!

The sea almost was do able this morning, the rain and south west made just that little bit uninviting! I was actually hoping for a surf ... but no luck.

I was forwarded the official web site for the World Spearfishing Champs in Venezuela
Here is an English version of the article.

Otherwise there is not too much going down,

Coatesman

Should , could & would have gone diving!

Flip I could kick myself, I woke up before 4 bells to go dive, I could hear the wind blowing so I jumped on the pc to see what the wind was doing at Durban Airport. The wind was South West at 6knots. The forcast showed that it was going to pick up through the morning. So I went back to bed.
Big mistake the wind dropped to 3 knots and the sea was epic when I drove part en route to the office at 6bells.

The wind is "supposed" to pump today so no chance of an arvo sesh to make up for missing it.
hey I really do need to get that house on the beach, so I can check the conditions properly!!

Dream on

Coatesman

What went down on the weekend.

Oversized Catface Rock Cod - pic Morne Muller

Gee this weekend we had some epic diving conditions, Saturday was one of those days when it is good to be alive. We dive north Tinley and the vis was well over 20m, the game fish were quiet but the fish life was out of this world.

One of the pinnacles had slinger, bronze bream, soldiers and others feeding right up to the surface. We dived alot of reef around the 20-26m mark and most the time you could make out the reef from the surface.

The guys who dived the Natal trails were not so lucky with a merky 3m vis on the Bluff. The guys who went to Sordies and Vidal had it good tho, with Wahoo and cuta coming out. Even a Iggie over 20kg saw shot ....

The freaky thing was that there were reports of the fishing skies getting cuta all along the north coast .... apparently even a Wahoo came out off Umhloti?

Any Way it was good to have a weekend when the wind did not pump all week end. .. lets hope we are this luck next weekend!

Other news is that the PMB guys are getting together:

Hi All,

Well it's getting to that time of the month for our monthly get together which will be held on the 30 October at the Pietermaritzburg Underwater Club from 6:30pm.

We will be screening the latest Freedivers DVD which has not been officially released yet but Shane has been kind enough to let us have a sneak preview. It features Ryan Burmester & Len De Beer diving off the Natal coastline spearing some awesome fish. Not to be missed!

There will be the usual cash bar and once again 1000 Hills Chef School is going to be preparing a delicious chicken curry at R20 a plate.

For catering purposes please RSVP if you would like to join us for supper.

Once again please forward this to anyone you think would be interested.

Hope to see you all there.

Andrew Henwood

Thats all for now,

Cheers

Coatesman