How to take Spearfishing Photographs

How to take fish photographs. It is always advisable to hold the fish as far forward as possible and with little children present, preferably babies!

I found this in a book called 'Modern Spearfishing' from the 50's! Its too funny and this was just too good not to put up on the blog.
It is so try tho, how many guys do you see with pictures of fish way out in front of them trying to make the fish look big. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to notice. The ol elbow locked into the stomach and the fish out front! The thing is no serious spearo is going to acknowledge the fish you shot and you get pooled with the plebs and tonsils that need to prove something

My advice is hold the fish by the gills and against your body, if it is long let the tail just touch t.he ground. This way in 10 years time you will look back and be proud ..... even if it is only an average fish.

Smiles

Coatesman

More Surf than we can Handle

Steven Rice on a solid wave up the north coast.

We have had some serious waves over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday were maxing out at most of the North Coast surf spots. And once the swell dropped the sea was left all churnned up, and there was more diving ing to be had in a toilet bowl.

This week is SA Nationals, hopefully the conditions turn out a little better.

Coatesman

Spearfishing on The North Coast

Spearfishing has been a bit disappointing lately, so much so I think many guys have lost a bit of interest ... myself included.

That said yesterday morning the sea almost magically was clean, Morne took the chance and was one of the few to get it good. He landed up with a shoal couta and a snoek.
The guys tried in the afternoon but drew a blank, and said that water had gone back its mucky state.

I spoke to Jaco Blignaut on the weekend and he said even the shoal was not good and was around the 20 deg cold side on the bottom. I did hear that Marcus Potgieter got some fish while fishing on the shoal tho.

Even the ski boaters are struggling up here .... a mate fished and said that they got a small tuna, and that was it.



The next few days will have a bit of swell with the swell really pumping over the weekend. I am not sure if we are going to come right at all.

On the other hand the guy in the cape have had some great diving. Leonard Van Wyk sent me some pics of a dive they did recently.

That's a good haul of Cape Tail!!

Hows this for clean water .... and its in the Cape!!

Coatesman

Chanos Chanos - Spearfishing Cape Vidal

Koos Jordaan 25kg Chanos Chanos at Cape Vidal

The Spearfishing along the coast has been rather dismal over the last few months. However there has been more and more news of shoal cuta coming out on the Zululand coast. Zululander Koos Jordaan got a good size Chanos at Vidal recently .... I wonder if they have been getting any of those shoal Couta? I do hope so, as the Wahoo Winter Game Fish Comp is set for the end of May and it will be good to have some good fish to shoot in the comp.

There are still some reports of the odd good Couta off the Shoal and the Wahoo are starting to make an appearance out there. Traditionally the Wahoo turn on in May on the Shoal. This year I am hoping to get out there at least once.

Anyway the west is blowing and we will see what this does to our gingerbeer coloured water.


Coatesman

Spearfishing on the North Coast Still Quiet

The sea finally gave us a gap after the light west on Wednesday, and cleaned up nicely yesterday. With the game fish being quiet In have been focusing on spending time surfing with the lighty before he heads back to school. So we surfed in the morning on the low and did a arvo dive on the high.

We went out to the drop-off at Tiffs, the water was slightly warmer 25deg and the lateral vis was around 8m. There was loads of small sprats and reef fish, I really thought that we were going to see a Couta. But it was not to be it was dead quiet. There were 2 other divers and they also saw squat!

Reports from Zululand are that the shoal Couta are starting to come out in number. And the Shoal is producing some really big Couta, and the odd Wahoo.

The forecast for the weekend looks bleak, with maybe something on offer on Sunday if the swell holds off. Most of next week looks real disappointing and the east looks to blow all week until Friday. I guess its going to be some road work for me :-(

Coatesman

Easter Weekend Spearfishing Update

Well for once we had some decent conditions, the swell forecast looked like we were going to get really big waves. The swell did not really materialise and there was a dive almost every day this long weekend.

The game fish are still hiding, and i dont think the 23-24 deg water is helping. Its just not warm enough, come to think of it we have not had any real warm water this summer. We ave had the odd day when the surface layer was warmish but thats about it.

Never the less I did get in a couple times ... justr to go punish the buggs. I took my lighty with and he managed to do some amazing diving. Its the first time he has dived since the freediving workshop we did with Fernando a month back. The workshop obviously helped and he was catching his crays in water as deep as 11.5m For a little chap that's amazing, it has really opened up new places for him to dive, and its going to be interesting to see how his diving improves from here.

I did not here of any action other than some fisherman getting some fish here and there. Darrell Hattingh sent through this report from the South Coast.

Well, what a fabulous weekend!! saturday was one of the best days
we`ve seen this year with flat 8-10m conditions in my area anyway.
With the Hibberdene couta classic on, whatever snoek etc that were
around inshore must have moved out of the area with all the boating
activity etc but it was a crayfishing paradise. same went for sunday
morning though the swell was up a bit and the south- wester started
pushing.
Some really nice `couta came out despite a poor run so far and a
whopper 36.4 kg crocodile took first place, caught from a jet ski off
umkomaas on the colour line on a rapala.- most boats trolled baits for
two days without success but this guy had luck on his side(sunday
early) and had his lure in the water seven minutes before his reel
screamed and was almost emptied to the spool on its first run - what a
fine fish and a worthy winner!! I was comparing it to kev dalys
spearing record (of 36.8kg) and its really a big couta!! a 29 kg fish
came to the weigh in the on sat but under `dubious circumstances` and
was disqualified.HUC Roger payne was one of the only club entries and
he and Charl got a nice 8kg snoek in the compo.

Any other reports from spearing up and down??,some good fish must have
come out as i spoke to some scubies who also saw a group of `croc`
couta at Lander` on Saturday.

cheers-

darrell

April, May and June are notoriously frustrating on the North Coast, but we have had some good days in the past. Maybe with things on it's head we are still to get some fish?

Coatesman