Summer Spearfishing on the Coast

Some good sized Couta ..bring on the season!

The spearing season took a while to get going this year, I suppose it is not out of the norm that the Couta only pitch up properly in February anyway. We have had one or 2 days with fish, but the rain has played havoc and its been a matter of finding the clean patches along the coast.

Morne and I came right last week on late afternoon and got 3 or 4 good Couta each. I thought it was the beginning of the run, but the Couta have not really shown up in number, even though we have been diving hard since then.

Braidy with 2 nice snoek

The Snoek on the other hand showed up in force early this week, and most guys got some great fish. The shoals have seemed to move off to the south, as they have pretty much disapeared from the North Coast over the last 2 days. That said a mate of mine got 10 Snoek off Umhlanga yesterday and I heard that some Bluff guys got their quota of snoek off town somewhere. So who knows where they will be this weekend.

14kg Chanos Chanos

I dived this morning again in hope of finding the Couta or Snoek back on the reef at Salties. The swell was pumping and yesterdays rain water had made the vis terrible. I pushed some dives on the drop off hoping to find that the shoals of Couta were back but it was dead quiet. I decided to go look for snoek on the reef on the 13 -10m line where they were the previous week.

I was on the bottom gazing up looking for the silouets of the fish when this broad shape swam over me. At first I thought it was a shark, but on closer inspection i realised it was a fish. Prodical .. I thought ...no? It darted off the moment I moved up off the reef and did an arc. Just close enough for me to see that it was a Chano Chanos. I aimed at the now shape and fired. The fish bolted off stripping my reel and in no time I was on my buoy. Gee it was pulling hard! My flasher was 15m away and I tried to swim over to it and grab it, but the Chanos was way too strong. I did not want to loose my flasher so I let the fish go and swam for my flasher.

By the time I grabbed the flasher the fish had taken the buoy 50m away and it was not stopping. I gave chase hoping the fish would tire soon and I would catch up.
That was wishful thinking and it was 20min before I got to my buoy. I had forgotten how strong these are. I eventually landed the torpedo shaped fish, but only by a 'ball hair' as my shot had been quiet low.

The west is blowing now and sea should be good for the next few days if the rain stays away. I am not sure where the fish will be ...but we will keep looking.

Coatesman