Summer Spearfishing Cape Vidal

Hein du Plessis good Spanish Mack off Leven Point - Cape Vidal

With all the rain on the KZN coast about the only place to go spearfishing at the moment is Cape Vidal.  Desperate to get our gills wet, we headed up the coast on Wednesday for a quick day trip to see if we could get some diving in.
Cape Vidal in December can be frustrating as it can be extremely quiet, the early spring shoals of 'return' Couta (these are Spanish Mackerel big and fat from feeding on the shoals of sardines down south during winter that go back to Mozambique during the summer)  and the Wahoo run have come and gone.
That is not so say you wont find the odd straggler or early shoal Couta , but generally the action only starts in mid January.

Never the less with no other diving going on we headed up and we were blessed with some nice clean water. As was expected the fish were quiet and we only managed to get one small Couta. Some other friends of mine also went up, but they stayed the night at Vidal and got on the sea early and Hein managed to get good Couta early on in the morning.
Apparently there were a few fish around early, which is typical of Leven Point. These early fish usually disappear once the sun is up and more boats arrive.

Tiger Shark off Deep Oscar at Cape Vidal

After a few hours of fishless drifts we headed out to the dep pinnacles at Deep Oscar. On my first drift even though the current was screaming I landed right above the bump. As I dived I saw a couta deep below me and swam down to intercept the fish. But when I levelled out at about 28m with the fish, I was joined by 3 Tiger Sharks, a Zambezi and a Grey Shark. If that was not enough there were a couple Potato Bass circling below just off the reef. It was like they were all going, "come on we dare you to shoot!"
For once I heeded my better judgment and did not take the shot, but situation I found my self in was absolutely awe inspiring. Sharks and other predators all congregating, almost like animals at a watering hole in a drought. So when I hit the surface the speargun was quickly swapped for a DSLR camera.

JP with a small Tiger Shark at Deep Oscar

We battled to get on the exact spot again, also diving with a large camera housing that resembles a potjie pot did not make it any easier. never the less we had some Tigers come up and follow us around for a while. One of the sharks was extremely large and fat, possibly one of the biggest Tigers I have ever seen. This big shark as obviously been around the block a few times and was a bit camera shy and was not keen to get too close.

Although we did not get many fish, it was a great day out and diving with all the sharks was rather cool. The water here at home is still brown and the rivers are still pumping so there is a good chance we will head back to Cape Vidal this next week again. Hopefully we can get lucky this time with some better fish.

Coatesman

Rain Rain Go Away! Please ....

Tongaat River pumping mud.

This weekend was the first time in a while that the water actually started to look good. Most guys got in somewhere along the North Coast, and although the fish where generally quiet some got a few Snoek in the shallows.

I managed to get in yesterday and got my first Couta of the season. Guy Leme and myself had been diving all morning and it was hard going. The current was screaming and making it hard  stay close to the boat, let alone to stay on the spot.

I was actually ready to hit the beach and Guy wanted to have a last look at one of the deep spots that come up to 28m off the Umvolti mouth. His first dive produced a Couta and in no time we were anchored and looking for fish.

After a while and nothing coming onto the flasher I started to look on the bottom for reef species  Only to have a shoal of Couta swim over me. I managed to get a nice fish of 13kg and then another smaller one. It seemed every time I got to the bottom something swam in, but chasing Couta at 28m after a long day is not ideal and I fluffed a shot on a Snoek and dropped a Couta with a bad gut shot.

Things were looking good and it is good to see the Couta making an appearance. All this is actually of no good tho considering the amount of rain we had last night and how the rivers are all pumping mud into the ocean. On my way into Durban this morning I snapped a pic of the Tongaat river vomiting mud ..... its damn depressing  Especially considering that we have not had a lot of diving and now it will be a good week before it comes right again. Well that is if we dont have any more rain.

 So forgive if I am not praying for rain!

Coatesman

Bonani Cele's First Fish

Bonani Cele with his first fish.

If you go into the back of the Rob Allen Dive Factory you will find a friendly face, the factory manager Bonani Cele. There is an interesting story behind this man. After years at the Dive Factory he became a little more than curious about spearfishing. This lead to him taking part in the PDI course with SAUFF a short while ago, where he was introduced to spearfish and water for the first time.

This weekend he joined Dane from the Dive Facs retail store for a dive off the piers in Durban. After a while and not seeing any fish Bonani ventured off over the sand and landed up in a shoal of Gunter. Congrats to Bonani, not too many guys can claim to have a class fish like this as their first fish.

Coatesman

1 Million Spearfishing Views

Onefish Going East over 1 million Youtube views

Going East has fast become one of the Top Spearfishing Video's on Youtube and has rack up the highest sales to date on Spearodvd.com a site that exclusively sells spearfishing dvd videos.

The video trailers funky slowmo sections, vibey music and awesome kill shots has been the recipe that has made it a firm favourite online. There are some other spearfishing video's with high views, but they have been there for years. Going East has achieved this in only 9 months, which is good for a spearfishing video on Youtube.

Any way just stoked to have been involved with this project :-)

Coatesman