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

Spearfishing Daga Salmon in Durban Bay

Good sized Daga Salmon speared off the wrecks.

The late winter this will not be remembered for its diving. The conditions have just been terrible, with cold green water plaguing our coast. Even after a number of westerlies that normally clean things up the sea remained undiveable.
This week saw the first break in the conditions and we were able to get back in the water. The large swell meant that the only launchable spot was in the bay in Durban. Not a bad thing as you can get to all the wrecks and containers as well as all the reefs further north.

The first few spots we looked at were horrible, and diving 28m in only a meter or so vis is not fun. But as we worked our way north the vis improved. We stopped at the wreck of the Fontao, I did not even think to take my camera as the previous spots were not good.

As always I am a little slow off the mark and the other guys dived down while I was still prepping tom dive.
Not wanting to go over where they had been I drifted back in the current. Knowing that this would probably put me off the wreck and in deeper water than I would have liked I took my time.

When I hit the sand the wreck was just visible, and the water was actually very clean. Next thing a whole shoal of Daga came swimming in to have a look and with them 3 or 4 Iggies aswell. What a sight .... absolute eye candy!!! Its times like that you really need the camera.

Not wanting to blow the opportunity and land up having night mares reliving the scene over and over in my head I made sure on a fish that gave me a good shot.

The wrecks are super fun, but you need to be fit. With the diving being so bleak the 26-28m dives became quiet difficult after a while.

We did manage another Daga and some good sized Grunter. Not bad for morning out!

Lets hope we get some more ...

Coatesman

Durban Spearfishing Cooks

21+ Orang Spot Grouper

There is a reason that at this time of the year some of KZN's best divers stay at home an dive the Durban basin. The water is all ways good but when you find the fish ... you find the fish!
This past week while the North Coast was murky and not very pleasant, Durban had good water and the fish came on. But this is not for your doppie diver most of the diving is between 26 and 30m and even if you can dive that depth you need to beat guys like Brod, Staats and G-Lem to the spot ..... not lightly.

With Dagga the main course, and huge shoals of Grunter as the side dish its no surprise that there were more than a few guys not at work last week Even the odd Couta came out off the Bluff side. But the fish of the week must go to Brod for a 21+kg Orange Spot Grouper, that is a fantastic fish in any water let alone Durban!

G-Lem and a good Dagga, with some more fish on the floor.

It is a pity the conditions did not hold for the weekend and the Hibiscus Gamefish Comp. Most guys decided to dive the shoal area and it was just one of those days when the fish were not there. The winning fish landed up being a Garrick and not too many other decent fish being weighed.

This week looks promising, the big east swell came and wrecked the good vis that moved in over the weekend. Hopefully it will subside and give us a gap to get in.

Coatesman

Sardine Shoals Hit Durban

Sardine netters at Vetchies in Durban this morning.

The first Sardine shoals have started to appear in the Durban area this weekend. These small pilot shoals are fairly sporadic and can pop up any where. This morning they came into the Durban basin and the sardine hunters tried there luck at netting them at Vetch's beach.

Last year the Sardine shoals came into the bay in force and it was a frenzy for a few days down on Durbans south beaches.

This year the shoals coming up are not really that big and the guys have had not too much success netting the sards down the coast.

It will be good if the conditions will settle a bit and we can get some diving in .... especially if the pockets of Sardines are around.

Coatesman

Cuta, Snoek bring on the Summer

Well the conditions at home are not great, but the news of some cuta and snoek coming out has brightened things up a little. A mate got a 16kg cuta off the Bluff earlier in the week and another mate reported that the ski boaters had boated some cuta and snoek of Durban yesterday as well.

I was also talking to a guy who has just come back from Sordwana, he got some Dorado,an Iggie and a small Wahoo. Some cuta were also boated and another guy got a 35kg Sailfish.
All we need now is some clean seas and we will be in the thick of things .... I hope.

Coatesman