Dogtooth Tuna Spearfishing - Speartopia Doggie Spearfishing Heaven

Dogtooth Tuna Spearfishing

Spearfishing Dogtooth Tuna off Madagascar's remote northern tip is mostly uncharted and difficult to get to. This makes for some of the most incredible Dogtooth spearfishing on the planet. Most of the spots on this trip had never been speared before, making this the ultimate spearfishing adventure. For more info on Coatesmans Madagascan spearing adventures : Dogtooth Tuna Spearfishing Madagascar

Best of MJK's Spearfishing

Watch Video Here - Best of MJK Spearfishing

I have been very fortunate & privileged to follow Mohammed Jassim Al-Kuwari .. a.k.a  MJK around the world on some the craziest spearfishing adventures. Each year he has put time and funds aside to do something 'special' and this video is the culmination of the last 6 years of 'special moments.

One of the things you will notice in the videos is the amazing 'stone' or kill shots. Some guys think he is a bit of a freak.. and he kind of is. But what people don't realise is the time and effort he puts into getting these shots right.
From perfecting gear and testing them in pools and in the ocean, I have not met any spearfisherman with the same dedication and passion for getting it right.

So I guess this in away is an ode to MJK's passion and commitment to his love for spearfishing, I hope you enjoy it.

Have a watch and please leave a comment and let me know what you thoughts are.

Cheers and enjoy

Coatesman

New Top Shots Spearfishing Video

New Top Shots Spearfishing Action

Just what we needed this fine Monday morning :-) ... a new spearfishing video to get us to do even less work!!
This Top Shots vid has some great spearfishing from Peru with a massiver Gulf Grouper and some pelagic action in some beautiful blue water in Madagascar.

Watch the Video Here: Peru and Madagascan Spearfishing Action

Enjoy

Coatesman

Join me on a spearfishing adventure of a lifetime to Madagascar & the famous Castor Banks - FIND OUT MORE HERE
SPEARFISHING MADAGASCAR | CASTOR BANKS & NOSY BE

Spearfishing is Over - Spring Has Sprung a Leak

Andy Henwood - All 'cracked up' on Deep Scotties.

 If you did not get in the sea last week best you dust off the running shoes. It is going to be while before the sea come right again, and with even more rain forecast the long term prognosis looks bleak & brown.

Andy Henwood took a chance at the end of last week and got out on the Shoal. The reports had been bad with cold green water, but his shoulder operation coming up this week he decided to take his chances as this will be his last dive for the next few months.

It looks like he made good on the day and while most of us were waiting for 'better days' he got busy. He said the vis was not good at all and it was very cold.

Andy with double luck! 

Green and cold! Well a nice Cracker and a Sailfish later he was smiling all the way home. I guess congrats go to him for getting out there when there was a gap. As for us plebs we sit still waiting ... for 'Better Days'

Moral of the story, drop everything and take the gaps!

Coatesman

Weekends Spearfishing In KZN

Koos Jordaan - Large Sailfish -  Cape Vidal 

This weekend saw some of the coldest water we have spearfished in KZN. On Sunday the water was a fridged 17 deg on the North Coast. The forecast looked good for Monday so we decided to extend the weekend and get away from the cold water by venturing to Cape Vidal with Koos Jordaan.

The water there was a bit water 21-22deg and we got some great Wahoo between 16-18 kg, some couta and a decent sized Cobia arround 18kg. Koos got a nice big Sailfish that was the cherry on the top of a great day.

Gary Uys - 23 Kob

Back home the guys dived the KZN trials on Sunday. Although the water was very cold at least it was reasonably clean. Gary Uys got a brilliant Kob, this with his 10 fish total gave him first place in the trial. Second was Sean Burns .. who was also diving with Gary! Do you think they found the fish??? I know some of the more competitive guys would have been pretty bleak at not placing well, especially since 'Burnsy's' competitive diving is strictly speaking a 'social' affair. ...... well so he says!

The results are as follows:

1. Gary Uys
2. Sean Burns
3. Brent Borstlap
4. Guy Le Meme
5. Carl Werner
6. Corry Versluis
7. Iain Ewing
8. John Girdza
9. Brandon Barth
10. Niel Barnard
11. Calvin

The next trials will be next year and probably on the south coast.

The weather and ocean forecast this week looks a bit bleak and it does not look like there is much chance of it warming up just yet.

And talking about cold and warm waters here is a segment out of the one fish film. The one section is in the Arctic circle with sub 10deg water and the other is in the Persian Gulf with plus 28deg water!!

If you cant see the Spearfishing Video - Go Here

Enjoy Coatesman

 Book your own Spearfishing adventure go to: Cape Vidal Spearfishing Charters and Guided Trips

Best Sailfish Footage Ever Seen.

Sailfish Drama from Howard Hall on Vimeo.

Ok if you enjoyed the last video I put up. This one with the sailfish is going to make you flip your lid. ......probably even more than the Dogtooth Tuna. The quality of this footage is unbelievable, it was shot on a camera called a 'Red One' it film at 5x full high definition.

This clip called Sailfish Drama was captured at Isla Mujeres, Mexico in February 2010. Many saw the pics ot the sailfish from this footage, but this is just sooooo much better.


Coatesman

Sordwana Marlin and Sailfish

Danie 80+kg Black Marlin & Craig with a 30 + kg Sailfish Speared off the Canyon at Sordwana.

We all dream about diving a spot when its on. This past weekend was one of those for a small bunch of guys in the right place at the right time. Craig Harper was one of the guys on the trip who came right not once but twice. It has not been with out paying some dues tho, he is a committed sojourner and has loads of trips under his belt. He will be the first to tell you its not always on! Most times its a hit and miss affair.

On this trip Craig got 2 sailfish in consecutive days ..both well in the 30's. He saw a Marlin of over 200kg but could not get a very good shot so did not shoot. Danie landed a Marlin on a reel gun and Greg Audi alos using a reelgun landed a 20+ kg Couta in some very deep water. I am sure there were other fish but they did not get mentioned for obvious reasons.

I am now dreaming of it being on for me!

Coatesman

Weekend Spearfishing Round Up

Proper sized Wahoo caught off Tiffanies!!

The past few days has seen some of the best vis on our coast this year. And best of all its been 4days and tomorrow still looks good. There have not been too many fish around, some cuta on the bottom out in the deep ...around the 25-30m range!! and some snoek also out in the deep ... they must be lost??

I have been spending time with Braidy looking for Garrick, we have seen a couple shoals but in the clean water they have kept their distance. A wahoo came out on a fishing ski off Tiffanies!!! Its not the first time this has happened ... but its not common. 

I have heard the Aliwal Shoal has had some good fish and Alistair from Extreme Spearfishing Charters got two good fish yesterday arvo.

Alisair 32kg Sailfish and 18kg Wahoo shot off  Aliwal Shoal

Anyway, I am sure we will start hearing of some action from down south soon with the Sards hopefully making an appearance ....

Coatesman

South African National Spearfishing Champs Sailfish

Sean O'Connor Epic Sailfish shot at South African Nationals Spearfishing Champs.

While every one else at the South African National Spearfishing Champs was shooting aquarium fish Sean did the North Coast boys proud and and showed the boys what a real fish looks like.

Nice one Sean!!

Coatesman

Wahoo Eye Candy

Wahoo Video by Alan Rybacki

Here is some Wahoo Eye Candy to get the juices flowing!! My mate Alan Rybachi posted this on FB and could not resist putting this up. Especially since it has been green and cold here the last few days. I asked what the deal was this what he said:

May 1st, about 8km north of Jesser Point. There weren't many fish about. I'd seen a marlin a few days earlier up at Island Rock and a sailfish on the morning I filmed the wahoo.

That's enough to get me all jumping up and down and salivating!!

Coatesman

Spearfishing Cape Vidal -To Love or to Hate It!

With the water at home being so mank, and in desperate need of diving we headed up to Vidal for the weekend.

The conditions and water vis was epic, but it was just very quiet. We dived hard on Saturday and Morne finally got one small cuta for our efforts. It was hard work and I only saw 2 cuta at Deep Oscar at about 30m, and was unable to even get close.

Vidal was living up to our low expectations. As we have had so many trips there that have just been absolutely dead. (We only hear of it cooking) 

To make it worse the Local Parkie ...who now is doing boat patrols is on the war path with Spear fisherman. And we were given a written warning for not having a topman, as we were drifting with the boat using a drogue anchor ... as we have always done (rightly or wrongly)

.... Does this also mean you have to have a topman when we anchor at home?

We were also give a hard time as our Alpha flag was dirty and 'not cleary vissable' ... not that an Alpha flag even applies to Freedivers!!

Another boat was nailed because the topman did not have a skippers ticket!! This now means that every topman must have a skippers ticket. Thats going to exclude the majority of spearo's from boat trips in the future ...

Unfortunately the whole experience has left a bad taste in my mouth, and again the spearo's have been targeted. And when the local Parkie makes a comment like "I am going to start nailing all you Spearfisherman!" you kind of wonder if we are going to have any peace?

The up side of this is that we need to get our act together, get Sauff or some one in the know to get the regulations out to us. etc and not give the authorities a reason to have any problems with us. We need to get wise and know what our rights and boundaries are.

Anyway we almost packed it in and went home on Saturday, but we decided seems we were already there to dive Sunday. Again it was super quiet ...but epic conditions. 

My lightie Braiden did his deepest dive of 9.5m on the sand on Shallow Leven. He chased some Cuta and had an experience of a life time for a little guy.

The trip did end on a highlight tho, we did a drift in the deep and I got a beautiful sailfish. And in 30 plus meter vis it was probably one of my best hunts ever.

Cape Vidal Sailfish - This why we love to Hate the Place!

Coateman

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

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