A-Grade Conditions on the KZN North Coast | Testing the NEW Coatesmans Unicolor Camo Rollergun.

 

Testing the NEW Coatesmans Unicolor Camo Rollergun

Every now and then the North Coast gives you one of those rare proper A-Grade days that reminds you why we put so much time into diving this coastline.

This trip was right in the middle of summer up on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, and the conditions were honestly ridiculous. Flat sea, warm blue water, and visibility that looked more like somewhere tropical than the North Coast of South Africa. If you dive here often, you’ll know how uncommon that really is. Usually there’s a bit of colour in the water, current, swell, or something making life difficult. But on this day, everything lined up perfectly.

Being the weekend, my good mates Warren and Mark joined me on my C Ski-444, the DEVILFISH. And we launched out of Salmon Bay in Ballito just after first light. From there we made the run north towards Tinley Manor, probably around 20km or so up the coast, looking for couta.

The ocean looked fishy from the start. Clean water, bait around, and good current. it just felt right. We spent a good amount of time looking for Spanish Mackerel, but despite the conditions being absolutely perfect, the couta never really arrived. That’s fishing though. Sometimes you can do everything right and still not find the fish you originally went searching for.

Luckily mother nature had other plans for us.

Instead of couta, we found big shoals of Queen Mackerel — Natal Snoek — moving through the area in good numbers. Once we got onto them, the action became pretty non-stop. Fish coming through clean in the blue water, good shot opportunities, and proper fun diving with mates in epic conditions. All three of us managed to get some really good fish.

For me personally, this day was also about getting some good video of my new Unicolor Camo carbon barrels.I was diving a 110 CSR3 single roller from the Unicolor Camo carbon barrel range, and honestly, the gun could not have performed better. Shot after shot went exactly where I wanted it to. The 110CSR3 is one of my favorite setups and the gun just felt completely dialed in from the start.

There’s always something satisfying about testing new gear in genuinely good conditions because you really get to see what it’s capable of. This wasn’t one of those difficult scratchy days where you’re forcing opportunities. The visibility allowed us to relax, hunt properly, pick our shots carefully, and really enjoy the diving.

And those are usually the days where you realise whether a gun setup is truly balanced or not.

This video is basically a full look into that session onboard the DEVILFISH on the North Coast. Amazing conditions, good fish, proper diving with good mates, and a chance to show the 110CSR3 doing exactly what it was designed to do.

The new Unicolor Camo range is available from 90cm all the way through to 130cm in both the CSR3 and CDR4 rollerguns.

If you’ve ever wondered what a real A-Grade North Coast dive day looks like, how a properly setup rollergun should shoot, or wanted to see the 110 CSR3 in action on pelagic fish, you’ll definitely enjoy this one.

Some days everything just comes together perfectly.

This was one of those days.

Spearfishing Cape Vidal over Christmas

Trev with 2 good Snoek and some dart Couta just after Newyear.

While the rest of the Natal Coast starts to wake up over the Christmas period, and the Snoek and Couta start to make an appearance. Cape Vidal goes to sleep, well kind of. The Couta for the most part disappear and most days spearfishing will result in a couple nice Snoek if you are lucky.
If you do get Couta they are usually small, and it can be frustrating as the conditions are usually very good.

As you get into the new year the spearfishing gets better, the Couta although generally small start showing up in numbers. The tell tale signs are the local ski-boaters taking over the campsite for the late January - February run.

Local Spearfisherman Koos Jordaan with 13kg Kakaap just before Christmas

Although the Couta are slow over the Christmas period there are other fish around if you are whiling to put in the time. Local spearfisherman Koos Jordaan managed to get some really good fish over the 'quiet' period, including a 13kg Kakaap (Green Jobfish) and a 20kg Milkfish (Chanos Chanos)

Koos's Newyear 20kg Chanos Chanos (Giant Milkfish)

So the big decision now is deciding whether to stay at home and capitalise on the good sized Couta that are showing up here and there, or head to Cape Vidal. Which one will be better and produce the goods.

For some it will be back to the 'grind stone' ....damn that sucks!

Coatesman

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

Febuary Vidal Spearfishing Mission

Spearfishing the inside ledge for Snoek at Cape Vidal

With the North Coast area and South Coats a total right of ...as far as diving is concerned. We decided to dive up to Cape Vidal to spearfishing. The problem is that it is a hellova distance to travel for one day, especially if you don"t get any fish. And believe me it has happened to me more than once over the years. So I guess you need to fairly desperate to make the call and get up at 2bells to make the drive.

The conditions were great and even though the vis wasn't epic we had 10-12m vis and 25deg water. The deeper drifts were very quiet other than the 5 Zambies that were following us. The one was an absolute beast and made a habit of swimming right up to us every time we dived down. Impressive to watch, but I dont think we were going to be getting any fish out with them around.

Another boat of divers also joined Guy, Mike and myself out there. And we road back to the shallow ledge to see what they had gotten. They had a couple of snoek and said they were in decent shoals.

Tyran Yeld and friends, the local boys going right to the fish.

We decide to give the shallows a shot and landed up in Snoek heaven. Most the time the fish were coming through in big shoals and they were just cruzing ...not skittish at all. Kinda the way I like them!
We all landed up with a good bunch of fish all ranging between 5 and 7kg. We also got the odd small dart Couta, but nothing special. I landed a 7kg Kakaap which is a special fish, and Mike got a nice Fulvie out o the sand.

Good haul at Cape Vidal

So for once we nailed it at Vidal, one lady commented that it was a lot of fish. I recon that if you divide them across the amount of times I have not shot fish there I am probably at about a fish a trip at the moment :-)
I guess I am just stoked to have had gotten the place on ...just like you hear other guys who have had it good there.

Coatesman

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

Spearfishing at Home

Home grown Couta & Snoek!

Over the last few weeks I have spent most my time diving away from home as the season has been rather disappointing here. I have dived Vidal, the Shoal and the Kei looking for some decent fish to spear. My search turned up rather fruitless.

On Friday a mate of mine Warren convinced me to do a 'fitness' dive ..... this was starting to look appealing as I have done very few shore dives lately and my fitness is starting to reflect in my diving. And there is no better fitness and conditioning than a a couple hour swim from the shore.

Anyway we headed out off one of our local spots and some how got separated. I thought Warren had swam up to a ledge further down the beach. Anyway I swam to thre next ledge and he wasnt there so I decided to hang around and do a few dives. The vis wasnt brilliant and it was difficult to find the drop off. On the one dive I missed the reef and hit the sand about 15m or so from the reef. I thought I would swim along the bottom towards the reef and maybe see if there wasn't anything chilling on the drop off.

Instead I swam into a Couta right on the sand! The vis at the bottom wasn't great and I closed in on the fish. It kept its distance and when it started to turn away I figured I was close enough to the fish and took the shot. I thought the fish was about 10kg, but when the spear took a while to hit the fish I realised that it was a decent fish. Long story short I landed the fish and was super stoked, and thought to myself the boys arn't going to believe this one!

Time was running out and by the time I landed the fish I was way down the beach and caring this beast back was not going to be fun. Next thing as I hit the back line a school of large snoek bail past. Instinct takes over and I manage to plant a spear into the tail of the small trailing fish in the shoal. This turns out to be another decent fish.

The Couta landed up weighing 21.68kg and the Snoek 7.83kg, the walk back was a little more than the fitness sesssion I had bargained for but it was all good. But most of all these two fish have restored my faith in my home reefs and I guess this is what keeps us going back out there spearfishing over and over ... especially when most the time we get blanks.

Coatesman

Matt Coningham Comes Right for the First Time

 Matt Coningham coming right for the first time. Christmas Bay Couta 16kg.

This weekend saw some good diving conditions all along the coast. The sea got progressively better as Saturday progressed and alot of guys jumped in to break the week long no spearfishing drought.

I think everyone was thinking COUTA when they saw the water, but it was strangely quiet and there were only a few snoek around. I heard of one couta of Tiffs  .... out of a number of guys that dived there.

Matt however took the cake, he is fairly new to diving but with living on the beach and being probably one of the fittest guys around .... this guy runs the 4km in like 13min or something .... apparently you must check is 20km!

Any way he could not go wrong under the tutoring of North Coast spearfishing legend Hogga Bieth ...Matts brother 'out law' ... I mean 'In Law' :-)
So throw all that together and Matt is on his way... often having loads of practice on the snoek that frequent his front doorstep.

Anyway Matt smacks this Couta and calls me up all excited and wanting to weigh it. His next door neighbor an expert fisherman ... every fisherman is an expert, well so it seems. Tells him its over 20kg. So Matt is frothing, but wanting to make sure he calls around looking for a scale and lands up at my place. The digital scale does not lie and it comes to a respectable 16kg! Not bad for the first time!!

Sunday was another good looking day, I got 2 snoek out in the deep while looking for Couta ....I was amped after Matts fish :-) I heard of a couple snoek but not much else. The guys tried their luck again in the afternoon, but there were only a few snoek in the shallows again.

Well thats with the exception of Mr Matt Coningham .. who if my info is right went out again and shot another Couta!!

Once the cherry has popped some times it just keeps flowing!!

Coatesman

Weekend Spearfishing Update.

Hey Guys,

The weekend started with a bang! Helen Garner came and spoke to us about Freediving and Breath hold, it was truly amazing. We had a full house at Club Nite and I think every one came away enriched or realizing how little we actually know about the sport we love.

I am going to be chatting to Helen about doing some more extensive training over some weekends ...should be the bomb.

The diving conditions were good all weekend, but there was not too much action. I did hear of some Snoek and Garrick action off the backline by one diver, I suppose that is too be expected this time of year when everything kind of happens on the back line.

I got a small Brusher this morning up against the bricks, its about time these fish started to make an appearance. And hopefully we will get some more before they disapear again.

This week looks yuk, easterlies and rough seas ..... I guess I will have to haul the running shoes out .....

Coatesman

Spearfishing Quiet

The sea was looking good, but with no current the fish are fairly scarce. The strang thing is that the south winds have actually made the sea green when blowing for more than a day.

I am not sure if it because they have not been real strong and arnt bring in the deep water, or if it is the water coming up from Durban side???

Anyway what will be will be!! I did notice that looking back at last years Spearfishing Blog that Morne climbed into some fish this day last year:
Morne Ends His Drought

Strange thats another fish that has not been around in numbers ...the ol Snoek fish!!
They made an early appearance and then seemed to disappear. Or is it that we are all just diving in the deep off there line??

Please dont forget that this Friday the 1st February is Salty Divers Club Nite. All are envited to come and join in. I will be showing some of our recent Mozambique spearfishing footage aswell, so it should be interesting!!!

Coatesman

Braidens First Snoek

Little Champ - Braiden Coates with his first Snoek 4,28kg

Some kids get amped to watch cartoons before school, not Braidy!! He seems to be living a life we all wished we could have. I remember only dreaming of surfing or diving before school, so it is super cool to be able to take him for quick ones before school.
It does require something similar to a military operation, all the equipment organised the night before, and clothes and breakfast ready when we get back as the house turns to mayhem getting ready.

This morning was a buzz though, with every one super stoked with Braidy's fish. After the conditions and fish being so good, I had to get Braidy in there. So we got down to Boulders in Ballito at first light, the wind had started to blow so I was a little hesitant. The water was a little green, not good for filming but good for a point dive.

We headed out to the drop off on Lemon fish reef, but it was quiet. Time was running out so we headed in to the channel were the snoek also come through. And Bobs your Auntie .. a shoal of snoek come past Braiden. He sees them first and is already diving down when I see them swimming past. I manage to turn the camera on just in time to get the shot on film, his shot was a little high and the snoek spead off.

Before the dive he was complaining that the fish he shoots dont run like the ones we shoot, well this one ran right out his hands!! I managed to catch the line coming past me and gave it back to him. I gave the fish another shot, but it was not all that good so the fish was still going wild. Braiden landed the fish all by himself as I was catching the action on film. Man I was so proud!!

I can only imagine the stories going down at school right now!!!

Stoked

Coatesman

Cuta , Snoek and Good Weather.

For once the weather and vis was good on the weekend, something that does not often come together. I heard of guys getting fish from Umlodti all the way past Zinkwazi.
Some one on a Jetski lost a Marlin off Umlodti on Friday afteernoon and some good cuta came out as well.

The who were spearfishing on also got good fish, buy most of the cuta were shoal sized. I heard one chap got a full quota of fish at the one spot!!

I got a ride on a boat and went and did some exploring up north. We found some good reef with a ledge going from 15m to 18m, with some good cracks which looked perfect for Dagga when they are around.
I managed to get a cuta of 13.3kg, but considering the amount of fish around we should have seen more fish.

My mate Morne called me with an interesting story. He hooked up with another mate and Assassin of the Deep, Scotty. They hit one of the productive local spots and got into some snoek and cuta, only to have a hammerhead shark chomp down on one of Morne's snoek. But the story did not end there, some how the Hammer got caught up in Scotty's buoy line. You can only imagine the mayhem that pursued!!!

Anyway Morne managed to subdue the shark by wrestling it by holding onto its head and putting its tail between its legs. After a bit of a tussle he was able to cut the shark free from the line and send it on its way. Man I would have dug to have got that on film!!!

Scott ... I know a dive shop were you can get new line :-)

The east blew through Saturday evening and the swell had picked up a little so the sea was a bit of a mess on Sunday. Some guys still got in and some fish were still taken, but the conditions deteriorated quickly through the day.

That afternoon an old mate Ant pitched up at my house, a little bummed he had missed all the action and persuaded me to go for a dive. I could see that the water was seriously green, but I had promised to take him diving some time and there were fish around.
We hit a local spot and dived some shallow ledges in 10 to 15m. There was a terrible thermocline about 5m down and it was freezing on the bottom with only about 3-4m vis.

But all was not lost, Ant landed a cuta that was swimming on top of the thermocline. It was his first cuta so it was a good dive in the end. We joked on the way home, that Braidy (my 10year old son) would not be able to tease him any more because he had not shot a cuta and he had.

Here is a pic of Braidy and his first Cuta,
and Dad with two nice ones up in Mozambique.

It looks like it will only get good again later in the week, so keep and eye out.

Cheers

Coatesman

Weekends Spearfishing Up Date

It was a busy weekend.... and now I am back at work (its actually a whole lot less hectic)

Saturday had potential to be a good dive so my dive buddy Morne and I got up long before the sparows, and jumped in a one of our regular spots just as it was getting light. The water was rather miff so diving was not all that inspiring. Another mate came swimming past just as we were going to get out, and told us he had got some fish the previous arvo. So we stuck it out for a little longer before admitting defeat and heading back to shore.


It was a decent dive of about 2 and half hours so we had at least got our exercise for the morning, so we weren't too bleak about the dive. That was until we got back to the cars only to find Morne's window smashed. Xmas bay is notorious for these break ins.... not that it softens the blow. We must have disturbed them because they did not get to his cell phone between the seats. But they got away with his wallet with his drivers and all his cards ...plus some cash! Replacing the drivers license is the real hack, standing in the licensing office has to be the worst thing ever. So that was Morne's diving and surfing over for the weekend!!

Any way my day was very busy, had some work and then a wedding in the arvo. Some guys said that they got some surf, but I did not get close to the sea being so busy. With the wedding I got to bed rather late and when the alarm clock went off early. I was rather glad to hear the wind still blowing and the rain coming down, so rolled over back to sleep.

My family and I hit church and went and had a look at the sea around 11:30 hoping to take my lighty surfing, but the south east was starting to push and the surf was dismal. Rather exhausted we chose curry and dvd's over the cold wind surf.
Halfway through the dvd Steve Ellis calls me to ask if I was home and could he drop my new fins off. Stoked Xmas early!! He was in a rush to go and pick up his new born from the hospital and so he had not finished fitting the blades into the pockets.
Like a kid with a new toy I finished the job while trying to watch the dvd .... I don't multitask well, but got them done in record time. Now my amp to dive was right up, only thing was Morne had gone for a swim earlier and said the water was miff. I also wanted to get back to church for the evening service.

Too amped I grabbed my kit dashed out the door to go and find a point to dive off on the high tide, maybe the vis was ok for that? But driving along the vis did not look to bad, so I bolted down to a spot I know that a certain ledge at a certain time of the day seems to work. (sorry cant tell) Any way I had just over an hour, to dive! The fins were great ...(read more... Xfin) and headed out to the ledge. The water was as expected pretty miff, not that different to the previous morning. So I took a dive to see how deep it was and how far out I was. It was about 8m and I was a little to close in so I swam out some more. I dived again and hit the bottom, the vis was 3-4m at best and it was only 8.5m deep...... I had not swam out far enough. So you imagine my surprise when a Cuta swims up to me.

Christmas again!!! I nailed the cuta and no sooner had I strung the fish sorted my line out chilled a little I hit the bottom again. Only to see some fish overhead ..... damn the fish are ON! Slowly coming up under them I recognize them as snoek (I have a nasty habit of either spooking them or hesitating and missing my opportunity) This time ti worked I came straight up trying not to swim at the fish an allowing them to pass by until I was at their level. I then closed the gap and just as the fish started to move off it got nailed. Fish 2!

I sorted all my line and fish out again and with my heart still over excited I dived down. This time another cuta swims in ... a 'nice fish' its in mid water so I will had to swim up a bit, only to swim slap bang into another cuta which spooks and sends the other one with it.

I foolishly think that maybe the fish are deeper after a couple of dives don't yield another fish. But the deep was quiet, and I headed back to the ledge. I was running out of time and on one of the last dives a shoal of small snoek swam over head and I managed to get another fish.

So I landed up with a cuta of 9.2kg & 2 snoek 6.1kg & 2.7kg

Its so typical, the day you least expect anything to happen it goes wild!

Later

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

Its a Hard Life!

This week looks like a pearler, I got in last nite and water is nice and clean. I took my 9 year old son Braidy for a dive hoping to get him to get a Garrick. No Garrick but we saw a rather large snoek, it did want to get speared and darted away with out Braidy or myself getting a shot off.

Snoek - They are such bad sports!

We still had fun pulling some buggs, playing with an Octopus and watching life underwater pass us by.

I should have dived this morning, but work has been a bit hectic. But I am not too stress as it looks like we might dive every day this week. A light west today and light variable winds till the weekend. So lets see what happens!!

Other News-

Wahoo Winter Game Fish 2007 - The winter Game Fish is only a week and a bit away and things are hotting up!! The guys are already storming the shop sorting out their kit for the comp.
Iain and crew were up at Vidal this weekend and he dropped a Marlin. So having your kit in top condition is paramount.
Late July going into August is a good time to be up there coz anything can happen. Some times the Wahoo are on but most the time you are after the large return cuta. I know of a number of guys that highlight this time of the year for Vidal, so it will be interesting to see what fish are going to come out on the day.

Shark Week - Just something of interest... Discovery Channel has a whole week of shark programs in Shark Week. Some of the shows are premiers and are showing for the first time. There is one called Deadly Stripes .. shot off Aliwal Shoal with Mark Addison. I will be making a plan to see that one for sure. Check this link- Shark Week

Should have dived again!

Had an early start at work again this morning and the sea looked epic. I did squeeze a dive in late last night and it was great. The vis was only about 5-6m with lots of little jelly and wiggly things, that the fish were feeding off.

I had got a call from a mate who had dived in the morning and he said that the snoek were loose, but that the water had turned a little green. I went any way and managed a nice snoek from a large shoal in about 10m.

I could not help but wonder what the fish were doing deeper out so I did not hang around for more snoek.
It was a bit gloomy with the vis and light fading but the sea was alive. I could hear some Dagga drumming away and tried to get close to the sound. There were the ever present Grunter .. one was easy in the 6-8kg bracket, but I could hear the Dagga and did not want to miss out on an opportunity.

On the one dive while returning to the surface 2 very big tuna swam over me. I tried to close the gap and succeeded at first swimming in the fishes blind spot. But the outside fish saw me and spooked the closer one. I just could not get close enough. They were barrels probably over 30-40kg ... I would have had to have been close with my 1.2m.

I dived until it was to dark to see any fish, quiet an experience. I hit the beach with a snoek and buggs .... an some amp for some tuna!!

On the weather side the east will probably mess things up today. Its a pity the dive would have been good with the nice weather we have been having. There looks like a south will come through at the end of the week, so the weekend looks promising for a change.

On the synoptic chart there ate two strong cold fronts that will pass us. Fortunately it looks like they will go under us and not push too much swell. It would be nice if they blow for a day and send some clean water.

Also dont forget the comps coming up:

The DUC open is on the 14th July
Wahoo winter Game fish at Vidal 28th July

For more details visit www.salty-diver.com and check the forums.

See you out there

Coatesman

Andy's Geelbek and Snoek from the Bluff

Andy's Geelbek 9.8 and 9.35kg
just short of the Salt Divers Club Record

2x Geelbek plus 2x Snoek .... Nothing wrong!

I am especially stoked as I only recently made up this Freedivers Reelgun for Andy. Its always good to see the guys shooting fish with kit that you have helped out with. If you want to know more about these reelguns I did do a write up on them go check .. Freedivers Reelgun

Cheers

Coatesman

Told you so

Well I did not expect to be eating my words so fast. An hour or so after writing yesterdays report, my mate Rory MMS's me a pic with him and too many Snoek to hold up!

The following sms's:

10min ago at Toti, we all got ten each, biggest about 9kg (no scale). Seething with fish

When I woke up feeling grim, something inside of me said you are missing out yesterday. Knowing the Sards are around and the fact that there was huge swell (now here!) it was one of the window opportunities I saw slipping through my fingers.

Rory sent a mail just to whip me into a frenzy and no where to go:

The resolution on today’s catch was not good enough to send, will get the beach shots downloaded later and forward them if they look OK. To whet your appetite you will find a shot of my kids posing, the 9kg fish is the one in the immediate foreground. The darts the kids are holding were shot first before I realized how many snoek there were around.

Water was epic, clean and warm with small pockets of more or less stationery sards getting hammered by walls of snoek. In a very short time we had maxed out the daily bag limit with fish up to 9kg with the average around 6kg. You could get very selective. With the conditions being so good we jumped in again for a bit of fish spotting and saw a few other species (some high speed tuna coming in from deep and a big iggie mauling the inside wall while my buddy also saw two garrick idling by). As we had switched from hunt to observation mode we now sat watching the snoek barreling in and nailing the shoal –can’t say the trigger finger didn’t get itchy especially watching nice 6-7kg fish floating past within a metre (or less) of you. After each attack there would be uneaten casualties left lying on the bottom with the snoek clearly slashing up way more sards than they could eat. Two things stood out (1) There were no sharks despite 1000’s of dead sardines and all the fish shot (we weren’t the only speoro’s clubbing it) (2) the sardine shoal hardly moved all day even after the wind started cranking.

Now that we are all frothing at the mouth, let me tell you about what the sea is up to for the next few days!

In the words of Spike "UNPRECEDENTED WEEK OF BIG SURF AHEAD"

Gee I guess thats the diving out of the question, and well I looked at the surf in Ballito and the banks are not doing the swell justice. Durban will probably pump ........ but who likes to surf the crowds?

I guess this is a good week to get some work done!

Coatesman