Spearfishing the Transkei Wild Coast

The Ultimate Spearfishing Magazine has just put up another great article on spearfishing locations. This 'how to' article is on spearfishing the Transkei Wild Coast.

The beautiful Transkei Wild Coast - a Spearfishing Mecca

It’s no wonder our forefathers named it the ‘Transkei’… loosely translated as ‘that place over that river’. It was a place so formidable and difficult to transverse yet alluring beautiful. Not much has changed since those days. Sure, now there’s a spiderweb of mud roads criss-crossing the landscape, which makes getting from A to B at least possible. The mystery of the Transkei still grips you. It’s almost surreal.
Deep green valleys carve their way through to cliffs that plummet into the sea, as if the hand of God came and tore away the shoreline. The Transkei is like something out of a Tolkien novel, a ‘Middle Earth’ of sorts complete with rolling mists that cloak its secrets. Even the trees grow strangely, twisted and battered by the wild winds and elements.
The Transkei ocean, not unlike the land, also has its own thing going on. It’s not at all like the Cape or Natal. The Transkei cliffs seem to give the sea an odd ‘bump’ even on calm days. The colour of the water is different, a ‘clean green’ gloom with an airy feeling to it that only adds to the adventure and craziness of this phenomenal place.
For many however, it’s not just the magical setting but the abundance of world class spearfishing opportunities that provides good reason to make the great trek to the Transkei from all over South Africa. Often, trips to the Kei are planned with great excitement and expectations, only to be washed out by the area’s notoriously temperamental weather… but even in these cases, one only needs a glimpse to fall in love. For some, the Kei has become so much a part of their lives that they regard it with a sense of fierce ownership. Completely smitten, they guard the treasures they have found there, like Gollum protecting ‘the Ring’.

This said, you can imagine that trying to glean information for a write up on the Kei was like pulling hens’ teeth. Suddenly, guys had no idea what I was talking about. Some were blunt and refused point blank to say anything. But, as always, there were those who still remember what it was like to struggle along without a clue, and I am truly grateful to those who shared their stories and secrets. 

To continue reading go to: Spearfishing The Transkei Coast

Coatesman

Spearfishing the Transkei

Richard Leonard popping his Daga Cherry

Spearfishing the Transkei for the first time is always an experience one does not forget. My mate Richard Leonard the director of the OneFish DvD we did last year has just come back from his first trip in the Kei.
From the sounds of things they got some class fish, including Rich getting his first Daga Salmon and a nice one at that.

Daryl with a trophy Steenbras

Rich was fortunate to go up with some mates that really know the place well, which translated into some very special fish. It also sounds like they got lucky with the vis and weather ... something that does not always come together down there.

A frame grab off the some of their video footage of the Steenbras.

I am hoping to head down to the Kei some time soon. There is the Border Open which will be in November, which is later than usual. That means there probably wont be Steenbras around but the Cracker should be thick. If you want to go down down load the Border Open Entry Form

Coatesman

Transkei Spearfishing Trip

At the beginning of June a couple of us headed down to the Transkei to do some spearfishing. Mike , Cristo and myself went down to the Hole in the Wall while Jp and Mark headed all the way to Mazzepa bay. The conditions were beyond epic the water was 20m vis and averaging 22deg .... very unusual for that area. this made getting close to the Poensies ..the fish of choice there very difficult.
We did manage some good fish tho, and had some spectacular diving with the hundreds of Raggie Sharks.

Cristo - Cape Yellow Tail 13.6kg, & Mike - Natal Stumpnose - 5.72kg

Mike - 15.8kg Daga Salmon

Chris - 4.6kg Shad

Mark and Jp had a more productive time and found that the undived waters of Mazzepa was the place to be. Here is the report back I got from them:

Conditions were excellent with light winds, settled seas and very clean water. The diving was mixed between the points for brusher, Kob etc, and deep pinnacles where we picked up some good ‘tail.

Strangely the 10-20m reef was very quiet, with lots of showings but mainly shoals of bait and nothing substantial. The pinnacles were amazing dives, rising from 40-35m then straight up to 22m. Inshore we dived around an incredible island – schools of brusher, kob, cracker, massive bronzies, grunter – almost everything. Sharkwise it was very quiet and limited to a few raggies, although Wonder, our topman, said a shark bigger than our boat cruised past when we were diving the island. Because the fishlife was so prolific, we could be selective in the fish we took and it was a nice change to just sit and watch the schools of brusher milling around while waiting for the big one. Sardine wise, we saw lots of action on the first day, and as we were leaving, but didn’t dive any schools. Holding thumbs they make it to natal this year!

Cheers,

Mark and JP

Border Open Spearfishing Results

Mike Constantinou at the Border Open Champs
- Hole in The Wall Transkei

Border Open Spearfishing Results

	NAME	POINTS	PERCENTAGE
1	Angelo Spada	32.4	100
2	Shane Jonhson	22.35	68.98
3	Mark Ahlin	19.7	60.8
4	Mike Constantinou	15.15	46.75
5	Craig Harper	14	43.2
6	Peter North	14	43.2
7	Gareth Staat	13.85	42.74
8	Manus Nienaber	13.8	42.59
9	Kurt Roberts	12.25	37.8
10	Chris Swart	11.65	35.95
11	Corry Versluis	10.85	33.48
12	Carl Werner	10.55	32.56
13	Tony Swart	10.3	31.89
14	Ashley Wilcox	10.15	31.32
15	Andrew Henwood	9.95	30.7
16	Joe Mulder	9.2	28.39
17	Ross Crouch	8.05	24.84
18	Dave Coetzee	6.6	20.37
19	Trevor Harris	4.55	14.04
20	Jason Mair	4.75	14.66

Spearfishing - Hole in The Wall Transkei

Hole in The Wall Transkei - Border open Spearfishing Comp
Andy Henwood and Craig Harper - Border open Spearfishing Comp

The guys had the Border Open Spearfishing Comp down at Hole in The wall in the Transkei over the weekend. Apparently they had good conditions and clean water, with some good fish being speared.

I dont have the exact results just yet but I will post them as soon as I get them.

Cheers

Coatesman