The Admiral and the Shark at Leven Point

The Admiral and the Shark at Leven Point: I met three crazies on this early 90’s trip to Vidal. Diving mate Rick (also crazy) and I had headed north to dive the fish blue waters of the Natal North Coast.

Cape Vidal

We were allowed to camp. We were allowed to drive along the pristine beach highway to Leven Point (turtles and all). But. We were not allowed to catch crayfish. Or shoot any reefies. Trade-off accepted. But it was tough with all those tempting rock salmon swimming around and all over the place!

It’s far to Leven Point. It’s a lot more than eleven kilometres. Which is how everyone pronounced the place back then. Eleven Point hahaha. So about halfway back after an early dive, coming out of the sun, unbelieving, I see some dude swimming in through the waves. So I put my indicators on and found a parking quick.

Pete Kennedy and Tony Tomkinson

This is how I met Pete Kennedy. A formidable diver and character. He was out the back on his girlfriend’s Dad’s boat in about 45m. Fishing for sailfish. The Dad was Tony Tomkinson – the legendary professional hunter. Well, they couldn’t agree on something. Pete can be disagreeable. So could Tony as I found out with time. Two extraordinarily headstrong characters. Pete just said cheers to Tony. Jumped off the boat and into the azure. And swam the 5 kilometres back to the beach. Where he coincidentally met up with us. He was gonna have to walk the 10kms or so further, in his wetsuit, to get back to camp and his girlfriend! After quick introductions…Pete jumped in the back and through the sunroof, he explained how he got there. We chatted furiously after that. I became great friends with both of these guys after this weekend.

Then, a dude in a new red Toyota Venture rocked into camp later that day. He was also shooting fish. He was on his pat malone. Very cool, calm and collected. From Cape Town. And he comfortably joined our fire. He set up camp next to us. We chatted up storms of mosquitoes. These were different times. It was really hard to find someone to dive with back then. When we did meet up, it was always gonna be in a campsite like Cape Vidal.

Under the stars and around the fire we drank beer and rum. We ate steak from the Cape. Woody, our new friend had brought chunks of fillet with him all the way. They had to be eaten since there was no power here. He asked if we could dive together the next day. He confided in me that he had not yet encountered a shark underwater, yet. But that he really wanted to. I laughed to him that we would definitely be diving with sharks in the morning.

Admiral Woody Woodburne

Eventually we spoke work. I was running The Sardine News as an A3 tabloid. And selling Mydos for Brian Davey. I am still running The Sardine News. And selling Mydos. Over thirty years later. I had told him my story. Rick explained his planned protest and trajectory away from South Africa to the UK. And so we asked Woody for his story. Says he works for the SA Navy. Drives a submarine. Let me introduce to you, Vice Admiral Lambert Jackson ‘Woody’ Woodburne. The chief of the navy at that very moment. But sans uniform. Medals for leadership and initiative in combat and all. Wetsuit instead!

Early the next typically glorious morning, this unlikely four-ball loaded their gear up into the back of my old Hilux. We hit the beach in the crisp early offshore of the north coast. It is breathtakingly beautiful. Blue being the colour of everything to us stoked spearos. So clean! We don’t talk much on the way there. Nerves. Leven is hardly a point. But it has two lines of reef. One shallow. One deep. We arrived to nobody but the sun and the terns. After a quick but compulsory visit back over the dune to the bush, we calmed our nerves by chatting as we geared up. The usual briefing about the sharks for Woody. “It’s zambies that we are worried about”. I never believed in whites at this point in my life. It was just easier like that. “There are plenty raggies and blacktips. But they are only gonna bite your fish. That stupid zambie will take you out if you are not looking. Eyes peeled and look around you every few seconds.”

It’s the most rewarding baptism ever entering Mother Ocean up here at Leven Point – swimming out through the brilliant white foaming surf and into the vaste expanse of indigo blue. Never-ending intrigue, wonder – and no end to the challenges coming up. Adrenalin firing, we got to the first ledge. Pete was gone immediately. This is how he dives. On his own, but close enough to listen for shouting. Rick balanced off to one side. And the Admiral and I took a course heading up the middle of the reef, into the current, heading north to where the reserve starts. Not allowed in there. And yes, back then, the green bakkies of the Natal Parks Board, held up the law. We all had licenses.

Shark

The first fish was a Natal Snoek aka Queen Mackerel. It came past us at high speed. Instinct told me to turn around and see what was chasing it. Bang! Here is the first damn zambie of the dive. It hasn’t been a minute. And yes, he was focused on that snoek. But when he found us, he immediately started his BS. He swaggered round and round us. Pectorals down. In vague figures of eight. He was in front of us one second, disappeared, and in another second he was behind us.

I did not want Admiral Woody Woodburne to see me blow a sharks head right off with my .38 Special powerhead. Tucked in my wetsuit sleeve. I had two of them. I loaded one onto one of my guns. The weirdest thing happens when you put a powerhead on. Your demeanour changes. Now you need to set up a decent shot. The shark senses this change. And invariably leaves town. This one did just that.

After an hour, we still hadn’t shot a fish. It’s better at Leven to shoot carefully or the sharks will get your fish. Plus its like an aquarium down there. So much to see and do. A huge mamma raggie swam up the reef. 4 Metres plus and round as a wine barrel. Coasting at less than one kilometre an hour. Totally docile. Up here in the warm, they rarely harass anyone. Down south in the cold of the Kei, they can be as cunning as a Zambezi. And so the Admiral and I swam down together. It’s shallow here, like 14m. I had two huge guns trained on the shark just in case. But the Admiral was able to achieve a life-long dream and swim peacefully with a shark. Right alongside the massive beautiful animal. Very small eye btw.

And so we shot some fish and headed home. The next few days were a repeat of that morning and day. With a dive at Cape Vidal over lunch. And back to Leven Point, or Oscar’s along the way. Although none of our party really even knew where Oscar’s was. I could only find it at low tide!

The following fish were all recently shot at Cape Vidal…

Epilogue

Admiral Woody Woodburne, the submarine pilot, passed away in 2013. I shall never forget the dives and times we had that week. Tony is late too. Died exactly where he wanted to – on a hunting trip. Pete is settled and working in Durban. Rick is still travelling. And I am still right here slamming at the keyboard in Port Shepstone. 30-something years later!

Attributions

The Sardine News

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert_Jackson_Woodburne#cite_note-SilentWar-11

By Navy Photo Unit, Naval Printing Press, Simon’s Tow – Original publication: unknownImmediate source: http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/331/369, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39867515

This post was sponsored by MYDO Fishing Lures, Umzimkulu Adrenalin and the Umzimkulu Marina. You can take advantage of a special spearos offer at the Marina right here.

Sardine Run 2023 Sightings Map

Sardine Run 2023 Sightings Map: firstly thank you to anyone and everyone who took the time to pop a sighting in on either The Sardine News or here on the Master Watermen website. We use this information and cross-reference with our Sardine Spies in each area – giving us a far more accurate perspective than what gets broadcast by the mainstream media fools.

The map is updated non-stop as news and sightings come in. Recent observations from Sardine Spy Kevin in Qhora reveal that we could be in for sardines far quicker than we originally projected. Yes, the mud and pollution is keeping the fishies far out to sea. But as soon as order is restored and the blue water comes back in again, we should be all hunky-dory.

As of this post, we are preparing today’s report for later, which confirms shoals off Coffee Bay and even as far north as Port St Johns already. This means we can expect the odd bit of early action in KZN very soon. Considering these shoals can move at 10 kms per hour, in 24 hours – that is 240kms!

But ok, here is the map for you guys to stay in the loop with…

And to contribute to via the little survey that pops up on The Sardine News and right here on the Master Watermen, every now and then.

If any of you spearos are keen to get in on the action, you can buzz the crew at Umzimkulu Adrenalin. Boats and all sorts available for charter. And you can stay at the Umzimkulu Marina. Where even more is on offer. Ocean Safaris. Deep-sea, shore and estuary fishing. There are big green WhatsApp buttons floating around on The Sardine News, and Umzimkulu Adrenalin. This is the easiest way to get in touch.

Thanks for checking in here at The master Watermen website.

BLOODY SUNDAY

A shark story by Master Gavin Nell, Amamzimtoti KZN South coast South Africa

Well not quite a Bloody Sunday though this particular Sunday could easily have turned into one even if it had a different protagonist to the popular U2 song. It was one of those cold and rainy dive mornings which made the early wake-up and subsequent dive day that much less inviting. Even a fairly routine chore like packing the boat becomes less intriguing when you have to do it under the constant fall of rain and impending wet clothes so early on in your day.

We arrived at the launch site knowing that the past few days had brought river breaks and brown water to the horizon so there were times when I thought about whether or not I had wasted a perfectly good family day. But one of my crew was down from Johannesburg for only a few days and this being his second attempt to dive in as many trips, I had already decided to launch the boat, regardless, to ensure that we found him a fish before he had to travel back.

The day started pretty much as expected, with an average of around 4m visibility wherever we went and as little as 2m in some places. Just to put things in perspective, ideally, in summer we’d like at least 15m and anything below 8m is not fantastic, so this water was not-too-kosher to say the least.

I read the currents and tides and made a few adjustments to my plan and route. Heading where I thought we would find some “viz” and hopefully some fish! But without much luck initially it certainly took all my persistence to finally start finding some diveable water, which was only made more frustrating by reports from the scuba divers of 12m visibility where they were diving in the shallows. Of course nowhere to be seen where we were diving except for a small patch here and there.

Things did improve and one quality fish after another slowly found its way into the hatch, which bolstered motivation levels. What was most uncomfortable were the dirty layers of water all the way from the surface in some areas, with a thick brown cold layer below that combined with plenty sharks in the area harassing our attempts. Lo and behold, not that I thought it was going to be possible, I found an even colder stretch of water, on the bottom, at one of my deeper spots. BUT this cold water was clean! I got prematurely excited though because I didn’t know that only two dives later we would be packing up and going home.

On one of my next dives I hit the bottom and saw a few quality fish so I took my time enjoying the clean water for a change on the floor and I started lining up on a fish while I looked around before taking the shot to ensure that I didn’t see anything better before pulling the trigger.

I turned my head right and then left whilst still tracking the fish, and as I did that, I saw a massive head not 5m away approaching directly at me at a steep angle out of the dirty layer above me. It was the biggest White Shark I had seen to date and it was showing me far more interest than any other had done before.

I had made the educated guess by the end of this experience that she was a female. What really concerned me was that she had probably been swimming around me sizing me up in the dirty water already and then she followed me down and it was only now that I had seen her! We don’t see them too often in KZN South Africa but they are the number one predator that you do not generally want to see whilst spearfishing! Especially in less-than-ideal conditions where you can’t keep an eye on their movements one hundred percent of the time.

I immediately forgot about the fish, rolled over onto my back and flared my limbs to make myself look, at least a little, more intimidating and less like a meal. But she kept on coming so I had already started turning my spear tip towards her and used it to push her away gently while I started to slowly ascend. At this point she was so close I could see her Ampullae of Lorenzini (sense organs on the nose that detect electrical fields) clearly and even her old battle scars in the form of darker lines that had healed up and her large black eye peered at me, as though she was looking straight into my soul, to truly test my resolve.

I swam up whilst keeping an eye on her below me, keeping my gun between my fins, pointed straight at her, in case I needed to fend her off again. But to my dismay she turned and followed me up just below my fins! At this point she opened her mouth just a little, almost tasting the water for signs of whether or not this strange creature was a meal or not. I could see her rather large teeth clearly and directly into her mouth, certainly not the best view considering I could fit in there fairly easily!

Swimming into the thick brown layer I lost sight of her for a second then she gave a few harder beats of her tail and re-entered my field of vision soon after too close for comfort. I had to pull my knees up a little and give her a more convincing prod this time, at which point she banked and disappeared. I hit the surface and immediately called for the boat, while my head was on a constant swivel looking down into the depths for her next appearance. I jumped on as soon as the boat arrived next to me and spent the next few moments comparing shaking hands with my dive buddy who had seen all of this transpiring while he was swimming up. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour for the rest of the day we packed up to go home and perhaps return in better conditions.

Only a spearo would understand! But these experiences don’t put me off of spearfishing, they only ignite my passion further. There is no more sustainable form of fishing. It is the most physically demanding and challenging way to harvest fish and all whilst getting some incredible exercise! We enjoy the unbelievable experiences and being one with nature. We see sights that someone who does not dive simply won’t believe! We experience close encounters with the sea’s creatures which are humbling, profound and mesmerising at times.

An experience like this reminds you that in the sea you are truly part of the food chain and it’s one of the few places where we are not the apex predator in the chain. Seeing this beautiful creature so close-up and personal, in her natural environment, doing what she does best is even better than sitting on a game vehicle, photographing lions, rhinos, or elephants, and was a privilege, that I perhaps strangely look forward to again, But perhaps the next time under better conditions and different circumstances…

Wow Master Gavin nerves of steel hey! Peeps keep your eyes on stalks and your dive buddies on watch when you are diving marginal to poor viz conditions. Master Gavin had a close shave here but by being calm and reacting (going on his side showing size and keeping spear tip between himself and the shark) in the correct manner came out okay but shaken. It was definitely the right call to leave the hot spot and dive another day. No fish is worth a life,,,period.

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

#spearfishing #masterwatermen #kznsouthcoast #greatwhite #close_encounter #sharklore

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2022 Natal Champs and DUC (Durban Undersea Club) Garrick challenge KZN South Africa.

Rob Allen Youtube video of compo here… https://youtu.be/F2AKrOfenxg

This past weekend Saturday the 26th of November KZN spearos were finally able to get stuck into these two classic spearfishing events both of which have been running since the 1950’s! With the hectic floods we had here in KZN South Africa earlier in the year and COVID getting in the way the two years before we have all been champing at the bit so to speak for a good compo! Due to the year nearly being over and finally some good diving to be had it was decided to put both compos on the same day (they normally run as separate events during the year).

Natal champs is shore entry only with only one fish per species allowed to be weighed in with a maximum of 10 fish per stringer (South Africa regulations allow for 10 fish per diver per day). Minimum weight 1kg and a ceiling of 4kg (can shoot over this weight but the extra Kg’s don’t count over the 4kg hence the saying Maxi weigher). You get one point per species and one point per kg. So 50 points would be the perfect stringer on the day. Master Angelo Spada holds the record weigh in at Champs with a stringer of fish around the 40kg mark! Normally the Champs should be a two day event to avoid the luck factor and show who is boss but time constraints will limit it to a one day event. Points from Champs count towards Nationals selection and Natal spearing colours (tie blazer etc). Master Sean Burns is heading up trials for early next year and all interested parties are welcome to contact him in this regard Junior or Senior. Champs and trials are free of charge and boat rides can be organised for trials no problems! Nationals is set for May 2023 KZN South Coast hosted by Hibiscus Underwater Club headed up by Master Don Solomon. It should be a cracker event, excuse the pun!

DUC Garrick competition is shore or boat dive (paddle ski , microlight or whatever blows your hair back…hahaha) and in the past the winner is the heaviest Garrick shot on the day followed by heaviest stringer of Garrick. Currently the limit per diver per day is two fish but recently the Garrick population has been under heavy fishing pressure so it’s now limited to one fish per diver weighed in to allow the breeding population to recover. Please peeps take it easy on these majestic fish and try take smaller fish and not the biggest in the shoal.

Saturday before last was set as the dive day but was postponed due to inclement weather and not much viz being reported up and down the coast (yes fish were shot on the cancelled day but the predicted howler SW wind pitched way later than predicted). The weather lined up perfectly for the following weekend and the entries started flowing in with nearly 40 competitors signing up! Great call Captain Chris West and not an easy one to make. It just shows that experience always counts the most when it comes to diving and at 72 years young the Captain has bucket loads!

On the Friday one two very nice fellows, Master Brent Borstlap and Master Gavin Nell, headed North and South respectively to do some scouting and reported back that it was indeed divable but North was a little cold and green and south was looking good with blue water and an average of 6m plus viz and not much surf at all. Game on!!!!

So the choice was scratch in colder low viz North where most of the action has been recently or head South for the crystal warmer water and take your chances with the sporadic action. Peak Garrick return run is normally from beginning of November (obvs starting earlier in the North and finishing earlier as well) and ending mid December far south coast.

I really wanted to be on the Garrick trophy ,having been so close in the past but no joy, and I already have my name on the Champs trophy so I decided to head south on comp day with Domenic Fourie and Darryl Mc Cormac in tow. We had a little bit of a late start (someone arrived late no names mentioned) ideally you want to be in before sunrise to catch the Garrick on the feed. We arrived at Widenham just as the sun was rising (overcast so no glare) and checking the viz from the view point we could see it was crystals with a 1.4m swell running! Awesome…but here came three divers kitted up about to get in on the North side…oh no! But we were gonna walk to the south side and catch the drift south to north so no worries we thought and drove to our safe parking and kitted up then trudged the 1.2km to the south point.

I am not a speed diver and have my routine when kitting up and entering the water making sure everything is 100 percent before entering the surf for the swim out. Domz was in the rip before I had even put spit in my mask and Darryl was right behind him! I followed about 5 minutes after and upon hitting backline saw four floats not two? Crowded does not work for backline but comp day lets shoulder on I thought. Turned out the two extra divers were Clyde Greef and Kevin Benecke also in the compo and Clyde gave me the heads up that they had just seen Snoek but no Garrick having been in since before sunrise.

We tried for Garrick for about another 45 minutes without any joy and went out deeper looking for Snoek and bottom fish for Natal champs score. I have dived Wideham quite a bit so was on the marks sharp with Domz and Darryl following close behind. Spade fish for days greeted us in 10m with jellyfish everywhere you looked in the 15m viz ! Water was nice and warm with a light south north current running…almost perfect but Widenham works in stronger current normally so I focused on the bottom fish. Lemon fish were fullup so I added one to the stringer with my Spade fish. Went out deeper to 14m, added a Lantern fish and a suspect (under 1kg maybe) Pink Bank steenbras , he committed suicide so who was I to say no, to my stringer.

No Catface rockcod around (normally get one or two at Widenham) and the Goatfish were all suspect sizes so what to do? Bronze bream zero…hmmmm. Decided since it was so clean to kickout onto the outside scattered reef without much structure in 16 to 17m. Second down I was lying on the floor watching two suspect Yellowbelly rockod chasing each other around. No cave so they should not have been there…then the larger one came back and settled on the sand about 5m away facing me head on. Hello those pectoral fins look big and he was fat…SIZE! My 80cm roller finds 5m a bit much so I sneaked closer using my left hand and he spooked a little and settled behind a small boulder. Ha gotcha …ambushed him over the boulder through and through kebab style! Nice!

After that nothing much doing so upgraded on the Lemon fish and Spadie and started swimming in to cruise backline to exit on the north side hoping to maybe see a Garrick. Found sprats and Redeye sardines in 7m going wild and spooking every now and then but no Snoek with them so headed in after 5 hours in the water. Well done Domz and Darryl for going that bit deeper and getting some weighers! No time for second dive so we headed back to Durbs with having to be early at weigh in as I had been appointed as weigh master by Captain Chris West. Ballistic conditions just add fish!.

And that was pretty much the same story for most the divers that headed south on the day…four to 5 weighers on the stringer besides Master John Girzda diving with junior Heath Houston getting a decent stringer of weighers with his sharp eye for fish weights…three of his fish spot on 1kg and also a just legal size Scotsman which are very hard to find especially on a shore entry dive.

Clyde Greef and Kevin Benecke were not done after Widenham! The Amigos needed Garrick! Kevin won the last Garrick compo and Clyde wanted that win…in his own words below

“The DUC Garrick comp is one of my most anticipated events on the KZN spearfishing calendar. It’s always filled with camaraderie and banter between the 3 Amigos team (Clyde, Kevin and Leo). We discussed our plans and ideas during the week building up to the comp and all signs pointed us to a dive on the south coast. Unfortunately one of the 3 Amigos (Leo) pulled out the night before with a work commitment that came up with short notice.

So with plans in place the 2 Amigos that remained headed south to Widenham point. Not long after working the back line on the point I saw some approaching Snoek, but they were moving fast and didn’t feel like becoming a meal. As I surfaced I heard a shout from Kevin. He had managed to put a good holding shot into one of the Snoek already, hence the shoals reluctance to let me approach them. After Kevin landing the decent Snoek we worked the area for another 30 minutes but it started to get a bit crowded so we decided to move elsewhere.

We pulled into the parking at Ifafa point and were surprised to see such blue water and no one on the point. We worked the point in front of the parking and Kev saw one Snoek but nothing else. We decided to drift north with the current towards the river bridge. There were a few rips pulling out as we moved along that affected the viz in some patches and I had started to become a bit discouraged as I hadn’t seen much and the clock was ticking. I drifted into a patch of beautiful blue water with a few scattered boulders on the bottom and immediately noticed that there was some life in the area. Shoals of juvenile Blacktip kingies with a few half decent shad mixed in (thank goodness for shad season being closed and me not being able to shoot one). Not even 10 seconds later I caught the silhouette of something big and turned to see 4 decent Garrick all lit up beautifully. They swam away from me and just before they disappeared into the blue the shoal banked to the left and doubled back with one presenting itself perfectly. I lined up and took the shot and the spear went in just above the spine but hurt it so that it didn’t put up much of a fight and in a minute I had it on my stringer!

We hung around for a little while longer but then decided to head in. The anticipation really started kicking in on the drive back! It was an awesome comp that was well organized and I was so stoked to have won first prize for the biggest Garrick! A big thanks to all who were involved in organizing the comp and thanks to my dive buddies Kevin Benecke (who won it last year) and Leo who although he couldn’t dive had made it to the weigh in to give some support!”

Well done Clyde! And you got a roller gun as 1st prize to replace the one you lost earlier in the year during the Snoek Couta King compo! Justice is done…Aweh!

The guys who went North were on the fish! The viz from the day before had actually improved a bit in places and some damn fine stringers came out as we can see by the top finishers in the Natal champs results sheets which I have attached pdf format. I have also attached the species per diver table also in pdf format and it is worth a look to see what was what on the day.

Master Sean Burns had a great dive with his son James and next door neighbour Chad (Sean stays right at Sheffield stairs parking) here is his account of Natal champs day dive below…

“You can plan for as long as you want for a competition, but you’ll only really know for sure the morning of the dive if it’s all been worth it. That was case the morning of the comp when a bluish-green tint in the peaking swell held the promise of a good day’s diving with some viz. Our plan was simple, head to a point first thing in hopes of ambushing a Garrick on the high tide.

The three-diver party made up of myself, my son James and my neighbour Chad split up after swimming out through the surf. I headed into the foam (white water around the surf break) to hunt white water species whilst the boys worked the Garrick line. The boys had an encounter with some Snoek which unfortunately only yielded excitement and no fish. Amongst the shallow structure I managed to hunt down a sizeable Bronze Bream and couldn’t get a shot off in time on a 4 to 5kg GT that came in to have a look. One species down. After a 45 minute session on the point, we made an executive decision to move onto deeper reef as the tide dropped.

The wind picked up, causing the sea to stir. This dropped the viz to only 4 metres. Many divers would turn their nose up at 4m viz but this is great for hunting reef fish (Just make sure to use a 1m gun or less). We eventually located our deeper reef mark which proved challenging with a light south to north current on the top and a heavy north to south current on the bottom. The flashers (Fish attracting device) where let out to hopefully bring in a Snoek.

On the first patch of reef, I interrupted a plump Catface-Rockcod enjoying his breakfast of a baby Sand shark! My 1m RA roller made quick work of the greedy bugger. Two species down. A few downs later, in 16m of water, I found a decent cave and ended up missing a size Yellowbelly Rockcod. Luckily, that same cave produced a nice Tomato Rockcod. Three species down. The area then became quiet so we finned our way to another piece of reef. The Batfish rose up from the murk, indicating good reef below. A Purple Rockcod received the sharp end of my spear and was the fourth species in the bag. A nice Lantern Fish soon followed. Five species down.

By now my son James had managed to bag a Bronze Bream and a very nice Spadefish on the shallower part of the reef. I continued to work the deeper areas on the outside edge of the reef thoroughly investigating every nook and cranny in search of a Rock Salmon or another Yellowbelly Rockcod. It’s always important to slowly and thoroughly comb a good section of reef before moving on. Over the next couple of hours, the species rose to eight for me with a nice Spadefish, Tasslefish and Lemonfish. James also got his third specie, a size Tasslefish.

Twelve O’clock crept up on us and I still needed two species. Our last move took us to a deeper area (18m) and this area is well known for big Bartail Flatheads, Natal Knifejaws, Spotted Grunter and Blacktip Kingfish which would all add significant weight to my bag. Whilst waiting on the bottom, concealed in a crevice and grunting furiously I managed to pique the interest of a shoal of Blacktip Kingfish. Once they appeared I slowly and accurately placed a holding shot into the biggest fish in the shoal. The fish immediately resorted to dirty tactics, dragging my spear and line straight through a cave and out the other side. I knew that if I left the fish and headed to the surface I would most likely lose a heavy fish and my spear with it! With no time to waste I emulated the tactics of my adversary and torpedoed through the two-way cave hole! Once I cleared the cave I made haste to surface with the fish in tow and species number nine was on the stringer.

Realising time was against us, and content with nine species on my stringer, we headed for the beach. My Coatesman’s Blackfin Float Bag made for an easy exit by riding a large wave all the way to the beach. After a quick turnaround at home, we headed for the weigh in.

A massive thank you to Rob Allen for sponsoring the assortment of magnificent prizes and to Captain Chris West for organizing the event! “

Well done on 4th place Natal champs Burnsie! And taking the juniors diving at the same time…still a master at juggling tasks I see…and thanks for taking on KZN spearfishing Union yet again. Next year gonna be awesome. Aweh!

Had a good chat with Master Brod Whittaker before the weigh in and he chose to stay in his local waters at Umdloti for comp day taking Captain Chris West as dive buddy. First dive was at shallow Selection reef in iffy viz but he still managed a decent Pompano and a Bronze bream. Captain Chris West got a weigher Seapike and a decent Snoek…but a set of teeth (shark) made off with the whole Snoek besides the head while his stringer was unattended. Hard luck Captain!

They exited and took a drive to North Umdloti but that was looking not ayoba (not good) so Captain Chris opted to get going and organise things for weigh in later. Brod hopped in at Selection again and went deep and produced a damn fine stringer of fish to bring him to his 10 species for the day!

Well done on 2nd place Natal champs Brod damn you missed the win again by 300grams! Next year more pushups hey?

So that brings us to the crew of six divers going North in two vehicles. Chad Garret, Matthew Downey and Jordan Perrins dived a point first and the Snoek were filing with some decent viz at 6 to 8m! But only one counts hey. Justin managed a 7kg Garrick putting him 2nd place Garrick compo…well done Justin! They exited and moved a bit south to another spot with deeper reef and managed some decent bottoms for Natal champs score. Well done guys hope to see you next year again!

The other crew of three was headed up by 2 times Springbok spearo and two times Springbok under water hockey champ Master Brent Borstlap. He is currently SA underwater hockey Captain and will be training hard for the next 8 months or so for worlds set to be held in Brisbane Australia next year! Brent asks if anyone would like to join for social Underwater hockey at Kings park pool they will have it booked every Monday night from next year…no charge. They have spare headgear and sticks just bring mask and short fins. Wednesday nights will be for those wanting to compete. Very good training for shore diving! That’s why he has legs that can kick start a Boeing!

The other two divers were Master Kelven Grung and Master Angelo Spada who made the trip down from Gauteng to come compete. They dived a little further north in 3.5m viz, point dive first for two hours with not much joy then they swam in and moved further up into the bay and went deep producing exceptional stringers of fish in the crappy viz. 5 hours later they swam in and headed for the weigh in. Master Angelo Spada came in 3rd at the weigh in Natal champs! Well done Angelo and thanks for the help with the fish ID! Master Kelven came in 6th at weigh in for Natal champs well done! 6th again like Nationals…need to shake that number!

Master Brent brought home the win for the third time now with a great stringer of fish! Well done Brento 3 more to catch up with Jules on the trophy hey!

So there you have it! Awesome compo with divable conditions and a great bunch of spearos never mind the soggy conditions at the weigh in!

Thank you one and all for pulling finger and showing that KZN spearfishing is indeed alive and kicking. Thanks lads from Dive Factory for setting up and even bringing gazebo to keep the spectators dry for weigh in and awesome prizes by the dozen! Captain Chris and Master Sean Burns the effort is really appreciated and keep it up! Thank you Callum from Dive factory whom provided the awesome weigh in pics! He has produced a Rob Allen Youtube video of the weigh in which is available here…. https://youtu.be/F2AKrOfenxg

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear….

#roballen #kznspearfishing #sauff #spearfishing #masterwatermen #kzn #southafrica #thesardinenews #kznnorthcoast #kznsouthcoast #lechea #garrick #spearfishingsouthafrica #springbokspearfishing #underwaterhockey

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NATAL CHAMPS Species and Points List 2022.pdf

NATAL CHAMPS SPEARFISHING 2022.pdf

DUC GARRICK CHALLENGE WINNERS 2022.pdf

Post fixed by The Sardine News 🙂

Big Amberjack GT and Wahoo Bear Report 31-12-2021

Hi peeps and welcome to the Bear’s weekend dive report brought to you by thesardine.co.za and masterwatermen.co.za.

Hi all from a rainy Durban KZN! You guessed it the rains came down again just as the inshore was coming right in places! A series of thunderstorms up and down the coast line pretty much put paid to any sort of inshore diving this weekend. But there is hope as some vis was reported middle south coast and there is definitely clean water offshore for boat diving on the south coast! Yoh but some bus fish did come out all off the boat though and some divers got a late Xmas pressie or two from Santa! I have not heard from Master Paul Toich and Darren Halse so presume that East London and PE areas have not improved much since the last Bear Report. There are Bus GT around with some Wahoo out deep and big Ambers on the deeper marks down South coast with Zululand not reporting too much action besides the usual YFT, Couta and Dorado action and one bus GT. Some Couta did come out lower North coast but that was a flash in the pan and getting very lucky with finding a clean patch and on the incoming tide! The Bear would like to wish you all a prosperous, blessed and COVID free 2022! Happy new year!!!

In the fish pic’s this week we have Daniel Cilliers with a bus PB GT 35kg gutted and gilled boat dive far North, Jono Geyer with a size Wahoo 23kg boat dive South, Keaton with a Snoek shore dive North, Kezley Fitzgerald with a lovely brace of Shad shore dive North, Master Don Solomon with a bus Amberjack 38.6kg shot in 45m boat dive South, Master Gavin Nell with a bus GT boat dive South, Master Gavin Nell with a class fish for KZN waters Rosy Jobfish boat dive South, Master Gavin Nell with a Couta boat dive South, Master Richardt Botes 20kg GT Boat dive South, Stephan Wiid Master Brent Borstlap Like Shannon and Kannas Wiid with Couta Yft boat dive Durban, Tanya Naudald on holiday with a decent Queenfish and White barred rubbelips at Pomene Moz and Troy Eloff 4kg Stumpie shore dive Durban.

Saturday we have a light NE wind from early bells switching to a light direct E wind around lunch time. Swell starts at 1.9m 13 seconds from the South and builds to 2.1m 12 seconds from the south late arvo. Sunday we have a moderate SW blow predicted early bells which swings around to a light SE wind late arvo. Swell starts early bells at a mushy 2.8m 8 seconds from the South and drops off below 2m 10 seconds from the South toward late arvo.

So is there a dive Saturday…yes if you have access to a boat and don’t mind taking a chance deeper off the south coast and there may just be a clean patch to find South or North for a quick shore dive. Sunday if the SW comes through as predicted I would say arvo only boaties and shore diving alike.

Online video report available here… https://youtu.be/QR1DX3RhBrI

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

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Umhlanga Spearfishing Club (USC) end of year Function and Prize giving 2021

End of year functions are always fun to attend and the USC end of year bashes are no exception to this rule! Well done Club Chairman Kyle Richter and Diving Diva Christal Botes on making this year’s event extra special.

The Bear has decided to rejoin the club and has heard rumours that big things are afoot for 2022!

Ladies division and now Juniors/scholars!

Running a Spearfishing Club is challenging and running a Club that is sport orientated in COVID times must be one hell of a job. Looks like restrictions are being opened up so 2022 should see some great events from USC. Sodwana blue water open and Crayfish compo are open to the public whereas Club champs, Diving Divas (ladies Champs), Dec –January Snoek skins, Grand Slam and Species compo are club members only. Club Membership is currently open for people to join the club and costs R450 including end of year bash (spit braai!) club t-shirt and cap plus the compos above! Whatta deal! Especially if you need diving buddies, advice, tips, reports and boat dives!

Contact Diving Diva Christal Botes on 073 390 9374 WhatsApp for details and I have attached a pdf USC entry form to this post.

Well I only managed to pitch at the Function just before 6pm at Wings Club Virginia Airport Durban North. It normally starts around 1pm for Family to come down and bring kids for jumping castle etc before the serious stuff starts around 6pm ish followed by dinner and a dance to tunes spun by Durban’s original Dj and long standing club member Stuart Green AKA Firestarter.

To say a few lads and ladies had a head start on the drinking before I arrived is an understatement of note! Club member Paul THB had donated a whole keg of draft from That brewing Co. and the lads had given it a good sampling already. R30 gets you a 500ml plastic beer mug and it is drink it till it’s done!

I saw a lot of old faces and quite a few new ones at the function and this bodes well for the club in the new year. It was also great to finally meet Paul and Taylor Toich in person after doing articles for them in the past (Taylor’s 1st Daga Salmon and Border open 2021) but via social media. What a lovely couple…be seeing you two for a dive East London or Kei sooner rather than later! Also awesome to see North Coast divers I have not seen for a while Andrew Hayworth, Christo Muller and Zander.

Prize giving went well with MC Chairman Kyle Richter and Diving Diva Christal Botes assisting. Some of the stories that came out while I was there were totally unbelievable. Newbie James Purcell did very well this year getting most improved diver, placing 3rd in club champs (was running 2nd but Stuart Green’s late entry slab 11kg plus Brusher put him in 2nd bumping James to 3rd) and also getting shared Dick of the year award with Christo Muller was priceless! Hahahaha…

Also Master Alistair Jones getting biggest fish of the year (17kg plus Cape Tail) and most records broken in the year (Cape Tail and Brusher) and placing 2nd in the Grand Slam year compo! Aweh!

Well done Andrew Hayworth on placing 1st in Club Champs and Master Richardt Botes on placing 1st in the Grand Slam compo! 7 fish out of the 10 selected species is a new achievement for Master Richardt ! Aweh! And well done Diving Diva Taylor-Rose Toich from East London on placing 1st in the ladies Diving Diva USC Champs! Aweh! Great to see ladies joining and growing the Club.

Needless to say prize giving done the crowd ploughed into the spit braai for dinner and thinned out dramatically after bellies were full and quite a few peeps had long drives home. BUT!!! The hardcore Club members prevailed and the tunes pumped from DJ Stuart Green and the Dance was on. Next thing around last call at the bar this bottle of Jaegie appears out of nowhere (Kyle you evil individual) Hahahaha… Richard Forman was Zulu dancing and The Botes couple were cutting rug big time with Kay, Candice and Tanja bopping along to the tunes. James was definitely on his second wind with Dylan not far behind. Thanks on the spot camera man Morne for capturing the action. Nope I am not going to share the videos here. Join the club then I will PM you!

I have included pictures from the various divers with fish from the year and pictures of the prize giving and function.

Can’t wait for next year already! SEE you there!

CLUB CHAMPS:

1st Place: Andrew Hayworth

2nd Place: Stuart Green

3rd Place: James Purcell

4th Place: Daniel Cilliers

5th Place: Clive Honiball

6th Place: Rowan Coleman

7th Place: Leon Grobbelaar

8th Place: Dean Lailvaux

9th Place: Morgan Griffiths

10th Place: Roché Haviga

GRAND-SLAM CHAMPS:

1st Place: Richardt Botes

2nd Place: Alistair Jones

3rd Place: Paul Ten Hoorn Boer

4th Place: Christo Muller

5th Place: Morne Claasens

6th Place: Kyle Richter

7th Place: Steven Newby Fraser

8th Place: York Lawrence

9th Place: Alex Rice

10th Place: Quintin White

11th Place: Dylan Koekemoer

12th Place: Richard Foreman

USC DIVING DIVAS CHAMPS:

1st Place: Taylor-Rose Toich

2nd Place: Jana Wegewarth

3rd Place: Christal Botes

MOST RECORDS:

Alistair Jones

MOST IMPROVED DIVER:

James Purcell

As always Dive safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

Oh ya here is the Application Form 2022.

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