Day: January 21, 2021

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Quick Spearfishing duck dive tutorial with special guest Master Richardt Botes

Duckdiving with the Master Watermen

Quick Spearfishing duck dive tutorial with special guest Master Richardt Botes

Welcome back for another Master Watermen spearfishing Tutorial. This episode centres around the different types of the duck dive from the surface when on the decent. This one is for you Clive Honiball (To Dive For) and your student diver troop!

A good duck dive is tantamount to a good dive without a doubt as being relaxed and having decent grace (natural flowing swimming form) in the water increase’s your bottom time and helps to not scare the fish away from you as you approach them from the surface.

There are 3 types of duck dive…

  1. Both legs in the air at the same time to increase the speed of decent starting from a relaxed position with gun stowed and two or three small kicks to start the duck dive. This is a good technique when diving deep with minimal weight on the belt.
  2. One leg in the air only for stealth diving at varying depths with gun stowed and two or three small kicks to start the duck dive from a relaxed position. This is my standard go to duck dive because it has minimal splash and noise.
  3. One leg followed by the other leg starting from a gun ready position with one or two quick hard kicks to start the duck dive. This is the best duck dive for diving down on to fast game fish species.

Practise makes perfect when it comes to the Duck dive and it should eventually come naturally to you after a while. You should not be kicking whilst your fins are still out of the water and your legs should not come past the 12 o’clock position when swinging them up to start the dive. Noisy duck dives can and will SPOOK your fish! Bubbles are the Spearos enemy when stalking fish so being quiet and graceful is the key to getting better and bigger fish!

As always Dive Safe and Straight spears from the Bear…

“Right-on Jason and Richard. Let’s keep this shit coming!

Looking forward to your next tutorial.” – Xona

The Sardine News
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KZN South Africa spearfishing Queen Mackerel tutorial part 1

Queen Mackerel spearfishing Tutorial by Jason Heyne

KZN South Africa spearfishing Queen Mackerel tutorial part 1

Scomberomorus plurilineatus  AKA Queen Mackerel AKA Natal Snoek are one of my favourite species of game fish to hunt along the South African coastline especially in the Kwa Zulu Natal province. There is a bag limit 10 fish per person per day and they are absolutely divine to eat! This is the first in a four part Tutorial on how to spearfish for Natal Snoek.

They are almost present all year round on the KZN coast but are more plentiful here in the summer months from November to April when they come down from Mozambique to breed and obviously with the Sardine run June to August on the South coast of KZN.

They are game fighters and pound for pound one of the strongest game fish we have here in KZN with bigger specimens being able to strip your whole reel (they can attain 10kg plus, SA record T. Dreyer 11.4kg KZN 1985).

They hunt shallow reefs from the backline surf out to 20m plus in depth and are a shoaling game fish species sometimes up to 200/300 fish in a shoal. Early morning and late afternoons are the best time to look for these small steam trains.

In the episode we can see how fast conditions can change on the KZN north coast especially with a pushing tide with the visibility going from 6m to 15m in about an hour and the water temp bumping up a couple of degrees Celsius as well. Natal Snoek love warm water especially around the 25 Deg C mark and when the water is colder they become very spooky (hard to approach and tend to take flight at the smallest sound etc). I also show how to play a Natal Snoek on the long runs and to shoulder one’s gun using the bands and play the fish using the line and not the reel. Also watch out for the playing dead Natal Snoek and the final quick run where a LOT of beginners lose their fish.

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears…

Jason Heyne aka The Bear

Queen Mackerel spearfishing Tutorial by Jason Heyne

Xonalanga

The Sardine News
https://thesardine.co.za
https://youtube.com/umzimkulu1/
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Turtle vs Octopus

Turtle vs Octopus by the Master Watermen

Turtle vs Octopus

“Right, to kick off the blog section of the newly invented Master Watermen website, we have some literally unbelievable adventuring by Jason and Paul, way down deep. With a turtle and an octopus. Yes. It’s not even a joke. And there is video! Unfrigginbelievable I tell ya” – Xonalanga

Some people believe Spearfishing is just killing fish etc…but those of us at know that it is a way more than sustainable harvesting of the Ocean.

Master spearos (spearfisherpeople) are always good ambassadors and protectors of the Ocean and its creatures, we are the eyes under the surface and as such can see what condition or state the Ocean is in where we dive. I have seen how Marine animals can ask for help 1st hand whilst diving and 2nd hand via YouTube over the years and in this episode we get to see this phenomenon on a lovely dive I had with a Dive buddy (Paul) on the North Coast of KZN South Africa last year.

Loggerhead Turtle, Bottle-nose Dolphins and a Giant Manta ray all in one epic dive! The largest of all hard shelled turtles, Loggerheads are named for their massive heads and powerful jaws (leatherbacks are bigger but have soft shells). Their shell, is heart-shaped and normally a rusty brown colour. Their front flippers propel them through the water like wings, and their hind feet stabilize and steer them.

A female Loggerhead turtle always returns to the same beach she was born on after sometimes travelling thousands of km to return and lay her eggs and they nest on the beaches in Northern KZN South Africa and Mozambique at night here in the Indian Ocean and at one stage our local population was believed to be below 300 individuals. They have recovered quite well though and I see quite a few of them around on my dives here on the KZN coastline.

This male Loggerhead Turtle came to ask a favour at the end of the three and a half hour dive! He had taken a big Octopus for dinner and it became entangled around his neck! Watch as Paul and I see how we can help Mr Turtle get untangled from his dinner! TURTLE POWER! As always dive safe and straight spears from the Bear…

“Well if I can comment – YOWSER!!!

Man-oh-man Jason this is epic. And is that Paul Roxburgh in there with you?

But ok, a great attempt at convincing the public that spearos are not cold-blooded killers all the time. Only 99% of the time!

But after a chuckle, sure, agreed on every aspect, especially since the sheer amount of hours spent out there on a limb, adds up to a lot of kudos. Which means you can keep at it I suppose?

Well, between this story and Stompie, I am just pleasantly pondering at what might come next!?”

Xonalanga

The Sardine News
https://thesardine.co.za
https://youtube.com/umzimkulu1/
https://facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/