Month: March 2021

Four Snoek quick Stix. Spearfishing Bluff South Africa

Four Snoek quick Stix. Spearfishing Bluff South Africa: Hi peeps and welcome to another video from Master Watermen. In this episode I am diving off the Bluff, Durban, South Africa with Master Paul Roxburgh in Crystal summer water.

We hummed and aahd on the beach for a while debating where to get in as the surf was closing out on the solid summer sand banks. Eventually we sussed out a decent rip at Brighton beach and had an easy swim out compared to what we thought it was going to be! The number of times I have seen divers talk themselves out of a dive (myself included) are too numerous to count! Lucky we got in because the Natal Snoek (Queen Mackerel) were filing!

Snoek!

Just after we had hit the backline surf Paul was screaming for a second shot and I just could not make it in time and the 1st fish was lost. I turned around and started swimming away and 2 minutes later Paul was screaming for second shot again! After plugging a second shot in his decent Snoek for him I then sussed out that it was the sand clouds on a small section of reef that was pulling the Snoek from the South.

A bigger set of waves came through and a lovely pair pulled in, gave me a broadside and the bigger fish was on! Quick fight and she was on the stringer. A quick re-load and I had just grabbed my flasher swimming slightly deeper and a big shoal pulled in. Thwack…thwack…DOUBLE UP! Spined the second fish with my 130 carbon so strung it quickly and reloaded. As I grabbed my running line to deal with the 1st fish from the shoal another shoal pulled in on my flasher so quick duck dive and thwack…fourth fish on!

Shark!

Landed the fish, strung it and as I got to the now exhausted 1st shoal fish a Shark pulled in. Just in time I got the fish up from the bottom. The shark harassed us for the next half an hour and the Snoek stayed away so we swam deeper grabbed some bugs and I managed to bag one more Snoek .

Check the footage out…It is EPIC!

https://youtu.be/6Du0aB1aQ-4

Gotta love the KZN coast! And remember sometimes local is better!

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

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Hi peeps and welcome to the Bear’s dive report brought to you by thesardine.co.za and masterwatermen.co.za . Well after the rain and big NE wind earlier in the week we all thought no diving for at least a week! But I am happy to report that this was not the case and the sea did come right! But (I know right?) the heavens opened up last night through to mid morning today (Friday) and brought down all the rivers again to muddy up our diving! I had a couple of dives in crystal water though and managed some fish at least and so did some other lucky divers.

Let’s see what came out this week. We have Ashley Paul getting two decent Snoek on shore dives North, Connie Hallowel with his 1st Rock salmon boat dive South, Keaton with a brace of Snoek shore dive North, Keaton with his 1st Couta and Tropical tail shore dive south, Kobus Delport with a decent Catface rockod shore dive South, Kurt Bunge with a brace of Snoek shore dive North, Kurt Bunge with a Couta and Rock salmon boat dive South, Liam Mullany with a lovely Poensie boat dive, Master Don Solomon with a beaut 25kg Amber boat dive South, Master Jason Heyne with a decent Rock salmon and Cobia shore dive South, Master Juggs Holzman with a decent brace of Snoek shore dive North, Master Louis Schorie with a brace of Snoek shore dive South, Master Paul Roxburgh with a brace of Snoek shore dive Durban and Troy Ellof with a Cobia shore dive South.

So there we have it! Some quality coming out!

Hmmm weather god’s what do you have in store for us this weekend? The light NE blowing tonight drops off after 9/10pm switching to a light offshore in th early morning North and South with the swell bigger at 1.7m down south and smaller at 1.4m in the North. The offshore switches to a moderate to fresh SW wind mid morning and hitting hard in the arvo Jacking the swell to 2m plus. The SW continues to blow through the night and well into Sunday afternoon when it dies off. The swell starts 2.5m Sunday and drops to 2m in the afternoon .

So Saturday early bells is a go for a dive IF you can find viz in between or outside the murky river water. Sunday looks to be pretty much a blow out!

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

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The masterwatermen.co.za site is rolling along steadily, and we are ready to take advertisers on. Brand communications and associations (ads haha) within the video reports and on this website, are available. Please contact Jason (+27605081254) or Sean (+27793269671), to chat about a campaign on Master Watermen, for your business. Whenever we run a project like this, the first advertisers in always get the best deals, every time!

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Hi peeps and welcome to the Bear dive report brought to you by thesardine.co.za and masterwatermen.co.za. Finally the sea has come right in the Durban area and the shoal Couta are thick with the Snoeks filing in the shallows! I had two good shore dives local and bagged some decent Snoek! I only saw one Couta on the backline and he was too clever for me darting all over the show. The guys diving deeper and on the boats have been getting quite a few shoal Couta but nothing Croc size.

Let’s see what came out this week…we have Alex Mudge with a Snoek which is his 1st gamefish shore dive Durban, Ashley Paul and Tony Wilson with Snoek shore dive South, Ashley Paul with a decent Snoek shore dive South, Dominic and Darryl Mc Cormac with decent Snoek shore dive North, Dylan Koekemoer with decent Snoek shore dive North, Gary Blair with a Catface rockcod and a Snoek shore dive Durban, Kevin with a Rock salmon and Bronzie shore dive South, Kobus Delport with a Blue-barred Parrot shore dive Durban, Lincoln and Kayz with decent Snoek shore dive Durban, Master Jeremy Williams with a decent Malabar rockcod boat dive Durban, Master Richardt Botes and Morne Claasens with Couta shore dive Durban and Wesley Osborne with a Couta and a Snoek shore dive South.

So what do the weather god’s have planned for this weekend? We have a moderate to light NE wind predicted for Saturday and it looks like it only gets gusty in the arvo and starts blowing mid morning. Swell is light at 1.6m in the South and 1.3 to 1.4m Durban and North. The NE dies off overnight and switches to a light offshore early bells which swings around to a moderate SW at 7/8 am in the South and 9Am in the North. The swell starts at 1.5m and picks up steam to 1.8m in the afternoon North and South.

So Saturday is Green for Go and Sunday is a maybe depending what time the SW freshens…Early bird gets the MACKIES!

[youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=aZ7NutGgd0E]

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

The masterwatermen.co.za site is rolling along steadily, and we are ready to take advertisers on. Brand communications and associations (ads haha) within the video reports and on this website, are available. Please contact Jason (+27605081254) or Sean (+27793269671), to chat about a campaign on Master Watermen, for your business. Whenever we run a project like this, the first advertisers in always get the best deals, every time!

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Hi peeps and welcome to the Bears weekend Dive report brought to you by the sardine.co.za and masterwatermen.co.za.

There were some really good dive days this past week and then a buster SW wind came through on Thursday and blew it out! Loads of shoal Couta around with the usual Snoek thrown in for good measure and the big Ambers still out in the deeps on the South Coast. I had one or two dives in the good viz conditions up North but just seemed to miss the action by a couple of hours being either too early or a day behind…BLEH!

Let’s have a look at what came out this week.

We have Brett, Martin Dejager(1st Couta well done!) and Master Richardt Botes with some shoal Couta on a boat dive down South, Liam Mullany with a slab Cobia on a boat dive, Master Chris West with a 17.8kg Couta on a boat dive off Durban, Master Don Solomon with his new PB Amber of 28.72kg shot down South on a boat dive, Master Juggs Holzman with a Wahoo on a boat dive South coast, Master Louis Schorie with a decent 17kg GT on a shore dive up North and Quinten Van Heerden managing to bag his 1st Couta on a boat dive down South coast.

So what do the weather gods have in store for us this weekend? The North Est is pumping right now (Friday evening) and looks set to blow through the night. But the weather sites have been getting the early morning blows slightly wrong and the wind may die down late evening and blow offshore early morning. If the NE dies at 9pm game on for tomorrow morning but if it blows till 11pm or later the chances for good dive conditions tomorrow will be slim. Durban and North coast it shows NE blowing the whole weekend and South coast it blows Friday night through to Sunday morning when it switches to a light southerly wind. Surf smaller in the North at 1.5m and bigger South at 2m dropping off Sunday to 1.6m in the afternoon.

Sooo…chances for a dive this weekend are a little iffy. I would say North tomorrow morning then maybe a dive South late Sunday morning to afternoon on the pushing tide.

Link to Youtube version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IeiC3m3PYU&ab_channel=MasterWatermen

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

The masterwatermen.co.za site is rolling along steadily, and we are ready to take advertisers on. Brand communications and associations (ads haha) within the video reports and on this website, are available. Please contact Jason (+27605081254) or Sean (+27793269671), to chat about a campaign on Master Watermen, for your business. Whenever we run a project like this, the first advertisers in always get the best deals, every time!

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Young Griffin Rubidge (11) from Port Elizabeth on the FISH! 12.43kg Brusher (White Musselcracker)!!!

Brusher (Sparodon durbanensis, Cracker) are just about the wiliest fish to shoot in South African waters and anything over 10kg is considered to be a trophy fish. They are resident in the Cape waters and migrate up the East coast to the KZN coast normally late winter and return to the Cape in early summer. You will only get one chance to pull the trigger on a big Brusher and then you will not see him again. They are predominantly found in the white water surf zone but can be found out deeper in caves and around shallow pinnacles and gullies.

Griffin is from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape and managed to bag this epic fish on a boat dive off a local spot called Noordhoek diving with his dad Master Gletwyn Rubidge. Griffin is very lucky to have a Master like Gletwyn as a coach and mentor. Dad says he keeps an eye on Griffin when diving and if he cannot see Griffin from the surface he dives with him for safety. Under dad’s tutelage Griffin has already dived to 18m! The spot where Griffin got this big Cracker was in 12m.

Griffin says it is one of his dad’s marks that he normally goes to look for Black Musslecracker (Poenskop). The viz was not to the floor so dad accompanied Griffin on his second dive down to lie behind a small ledge. The mark was full up with lots of Parrots, Bronze bream and Tasslefish says dad and he saw the big Cracker just cruise in and stop in front of them checking them out. Dad said he had a hard time resisting the urge to pull the trigger and it seemed like it took forever for Griffin to see the fish! Hahahaha!

Griffin says he saw one or two fish whilst lying on the floor that could have been PB’s for him but he waited something bigger. He only noticed the huge Cracker coming in from the left after his dad had seen it towards the end of his dive. He slowly extended his gun out and squeezed the trigger managing to plant a good holding shot in its back! The big fish sped off down the reef peeling line off his gun reel so fast it pulled him down even with the drag fairly loose as he kicked towards the surface. The fish went straight to a cave and holed him up properly. Griffin grabbed a smaller gun and went back down and managed to get a kill shot on the beast Cracker through the head and got it out the cave and on the boat!

Well done Griffin there are a lot of good divers out there that still dream of landing a bus Cracker like that! I expect to see many more great fish from this young lad in the future!

Griffin’s gear:

Rob Allen 1.1m reel gun with two 14mm bands

Rabitech 5mm open cell camo wetsuit

Freedivers Cross Pro Carbon fins with Pathos foot pockets

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

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Hi peeps and welcome back to Master Watermen. In this video I show how working up and down a long ledge can yield exceptional results even in shallow water (8 to 12m) and in not so great visibility as well.

When there is current and the visibility is bad I will either reef up using a reef hook or a drop weight if the current is not too hectic. What this does is leaves your buoy as a marker for you to look at whilst breathing up on the surface to scout around so as to maximise reef coverage and time in the water. Then you can use the buoy as a frame of reference so that you can consistently stay on the hot spot mark once you have found it.

I like to start up current then work my way down the ledge with the current as I progress through the dive. Once I have found a good hot spot mark on the ledge I will work it from the top of the ledge to the outside of the ledge to find the sweet spot where the better fish are holding.

In general the game fish (pelagic fish) will hold above the reef and outside of the ledge on or over the sand. They will definitely be present on the tide and if there is a prevalent current pulling down the ledge. The bottom fish (dimersal fish) will hold to the structure and caves as much as they can, holding tighter to the structure in a stronger current and poorer visibility.

The ledge in the video was new to me on this particular dive so the advice above definitely holds true!

Remember that quite often you get a series of ledges running parallel to a beach so work them one by one going deeper till you find that honey hot spot on the ledge. Please bear (pun intended) in mind that it is not necessarily the deepest ledge at the spot that makes for a great DINNER!

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=koWc1AAPauc&ab_channel=MasterWatermen

Link to the full Narrow Barred Spanish mackerel video https://youtu.be/n4q8BTfJrqg

 

Taylor-Rose Toich opens the SA Women’s spearfishing record (Pending) for Daga salmon 12.05Kg (Corvina/ Mulloway/Jew fish/Kob)

Taylor tells me she was trying to put some more points on the board for the Diving Divas spearfishing Champs which runs from February to November when she managed to bag this Beauty daga salmon!

Diving Divas South Africa is a group which was formed to help SA women grow & learn spearfishing with the guidance of experienced spearfishing women to compete for provincial and national colours in spearfishing and also to have a passion for the sport. Contact @divingdivasSouthAfrica divingdivassouthafrica

Taylor is from East London in the Eastern Cape and she says that conditions last week Wednesday and Thursday (24/25-02-2021) were truly epic with calm seas and crystal viz which is not an everyday occurrence in East London! Taylor and her dad dived the Wednesday but she did not get the extra points she needed so they decided to hit another shore dive on the Thursday after work at 3 Sisters reef.

3 Sisters is a long 3Km walk from the parking lot at Bonza Bay beach on soft sand but well worth the slog and needless to say Taylor was quite amped to get in and dive by the time they got there! They swam the 1km to the reef and decided to dive the inside section of the reef with a big cave that has two entrances.

After diving for a while Taylor managed to bag a small Baardman (Tassel fish) and her dad swam up to her and asked if she would like to shoot a Kob? There’s a whole shoal in the cave with a rockod and a Zebra fish! Taylor dived down to have a look even though at her experience level she finds cave diving a bit skits and there was quite a bit of wave surge which can pin you inside the cave. After checking out the gloom inside the cave she told her dad that there was zip in the cave.

Dad went back to have a look and returned saying she must look carefully and you will see the Kob in the back. Back down she went and guess which fish she shot? The Zebra! Hahaha…needless to say dad was nonplussed! But he came to the rescue and said let’s check the other entrance to the cave and the daga salmon had moved that side! Lucky!

Taylor psyched herself up, breathed up properly and went down again. Having a look around in the second cave entrance and she saw zip again in the gloom at first but decided to move into the cave further until she got her body halfway in the cave with dad almost having a hernia topside! Aha! Now she could see the shoal of Kob and all of a sudden she saw there was a rock in the cave with a big silver fish behind it! She let fly with the spear and managed to get a good holding shot remembering to grab her line and not the gun on the way out of the cave playing the fish on the way to the surface.

A tug of war tussle ensued and she managed to get her first Kob to the surface, dad beaming with pride! 12.05kg is a decent Kob by shore diving standards…well done Taylor!

And that’s not all…they went out a bit deeper and Taylor was lying on the bottom waiting for fish and feeling all rosy with her Kob when she glanced up towards the surface and a Marlin was swimming over her! A frikken MARLIN! She got spooked at first thinking shark then she spotted the bill and big pec’s and tail fin…and wisely opted not to pull the trigger and let it swim by for another day!

Spike fish (marlin) are spearfishing rig thieves of note and that’s stealing from Master Divers with all the right gear! You did the right thing letting it swim by…especially on a shore dive Taylor!

Taylor’s gear:

Omer Alien mask and Rob Allen snorkel

Freedivers carbon fins

Rob Allen Xflex green camo wetsuit

1m Freedivers carbon gun with a single 18mm band

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

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