Couta and big surf. Bear Report 07-05-2021

Couta and big surf. Bear Report 07-05-2021: Hi peeps and welcome to the Bears weekend dive report brought to you by thesardine.co.za and masterwatermen.co.za

It has been a week of big surf with maybe a day or two’s gap in between for a dive and viz mostly being reported way out in the deep. Some lucky divers did get in though and managed to get some fish with Couta still being around and apparently reef fish being quite thick on the deeper marks offshore.

We have Dylan with a decent Shad shore dive South, Kurt Bunge and daughters Bluefin and Big eye kingies boat dive far North, Master Louis Schorie with a shoal Couta paddle off Durban and Master Richardt Botes with a decent Couta and Blue barred parrot shore dive South.

 

The NE wind blew today (Friday) again flattening the swell out a bit but apparently not helping the viz. Saturday morning the NE drops off with not much wind till later in the afternoon when a light to moderate SW starts blow into the night. Swell for Saturday starts at 1.8m down South and is way smaller at 1.4m in the North. Sunday morning a light offshore blows North and off Durban with a SW starting to puff down South which freshens during the day and reaches the North in the afternoon. Swell Starts at 2m and gets bigger as the SW freshens during the day being larger South and smaller in the North.

Hmmm…not sure how much viz is going to be around after 3 days of NE but it is looking good weather conditions wise for a dive Saturday and maybe Sunday morning North coast. The weather apps have been a bit off so timing of SW blow is hard to predict!

Online report available here… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJtCA_-WQvc&ab_channel=MasterWatermen

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

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Great White shark and Shoals of Sailfish sighted off KZN coastline

Winter is starting to kick in in KZN with one or two Humpback whales being sighted and some Garrick (Lichia amia) starting to come out. The Aloes are not yet in bloom though but the winter swells have arrived and even one or two small shoals of sardines being sighted down in the Transkei.

Winter brings big gamefish and big sharks inshore to feed and last week was no exception with a rather large Great White being seen by fishermen out on Silver mine off Ballito on the North coast of KZN. Sailfish have also arrived in numbers with a whole shoal being recorded by Scuba divers off the Aliwal Shoal and a mate of mine dropping one off Sheffield stairs on the KZN North coast last week.

May and June are some of if not the best diving months in KZN with June being my favourite spearfishing month of the year. Generally clean water and calm seas with a lot of action in shallow water makes for great diving plus the arrival of the sardines really spices things up!

Just about everything in the Ocean eats sardines and they act as a huge magnet pulling Ocean life inshore to follow them and feed on them. I have had some hectic experiences diving with the sardines from a shoal of Bronze whalers (sharks) trying to eat me to shooting Couta (Narrow barred Spanish mackerel) in 3m of water off rays on the backline!

So get that gear prepped and ready for the chaos that will come and get psyched! Also keep your eyes peeled for Mr Great White and treat him with the respect he deserves…it’s his Ocean after all!

 

One last thing please take caution when rushing to park down by the sea to dive! Check the picture out to see why!

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Link to videos of the Great White and Shoal of Sailfish… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa93JK73weA&ab_channel=MasterWatermen

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

The Master Watermen website is published by The Sardine News and powered by TLC for your Business.

Bus 22kg Poensie . Bear Report 30-04-2021

Bus 22kg Poensie . Bear Report 30-04-2021: Hi peeps and welcome to the Bears weekend Dive Report brought to you by thesardine.co.za and masterwatermen.co.za.

Great news this week the sea came right and some lucky individuals got some fish! There were lots of shoal Couta around this week and I got the smallest mouse Couta (2.5kg) out of a shoal on a shore dive up North. It looked way bigger in the 25m viz hahaha!

Poensie and things

Here are some fish from the week and we have Brett with a brace of Couta boat dive Durban, Clive Honibal with a Snoek and some bottoms shore dive North.  North then Leon with a GT boat dive South. Master Gavin Nell with a beaut 22kg Poensie boat dive South. Master Louis Schorie with a decent Rock salmon ski dive Durban. Master Richardt Botes with a lovely Rock salmon boat dive South. Matt Pender with a decent Englishman boat dive Durban. Rory with a bus Shad boat dive South and Wesley Smith with a brace of Couta boat dive Durban.

First Garrick of the Season

Kevin with the 1st Garrick of the KZN season shore dive.

Weather synopsis

So the weather sites got the prediction wrong for today (Friday) with the swell not jacking too much and the SW wind only coming late in the arvo. I see the swell has jacked a bit of Durban this afternoon and evening with the wind picking up to just under 20 knots. Saturday a light to moderate SW is set to blow with the swell averaging just over 2m up and down the coast. Sunday the swell drops off slightly just over 2m south and 1.8m. North with a light offshore wind in the morning switching to a light onshore in the afternoon.

At a pinch I would say maybe there may be a dive early bells Saturday (if the weather sites get it wrong again?) morning and definitely look for a dive Sunday if the swell has not jacked too much.

Online report available here…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij4Ygvae8Ps&ab_channel=MasterWatermen

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

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Hi peeps and welcome to the Bears dive Report brought to you by thesardine.co.za and masterwatermen.co.za.

The bad news is just about zero diving was done this last week and I do not have a single feeshie picture for you peeps. The thunder storms pulled in a couple of times over the last week and messed the sea up as well as bigger than average swell running up and down the coast!

The good news is it looks like the weather comes right over the weekend and the swell drops off.

We had a moderate SW blowing most of today (Friday) and some heavy quick showers of rain here and there which hopefully won’t fill the rivers and cause the sea water to go chocolate milkshake again! April is normally a drier month than it has been recently so here is holding thumbs that May is a better month for diving!

We have a moderate SW blowing from early bells Saturday morning through the day and dropping off late arvo. It blows harder in the South and lighter in the North and the same goes for the swell Starting at 3 plus meters South and 2.5 m North dropping off to 2.5m South and 2m North in the arvo. Sunday the wind blows light offshore early bells and swings around to a light Southerly wind just after midmorning North and South. Swell starts at2.3m in the South and 1.7m in the North and should drop off slightly during the day.

So it looks like Sunday is go day shore or boat dive if you can find some viz…Just bear (pun intended) in mind that its low tide early bells so a later dive on the pushing tide would probably be the best bet!

Online report available here… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSCtkoed2w4&ab_channel=MasterWatermen

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

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

It has been an absolutely sublime week with stunning April diving conditions up and down the coast! But all good things must come to an end and a huge cold front has pulled in with a proper SW wind blowing bringing size 5/6m swell thrashing the sea into a proper washing machine!

There were shoals of smaller Snoek, Couta and Kingfish around and some decent fish did come out.

 

We have Ashley Paul with a decent Blacktip Kingfish shoredive South, Ashley Paul with an Amber boat dive Durban, Brett with a Blacktip Kingfish shore dive North, Clinton with a lovely brace of Harry hotlips boat dive Durban, Connie Halowell with his 1st Indian mirror fish shore dive South, Duan De Villiers with a decent Fulvie boat dive South, Hennie with a decent GT boat dive South, Hennie with a size Blacktip Kingfish boat dive South, Kurt Bunge with a Snoek shore dive South, Master Don Solomon with a lovely 19kg Couta and 5kg Rock salmon boat dive South and Master Richardt Botes with a Snoek and Couta combo shore dive South.

So the cold front from today (Friday) is going to leave us with a 3m swell on Saturday with a light offshore blowing early switching around to a NE wind just after mid morning and picking up speed throughout the rest of the day. Swell is bigger in the South and smaller in the North. The NE puffs through the night and into Sunday morning picking up speed after mid morning and only quitting in the evening. Swell averages just over 2m up and down the coast on Sunday.

Well that will put paid to any shore diving this weekend besides Durban beachfront area. A Boat dive off Durban could be a go tomorrow morning and maybe a launch for Protea or Aliwal on Sunday if the North East wind does not kill the conditions.

Online report here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vwFtwXG61Y&ab_channel=MasterWatermen

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

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SHARK ATTACKS SPEARO! Umdloti KZN North Coast Jarid Norman

As we all know spearfishing is a dangerous sport but shark attacks on spearos are actually few and far between! Normally it’s a case of mistaken identity where the shark thinks you are part of the fish you have just shot and it’s a quick nip or bump as we spearos call it. The rest of the time the attacks are genuine and normally by the three usual suspects Great White sharks, Tiger sharks and Bull sharks.
In Jarid Norman’s attack at Selection reef Umdloti today it is the former and in white water (surf) plus he was holding a Yellow belly rockcod (Mero) which he had just speared and was subduing. Jarid says it felt like a bump or punch to the head which he thought was his dive buddy, Jonathan Greenway, bumping into him in the white water foam. Then he saw the little cheeky reef shark(1.3m long) swimming away from him and realised it was the shark that had bumped him!

Only after Jonathan had swum up to check him out did they realise that Jarid was bleeding from the scalp and they decided to swim back to shore (100m) to see if Jarid needed some medical attention! Jarid is a pretty large unit of a man and does not scare easily so once they hit the beach it was laughs all round.
On closer inspection Jonathan noticed something white sticking out of Jarids head…low and behold there was a broken off shark tooth stuck in Jarrids head! No worries says Jarrid and films himself pulling the tooth out his skull at home!!!
I am just happy he is safe and escaped with a minor injury. The Dr cleaned it up and said no stitches plus apply surgical spirits. Lucky DUDE!
Oh…he let the shark take the Yellow belly for dinner…Hahahaha.

SHARK ATTACKS SPEARO

More at this link…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT3cnD4MY9k&ab_channel=MasterWatermen

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear.

The Master Watermen website is published by The Sardine News and powered by TLC for your Business.

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

The bad news is it’s been one of those weeks…big swell and loads of rain making the water not so great. The good news is the sea is coming right and the weather is looking good for the weekend!

Let’s see what came out this week…

We have Christo Muller with his 1st Wahoo and Master Richardt Botes with a Couta boat dive South, Clive Honiball with a Snoek shore dive North, Master Richardt Botes with a Fulvie shore dive North and Tyran with his first Couta boat dive South.

So yes some Couta and Wahoo coming out earlier in the week out deeper so maybe this weekend will show some stripes too!

The weather Gods are happy this weekend with today (Friday) having just about zero wind. Saturday a light offshore blows early bells and switches to a light NE later in the day both North and South. Swell starts at 1.5m and dwindles off to 1,2m in the arvo. Sunday is just ballistic with minimal swell and maybe an offshore wind early bells otherwise no wind predicted North and South!

So get those pink slips in order because it’s a DIVE WEEKEND BABY! Hopefully some viz pulls in tonight and the light NE wind tomorrow arvo picks up the NS current to bring the game fish on.

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

Link to online report [youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=Y7n5SPIPFDg]

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Hi peeps and welcome to the Bears weekend dive report brought to you by thesardine.co.za and masterwatermen.co.za. Happy Easter to all!

It has been a bit of a slow week but where there was viz some fish did come out (Couta and Snoek). The viz pulled in on Weds arvo but has dropped off today (Friday) with not much action with colder water and strong SN current.

Let’s see what came out…

We have Domz with a Snoek and a Blue barred Parrot shore dive North, Kayz Blacktip Kingfish shore dive Durban, Kevin Bus Snoek shore dive North, Master Don Solomon 51,4m dive for 19kg Amber new PB depth fish shot boat dive South, Master Don Solomon 51,4m dive for 19kg Amber at new PB depth, Master Jeremy Williams with a decent Rock salmon boat dive Durban, Rinalen Naidu with a brace of Snoek shore dive and Ruan Potgieter with his 1st Couta shore dive North.

It is Easter weekend and everyone wants to dive but it looks set to blow moderate to fresh SW early bells on Saturday and its blowing now in Durban. Hopefully it doesn’t blow it out completely tomorrow and the swell settles on Sunday. Swell picks up from 1.4m to 2m plus overnight tonight and will be just a tad over 2m Sunday morning. Good news is wind wise Sunday is a go with a light offshore in the morning switching light onshore after lunch. Monday looks pearler with 1.8m swell and light offshore wind switching to a light Southerly. Swell will definitely be bigger in the South Sunday and Monday.

So Sunday boat day and Monday green for go on a shore dive as long as the RAIN stays away!

As always Dive Safe and Straight Spears from the Bear…

link to Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4eltiaUFws&lc=UgwNP2XGGo9uTwhQueB4AaABAg&ab_channel=MasterWatermen

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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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