Index Archive July 2008 to December 2008

(23-Dec-08) Another year behind us!

John has posted his last report for 2008. Mention is made of Darryl Kriel who was fatally attacked by a shark whilst spearfishing at Chidenguele in southern Mozambique. Our condolences to his family and friends.

Barges Scuttled Off Cape Vidal - December 2008

The 128m dumb barges Dar1 and Dar2 ran aground five kilometers north of Cape Vidal opposite King Oscar hill on the 24 October 2008. They were both successfully re-floated and scuttled having being declared total losses by the insurers. The most powerful tug in the southern hemisphere, Smit Amandla, managed to pull both vessels off the beach.
The one was scuttled in 30m of water and it will be interesting to see whether Cape Vidal becomes a scuba destination now there is something of interest near the launch to scuba dive on.

Gamefish Merit Board

Well done to Eric Allard for his submission to the Gamefish Merit board with five really good fish.

SAUFF Record updates

We have put the new South Africa Record list as well as rules and application form up for easy access.

(15-Dec-08) Big fish with a Reel Gun?

Corry Versluis sent us a great article about Hunting Big Fish using Reel-Guns

Here are the results for Natal Trails held at Umhlanga on Saturday. Viz was from 15-20 metres. There were some good fish that came out the biggest Gamefish was a Cuda of 13kg’s by James Lawson and Carl Werner got a daga of 6.52kg’s. Also very impressive to see some Rubberlips close and over the 5kg mark!!

(11-Dec-08) Fishing in Ausie

An interesting news letter with some snippets on what is happening in the Australian recreational fishing front at the moment.

(07-Dec-08) New Spearfishing Book

Darrell Hattingh has just released a spearfishing book aimed at the beginner spearfisherman. It has lots of tips for the start-up diver and is selling for twenty-five rand plus ten rand postage which is a steal. To order a copy contact Darrell on mobile 0833100596 or e-mail darrellhat@gmail.com

(03-Dec-08) Gear

What do you need to shoot a big fish? John has posted an article on how to gear-up for the big one

(29-Nov-08) Reports

John has sent his Report back for November already. As usual its worth the read, packed with bits of info and news.

Coffs Habour Oz

Mark Kallman has sent through a report for the happenings in November in Coffs Habour in Australia.

 

(21-Nov-08) UKZN Underwater Club course

On the 26 - 29 November the UKZN Underwater Club (Princess Alice Road) will be hosting another spearfishing course. They had great success with their last one. More info here ...

Trials Results

The final Natal Trials results for November 2008 have been posted here. It was not an open trial so Gyula and Brent’s scores do not count for scoring purposes, even with their fantastic scores, well done to all who competed.

(18-Nov-08) Tanzania Spearfishing Adventure 2008

Tanzania is known for unspoilt waters with lots of big fish, this is an interesting Spearfishing Adventure on search for Dogtooth there

(14-Nov-08) Natal Trials for November 2008

Thanks for a good trial. We had an excellent turnout so thanks to every one. Conditions were very good and you could make out the bottom in some places in 20 metres. Well done to Gyula who got an excellent score and showed us why he is a bok diver.

Biggest Gamefish was a Iggie by Gyula of 7.07kgs and Richard Bruno got the biggest bottom with a Poensie of 4.05kgs.

Well done chaps and see you all on the 13 December. Hopefully the Cuda will be in full swing by then.

Place	Diver	Total points
1	Gyula Plagyani	50.84	100%
2	Brent Bortslap	42.9	84%
3	Angelo Spada	41.35	81%
4	Craig Heslop	32.69	64%
5	Iain Ewing	30.77	61%
6	Garrick Morris	29.51	58%
7	John Girzda	23.99	47%
8	Chris West	19.8	39%
9	Richard Bruno	16.38	32%
10	Gary Uys	12.62	25%
11	Shane Strong	9.67	19%
12	Glenn Van Nooten	8.74	17%
13	Hamish Godbold	6.3	12%
14	Sean Burns	5.33	10%
15	Dane Salmon	4.88	10%
16	Ryan De Beer	3.6	7%

All the rain down the South Coast this week brings back memories of the 1987 Flood. We have been sent of Photo of the Mgeni River in Flood in 1987 showing all the brown water that was washed into the sea.

(02-Nov-08) Johns October Monthly Report

Some better diving days in October to the previous month even though it has still been a windy October. The whole report here.

(27-Oct-08) Latest World Spearfishing Championships 2008

Final placings for the South African team in the Worlds are as follows: Jaco Blignaut placed 14 in the overall standings. He would have placed second overall if he had not been disqualified for stringing a fish on day one. Gyula Plaganyi placed 38 overall but it looks like he got no fish on the second day. Allan Fraser placed 41 overall but got no fish on day one.

South Africa placed 10th out of 21 countries and about 20 divers shot no fish during both days of the competition. View the full results at www.apneamagazine.com. Click on the news tab just above Tanya Streeters head. It is in Italian but classifica finale de Venezuela gives you the full results and the tab one down gives the results for day one.

(24-Oct-08) Coffs Harbour

Mark Kallman recently moved to Coffs Harbour in Australia and has sent us a report on the conditions etc over there, we hope to have him as a regular contributor.

New Standards in the Hunting Industry

Here is the discussion document for the development of new standards within the hunting industry that caused all the buzz in spearfishing circles. It seems you will be able to spearfish provided you are in possession of a permit to do so. It is still a concern that we might have to get hunting permits to spearfish considering the mess that firearm licensing is in.

The bathymetry of the Aliwal Shoal, Scottburgh, South Africa

This paper by Charl Bosman presents the first accurate geo-referenced bathymetric map of the Aliwal Shoal and illustrates its value as an essential tool for a wide range of applications useful to the broader scientific community.

(20-Oct-08) World Champs Update

We have had some news back from Venezuela from the SA Team, looks like things are on track and the chaps ready for the competition.

KZN Trials October 2008

The first KZN Trials were held off the Bluff area. Conditions were not bad with 3 – 6 metre viz depending on the area you were in. There was a slight s-n current and water was green. During the day a lot of the yellow “sludge” seemed to move into the different areas. It was a real scratch fish wise and there were not a lot of fish about. Guys had to dive extremely hard to get a weigher never mind your 10!!

• Angelo Spada won the day with 6 weighers. Well done Angelo.
• Biggest Gamefish went to Glen Van Nooten with a Garrick of 6.6kg’s
• Biggest bottom went to Gary Uys with a Brusher of 8.4kg’s

(16-Oct-08) World Champs

We are all holding thumbs and wishing the best of luck for our 4 SA spearos over at Venezuela, Gyula Plaganyi (Captain), Jaco Blignaut, Alan (Moo) Fraser and Mark Jackson who will be competing in the 26th World Underwater Fishing Championships off the Island of Margarita from the 20-26th October. This is a link to an article published in the Natal Mercury news paper.

(10-Oct-08) Border Open

The 2008 Border Open done at Hole in the wall, Transkei was a great Success, a report back has been posted.

 

(06-Oct-08) Wild Seas for September

"For the first time in over a year not one but two Dive Charter boats went over at Umkomaas". Basie Sent through his report back on Aliwal Shoal for the Wild Windy Month of September ...

Below are the results of the recently held Border Champs

	NAME	POINTS	PERCENTAGE
1	Angelo Spada	32.40	100.00
2	Shane Jonhson	22.35	68.98
3	Mark Ahlin	19.70	60.80
4	Mike Constantinou	15.15	46.75
5	Craig Harper	14.00	43.20
6	Peter North	14.00	43.20
7	Gareth Staat	13.85	42.74
8	Manus Nienaber	13.80	42.59
9	Kurt Roberts	12.25	37.80
10	Chris  Swart	11.65	35.95
11	Corry Versluis	10.85	33.48
12	Carl Werner	10.55	32.56
13	Tony Swart	10.30	31.89
14	Ashley Wilcox	10.15	31.32
15	Andrew Henwood	9.95	30.70
16	Joe Mulder	9.20	28.39
17	Ross Crouch	8.05	24.84
18	Dave Coetzee	6.60	20.37
19	Trevor Harris	4.55	14.04
20	Jason Mair	4.75	14.66

 

(30-Sep-08) 27kg Wahoo

Well done to Mark Keyser for bagging a 27kg Wahoo at Cape Vidal and adding to the Merit board.

September has produced some good fish even with the bad weather. John has more in his monthly report.

We also have an update on the 2008 World Champs at Venezuela from Mark Jackson.

(17-Sep-08) Tag and Release

There has always been alot of controversy of how effective tag and release is. In theory this is a fantastic way to gather info. With some species like sharks it seems to be really effective. However a recent article by John reminded Mark Jackson of a trip to Mozambique where he also watched tag and release ...

(15-Sep-08) Crayfish Competition

Rob Allen is hosting a Crayfish competition held over the crayfish season till the end of October. Crayfish need to be taken to the dive factory in Gale street tp be weighed, it is for the biggest crayfish. More info here

KZN Spearfishing Association Trials Programme 2008-2009

Date	Mode	Species	Area*	Launch
18 Oct 2008	Boat	All	Bluff	Durban
08 Nov 2008	Boat	All	Umdloti	Durban
13 Dec 2008	Boat	All	Scottburgh	Rocky Bay
17 Jan 2009	Boat	All	Hibberdene	Hibberdene
07 Feb 2009	Boat	Gamefish	Sodwana	Sodwana
21 Feb 2009	Boat	All	Bluff	Durban
14 Mar 2009	Boat	All	Umdloti	Durban

*All areas subject to chamge if conditions are not favourable. If dive is not possible on Saturday it will be moved to Sunday.

(10-Sep-08) Storms and wind

Sean Porter sent some interesting images of wave height derived from satellite altimetry.

Basies sent us the happenings or rather lack there of for the month of August at Aliwal in his regular report back.

(01-Sep-08) Spring Day!

Spring has finally sprung with wild storms in the Cape and Pounding sea and huge winds in Natal. John has posted his report back for the Month of August ...

(08-Aug-08) Trails program for Midlands 2009 Nationals

KWAZULU NATAL MIDLANDS SPEARFISHING ASSOCIATION - Trials Programme '08 - '09
					Area
Month	Date	Host	Mode	Species	First	Second	Third	Launch
August	2		boat	all	Bluff	Umdloti	Deep Scott	Durban
September	6		boat	all	Umdloti	Shelly	Deep Scott	Durban
October	4		shore	all	Umtwalume/Turton	Sheffield/Tinley	Umdloti
November	1		boat	all	South Pier/Warner	Deep Scott	Umdloti	Durban
December	6		boat	all	Blythdale	Umdloti	Deep Scott	Blythdale
January	3		boat	all	Umdloti	Deep Scott	Deep Scott	Durban
February	7		boat	gamefish	Sodwana	Deep Scott	Umdloti	Sodwana
March	7		boat	all	Deep Scott	Umdloti	Durban	Rocky Bay

The first trails were held in Umdloti. Water was clean but cold on the bottom and there were not alot of fish around making it a tough competition with close results. Click here for the xls spreadsheet of results...

(08-Aug-08) Yellowfin Blue Water Open

The Cape Yellowfin Blue Water Open will be held from the 6th to the 9th May. More details here

Two new photos in the Photo Gallery.

(05-Aug-08) Aliwal

Basie sent through his report back on the conditions and fish at Aliwal Shoal this past month of July.

Eric Allard sent through an interesting report on what its like spear fishing off the Tanzania coast.

We also have a new photos in our Photo Gallery of some good fish shot and also an interesting photo of the Umhlanga Lighthouse Reef from the Ethekwini Municipality, and bathy by EMS

(31-Jul-08) July Review

John has just posted his July Report back ...

(18-Jul-08) Photos

We have gathered some more photos of good fish shot by spearfishingsa readers, they are posted in the gallery.

We also posted this intresting Multibeam bathymetric image of the Cooper Light Wreck off the Bluff thanks to Marine Geosolutions for the image.

(11-Jul-08) Why Competition

Gyula Plaganyi the South African Team Captain sent an Article with an interesting question...

(05-Jul-08) Aliwal Shoal news

Most Wahoo in many years, and the first in many years of a constant north south current for more than a month. Some days hardly any, but not one day of that pesky reverse current. Even against some serious fronts marching up the coast. Basie has sent us an update on Alwal during June.

Crayfish & spearfishing competition

Pietermaritzburg Underwater Club is hosting their annual fundraising crayfish & spearfishing competition at Rocky bay. More info here.

(01-Jul-08) Nationals Catch Stats

An interesting bit of info. Below are the catch Statistics for the recently held Nationals.

Club name: Midlands Spearfishing Association
Permission Number: 23/2008
Contact person: John little
Competition Dates: 18-May-2008 to 23-May-2008 (4 Days Diving)
Number of Anglers: 42
Locality: Sodwana Bay

Species caught	Number	Total mass	Number released
Fulvie kingfish	30	171.88	nil
Giant kingfish	14	126.26	nil
Dusky kingfish	8	23.24	nil
Cuda	8	61.80	nil
Bluefin kingfish	4	13.26	nil
Tropical	8	38.54	nil
Wahoo	4	80.50	nil
Prodigalson	1	2.72	nil
Seapike	2	11.84	nil
Kaakap	21	116.90	nil
Golden kingfish	1	4.58	nil
Yellowtail kingfish	6	22.50	nil
Ferdie kingfish	3	9.26	nil
Bigeye kingfish	5	18.42	nil
Spotted kingfish	2	4.32	nil
Totals	117	706.02kgs